I challenge you to sit in the middle of your store or public area, with a pen and pad – undisturbed – for 10 minutes. I DARE YOU! It’s a lot harder than it sounds! All you have to do is observe what’s going on around you. How are your customers treated? Are the light bulbs lit? Are the pictures on the wall straight? Are the chairs stained or dusty? Is the floor clean? Is there trash visible? You get the idea.
The first couple of minutes, you will feel uncomfortable. After that, you will begin to notice “little” things. By the conclusion of your time, these little things will be screaming in your ear and you’ll fill up your page of paper with a number of ideas and things that you want to see corrected.
Your first task is to share this information with your managers and employees. Next is to correct the problems. Finally, you want to add these observations to your secret shopping evaluations.
Why? Sometimes, you’re too close to the forest to see the trees. By having your mystery shoppers looking too, you will always have a fresh set of eyes. Their view won’t be clouded by the trees…
For more ideas that you can put to use immediately, visit ServiceQuality.US and The Service Quality Department Online!
