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Category: Mystery Shopping

It’s Just a Snapshot….

 

That’s exactly what a mystery shopping report is – a snapshot in time. Sometimes, especially when a lower overall percentage comes to you, it’s hard to remember this. Carefully reading the report, talking with the staff, and looking at the big picture is all good advice to remember.

 

When you receive a report where there were issues, it is a good idea to read through any narrative/comments carefully and pinpoint where things didn’t go as they should. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to have a conversation with the employee and take a look at past reports that involved this particular employee or employees – is this a recurring issue? Are the areas that weren’t done up to standard consistent with this employee?

 

At any rate, when using mystery shopping reports to pinpoint areas of strength and areas to improve as it relates to the customer experience, using the analytical reporting capabilities of your program is paramount. Looking at the overall numbers, rather than one particular report, will give you the insight you need to determine a call to action.

 

Not all businesses fully utilize analytical reporting. If you fall into this category, here’s what you may be missing…..

 

1. Exception analysis: want to see how your locations stack up? Run this report and it will rank your locations from highest overall percentage to lowest. You can choose to do this for a month, quarter, or entire year.

 

Similarly, if you want to rack locations based on performance on one section of a report, maybe customer service, you can do that as well.

 

2. Survey summary: this report takes each question on your mystery shopping report and shows you how it was answered over time. Again, you can choose any date range you wish, and then look at the data as a company, just for a particular region or district, or even drill down to one single location.

 

This is an excellent report to view overall strength and areas for improvement, and lets you see trends for each question of the report.

 

3. Trending analysis: this report allows you to see performance over a six or 12 month period of time. This is great for viewing progress in your mystery shopping program and can help you determine if the company is reaching its goals for customer service levels.

 

4. Head to head: If you’re using a mystery shopping program coupled with a feedback survey program, you can use this report to compare questions that are similar on both. For example, if you use the Net Promoter Score rating on both reports, you can easily take a look at how the average customer rates your business compared to a mystery shopper who is trained in making key operational observations.

 

Keeping focus on the big picture is key when it comes to a successful mystery shopping program. Individual employee performance is important, and the data collected can be used for additional training, performance reviews, and incentives.  It’s a good idea though to remember that it IS just a snapshot in time…

 

 

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How to Lose a Good Customer

 

Sometimes customer service isn’t about making sure customers are greeted when they enter your store, upselling, or making sure customers wait no more than 2 minutes in line before being assisted. Sometimes it’s those minor moments that can go a long way in not losing customers.

 

I read this article entitled, “How to Lose a Good Customer or How to Create a Lifelong Customer” which illustrated the importance of true customer service, not necessarily the standards set in place by the company.
From the article, imagine this situation..

 

I was in the bank Saturday morning, waiting in line behind the cutest 4-year-old and his mommy I’ve seen in a long while. It was a long line, and Junior was getting restless.

“Mommy, I have to go.”

“Go where, honey?” (mommy was distracted)

“I have to pee, mommy.”

“In a few minutes, sweetie, we’re almost done”.

“Mommy I can’t wait, I reaaaaallllyyyy have to pee pee.”

“Honey you’re going to have to wait. They don’t have a bathroom here.”

“I can’t wait mommy, I need to pee RIGHT NOW.”

Junior really had to pee. He couldn’t wait. You know how it is. When you gotta go, you gotta go. Just ask any new mother, post childbirth give or take 3 years. There is no gray area, and it’s no different for a 4-year-old who’s just getting it down in the first place.

I, of course not minding my own business, and not wanting to be used as a fire hydrant (I was wearing red… who knew how he’d been potty trained) sidled up to the mom and quietly said, “I’ll wait on line with him if you want to go up and ask if you can use their restroom.”

 

The woman goes up to the manager and explains the situation, and the mom is told that the restroom is not for public use.

 

What?

 

This manager created a situation that could very easily cost a customer. While it’s possibly understandable that a restroom may not be for public use, I’m sure there would be no issue with the manager allowing it this one time for a toddler who really needed it. Had that happened, it would have created a positive experience for the mother. Instead, the poor child ended up having an accident, right there in the bank lobby, now making it a poor experience for the mother, toddler, and any other customers in the area.
Imagine how many of those other customers, in talking with friends or family after that bank visit, shared the story: “You’re not going to believe what happened…I was at the bank this morning…”

 

Empowering employees to make decisions and bend certain rules when needed can go a long way in creating a lifelong customer, as the article suggests. One simple act such as this one can be the difference between losing and keeping a customer.

 

 

 

 

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Not Getting Many Feedback Surveys?

 

You have a customer feedback program in place, which is great, but are you getting the results you want? If you notice a decline in responses or a consistently low response rate, there are some things you may want to consider:

 

1. Is the link to the online survey (or telephone number) visible in multiple customer touchpoints? This could mean placing the survey invitation on the receipts or brochures, on the company website, etc. You’ll want to make sure it is as visible and easily accesible as possible in order to get people to take the survey.

 

2. Are your employees doing their part? At the point of transaction, do you instruct employees to point out the survey invitation and ask that they take a few minutes to provide feedback? If not, you may be missing valuable feedback from your customers. People are moving at a quick pace these days, and many will not take the time to review a receipt unless the survey is pointed out to them.

 

It can be a quick mention of the invitation or the employee simply circling the link or telephone number as the transaction closes. I was in a JCPenney over the holidays and the employee went WAY overboard talking about the survey – she circled the link and asked me to take the survey, which was fine and should have ended the interaction. However, she went on for another two minutes about making sure I enter her name correctly, provide good feedback so the managers know she did a good job, and on and on.  That wasn’t cool at all, and actually turned me off from the survey.

 

Pointing out the invitation to raise awareness can go a long way in getting customers to provide feedback.

 

3. Employees may SAY they’re pointing out the survey.…but are they really? If you have a mystery shopping program in place, this one is easy to resolve. Simply add a question to the mystery shopping report that asks if the employee mentioned taking the survey at the end of your transaction. This will only work in instances in which a purchase is required, but it can go a long way in objectively determining whether or not employees are promoting the survey as you’ve trained them to do.

 

When you have a mystery shopping program in place, tracking the disconnect in collecting customer feedback surveys can be easier than simply guessing why participation rates are low. Customers want to be heard – let them know you have ways of letting them tell you what they think!

 

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