SECRETS OF MYSTERY SHOPPING SERVICES | Inspect What’s Expected

Inspect What’s Expected…

One of my favorite college professors loved to remind students that, in business as well as other aspects of life, those things we hold closest to our hearts we look at frequently. That old adage holds true in today’s “new” economy.

The sad fact is that companies have been telling their employees that the customer is king, and then looking the other way when things don’t go so well. I actually saw the following phrase on a receipt, “Your 100% satisfaction is guaranteed! Mega Large Retailer retains the right to limit returns.” Now wait, how can my satisfaction be guaranteed if you might not accept the defective product you sold me back? Frankly, I reserve the right not to shop there!

How can you say you really care about making your customers happy if you don’t check up to see how your employees are doing? How do you know that the training you provide is making the greatest impact? How will you know that your customers are completely satisfied, would recommend you, and would come to you again?

I once had a business owner tell me that he, “Had his finger on the pulse of his customers and knew that they were 100% loyal to him!” I bet him he was wrong – and he was! I offered to conduct a customer survey and mystery shop of his business. When it was all over, he learned that 60% of his customers said his service was OK. Only 12% indicated that they were loyal to his business. To add insult to injury, HE was the employee shopped and he only did 50% of what he insisted happened every time, to every customer!

In his case, with mystery shopping alone, we identified approximately $50,000 in lost revenue opportunity each year! That number assumes both his other front line employees were performing better than he was. That number triples if his employees fall down on the job.

What was the solution? We instituted an ongoing customer survey program. The survey is available online for those who visit his web site, and in a paper version for in-store customers. Every customer is personally asked to complete the survey. It’s only four questions and takes just over a minute to complete. We also set up regular mystery shopping evaluations for his store. His total annual investment? Just under $2,900 each year.
That’s over a 17 to 1 return on his investment for each dollar spent! When was the last time you had a ROI like that?