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The Importance of Mystery Shopping, Especially when the Going Gets Tough
By Shawn T. Kiley
ALOHA!
Welcome to TIPS! I hope your New Year is off to a fantastic start!
Sometimes, when sales are down, or the media starts screaming at us that theres an economic downturn, owners and operators will get nervous and cut back on, not continue, or not initiate a mystery shopping program. This is not a wise strategy, even for small business owners and there are many reasons why. Mystery shopping has an incredible value to your business even moreso in turbulent economies.
Here are some bullet points from the MSPA, the worlds largest and most trusted trade organization for mystery shopping:
- Mystery shopping enables companies to uncover misalignments between corporate policy and execution of that policy, allowing for early correction;
- Mystery shopping helps companies identify, early, drains on resources so damages can be stemmed;
- By assuring closer parallels between customer expectations and customer experience, mystery shopping increases the likelihood that customer interactions result in sales.
Here is a recent ariticle from the Ottowa Citizen that highlights the importance of having a good handle on your front line operations:
ARTICLE
We cannot forget data that demonstrates the importance of Mystery Shopping for anyone in the hospitality or service industry. There are many ways in which Mystery Shopping can help your business achieve success:
- Monitors and measures customer service
- Improves customer retention
- Raises employee awareness of the importance of customer service
- Ensures product and service quality
- Reinforces positive employee behaviors
- Monitors facility issues
- Helps you manage your assets more effectively
- Supports promotional programs
- Audits pricing & merchandising compliance
- Enforces employee integrity
- Allows for competitive analyses
- Compliments market research data
- Identifies areas of needed training and opportunities to increase sales
- Provides education for ongoing training and development
- Ensures positive customer relations
If you have a mystery shopping program in place, or are getting one started, be sure to maximize your results by:
- Hiring a company like Aloha Solutions who specializes in Mystery Shopping and that you will feel comfortable working closely with. Since confidential information will often be shared, trust and sharing the values of your company are important determining factors.
- Establishing the purpose and goals for the program, such as improving customer service, running storewide contest, etc. When you have established the goals of your program it is critical that you share the expectations down to the lowest level of your organization. If possible, get front line employees involved. Definitely get department heads and middle management involved in the creation or at least the generation of ideas about what to use on your evaluations.
- Once the information is received back from Aloha Solutions, share data as quickly as possible with the staff. ESPECIALLY the good news. Numerous studies have shown that when mystery shopping is used as a spanking tool it will bring morale plummeting down quickly.
- Use the information in a positive manner by rewarding star performers or offering additional training in the areas that employees or departments did not perform well.
- Post the results in all units as a constant reminder of the program and as a reminder of the standards the employees are expected to maintain. Remember, reward employees meeting or exceeding expectations immediately If possible, reward the stellar employees in public, at a pre-shift meeting, sales rally, etc.! Even if you have to simply call all the employees on the sales floor for a minute or two to announce that John Doe scored a 96% on the last report, do it! Remember, reward in public, discipline in private.
- Keep the forms updated with changes in company policy, products, promotions or procedures.
- Evaluate only those things that can be changed.
- Use binary questions (yes/no) as much as possible.
- Use open ended questions to explain special circumstances.
- Use category summaries to easily identify key areas Phone, Greeting, Service, Demonstration, Facility, etc.
- Use a point/scoring system for benchmarking and to track trends.
Please let us know any way that we may assist your company and remember, your only true competition is you!
Until next time... Shawn
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