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Category: Mystery Shopping

How Bad Does Customer Service Have to Get Before We Hear About It?

 

What does it take for a dissatisfied customer to complain? Apparently, a lot, as we know from experience and statistics. We know that the majority of unhappy customers will not complain, at least to the company. Instead, they will leave, not return, and potentially tell friends and family of their poor experience.

 

I came across an interesting video from CBC news, who put people in a poor customer experience situation to watch what happened. They would then talk to those involved and ask why did they not complain. Take a look:

 

 

As I watched, I found it interesting that the only person who complained was the last woman where the associate was unsure how to work the credit card machine, then took a personal phone call. She stayed silent as the associate tried to figure out how to run the transaction, only asking for the store owner after the associate took a personal call.

 

In the other two scenarios, neither customer complained. In the first instance, the associate portrayed that she was not knowledgeable and unwilling to assist. The customer asked for a different size, and the associate said she wasn’t sure if they had it and then stayed silent. The customer had to suggest that she go look in the back, which she did, but took a long time in doing so. She returned with the incorrect size, so the customer would need to wait again. However, she decided to leave the store.

 

In the second scenario, it was a bit worse – the associate took a personal phone call and discussed, within earshot of the customers, that customers were being difficult that day. The customers ended up leaving without saying another word.

 

What did we learn from this piece?

 

  • It will take a whole lot to happen before a customer will complain.
  • Lack of purchase/leaving is considered a complaint for many. For those who walked out, they felt that leaving without a purchase was complaint enough. But is it really? If this were a true scenario, the associate may not have really noticed customers left, and if they did, could have thought they left simply because they didn’t see anything they were interested in.

 

Customers don’t like to be seen as “difficult” or “impolite” so it looks like it would take a significant customer service error to warrant a complaint while in the store. While that may seem like a good thing on the surface, it highlights the fact that many customers will leave dissatisfied, but you will never understand the reason for it.

 

Continual training is important, as is using a program to measure the customer experience, such as mystery shopping. Ensuring a consistently positive experience will keep dissatisfied customers from leaving and never coming back.

 

 

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Check Cashing Scam: A Plea to Banks, Walmart, and MoneyGram

 

It’s not new, but it continues to live on, and for unsuspecting folks, it can put them in a bad financial situation.

The check cashing scam continues to make its rounds, and unfortunately I have received plenty of calls in the last few weeks from people who received a check ranging from $1,000-$3,000 posing as a “mystery shopping assignment.” If the recipient deposits the check into their bank account, and wires money as instructed, their own hard earned money is long gone, because that check is not worth the paper its written on.

Now, I will say that most people can tell it’s a scam right off the bat, but there are many that fall victim and don’t do research until it’s too late.

As a consumer, there are always tried and true rules of thumb:

  • If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
  • Do your research BEFORE heading to the bank – as an example, we have a disclaimer on our home page that provides information to those who may have received a check in the mail.
  • Always be suspicious of unsolicited emails/offers
    • look for an email address that is hosted by a company (not AOL, gmail, etc) – companies typically have email addresses that correspond with their company.
    • Do NOT click on any links in any email – it’s best to do a Google Search for the company in question and search that way – clicking on links may lead you down a bad path.
    • Do not give any personal information in an email reply unless you know the person. Even then, proceed with caution.

As I’ve fielded phone calls, I realized that there is more that can be done by companies to help those who are about to fall victim to this scam.

  • One person attempted to wire money at their local Walmart’s MoneyGram station. The employee asked a simple question – do you know this person you’re wiring money to? – and, when the person replied they did not, the employee told them it was likely a scam and refused to process the wire transfer.
  • I received a call from a check cashing facility. The employee wanted to verify a check, which was of course part of the scam. She said that she had heard about the scam and she was taking an extra precaution before cashing it. The person was not allowed to cash the check, and was informed it was likely not real.
  • Another individual attempted to deposit the check in the bank. The banker noticed the high amount of the check and looked into it, only to learn that the check was not real.

In these three instances, employees took an extra step to try to save someone from becoming the next victim.

Since this is a well known scam, it would be advantageous to educate staff across banks, credit unions, check cashing facilities, and even Walmart customer service staff who deal with MoneyGram. Education and employing simple steps in the customer service process can go a long way. Below are some simple suggestions:

  • Banks & credit unions – look for money orders or cashier’s checks for large sums of money, and be extra cautious about them. Ask the customer questions about the sender of the check. While some may feel that this is intrusive, the ones that are about to fall victim will certainly thank you! If your staff explains the reason for asking, customers should be more understanding about the intent.
  • MoneyGram/Western Union/Walmart – I include Walmart because the majority of letters I’ve seen instruct people to go to their nearest Walmart to wire funds. I have reached out to Walmart Corporate, and have not yet received a response. There are a couple of things to look for and ask here:
    • Often times, though not always, the scam instructs people to wire money to the same person twice. This should be a red flag that something may not be quite right.
    • Include a question that asks the customer if they know the person they are sending funds to. Again, customers may feel this is intrusive, but it could save a person or two from sending their money away to scammers.

Unfortunately, these scammers are good at what they do, and strive to be as realistic as possible. We can all work together to educate the public while employing simple questions into customer interactions to potentially save people from becoming victims.

 

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What If We Treat All Customers Like They Were The Secret Shopper?

 

While flipping through channels last week, I came across this NBC Show called Superstore. At first glance, it seems to be a rather cheesy sitcom that is dangerously close to the look and feel of Walmart.

 

I could not help but notice when they started talking about “secret shoppers” – take a listen to the first two minutes of the episode:

 

 

A few points made me laugh out loud, mostly because these are things we’ve heard from clients’ employees over the last 17 years. This show highlights many of the misconceptions around mystery shopping:

 

1. Mystery shopping isn’t used to ‘clean house’  – on the contrary, mystery shopping programs help companies improve. In fact, most use them in a positive manner, whether it’s offering bonuses when scores come in high and key service points are hit, or factored into performance reviews.

 

2. One shop makes or breaks a location – mystery shopping programs are run best when shops are consistently performed each and every month. The frequency depends on the size of the business, so your company may conduct shops once per month, once per week, or even multiple times per week. It’s not about one shop report, but rather the trends that are shown over time.

 

And my favorite….

 

3. “Let’s spend our time figuring out who the shopper is and slather them with good service.” As you’ll see in this video, the manager says, “What if we were to treat every customer as the secret shopper?” That’s exactly the point! The goal of mystery shopping programs is to make staff aware of customer service expectations and make sure they happen on each and every customer interaction.

 

This was a fun way to highlight employee views of mystery shopping in a fun, exaggerated manner, but also drives home the misperceptions in the industry. If your staff are feeling this way, it might be a good idea to review how you are portraying the program to your staff and reminding them of the overall objective of the program.

 

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