I was reading the classifieds in the local newspaper, and saw this: “MYSTERY SHOPPER needed in Price area. Apply online www.secretshopnet.com.” I was intrigued, so I went to the site to see what it was about. Apparently, a company can hire this company (Service Intelligence), who will then hire one or more individuals to “shop” at the other company, and give feedback of their experiences. Then Service Intelligence gives the company the feedback so they can improve their service.
Sounds to me like a suggestion box would be a cheaper and easier way to go, but it’s still not necessarily a bad idea…just a strange one. I’m surprised that I’ve never heard of such a thing before, as a Google search returns tons of relevant hits.
My ex worked at Smiths and I remember that would have random shoppers be “mystery shoppers” and report back to the store manager to make sure the checkers were doing things right such as ID for cigs and such and to make sure they were providing good “customer service” (yeah right!) Dunno if its the same idea
I work at a gas station up here in Canada and we get a least one “mystery shop” a month. They check to see if we try to up sell (ever get annoyed when a clerk asks if you want something else with that? Dont, its our job), and if we ask for our companys points card (think airmiles). It used to be if we did everything right they would give us $50 cash on the spot. The government up here also uses them to check if we are IDing minors and to check if we are tring to push their lottery.
Our store owner gets close freinds to mystery shop at our store. They tell her about their experience, keeps up good customer service. Of course our company is so small that we can pretty much observe our customer service on our own. Hey, theirs only five of us.