What’s it like to be one of your customers?
How often do you mystery shop your business, asks Zac de Silva.
IT’S NOT a nice feeling to essentially spy on your business and the staff working there, but the benefits of mystery shopping your business can definitely outweigh the cons. The feedback your mystery shopper shares may be confronting and brutal – but in most cases it will be helpful in improving the way your business operates.
Mystery shopping is useful for all businesses, not just those in the retail industry. Whether you have a business to business model or business to consumer, it’s important to experience your business through the eyes of a customer. Have you heard that saying that you don’t realise what needs to be done around your house until five minutes before a guest arrives? Mystery shopping is a bit like that. You may have never noticed that your front reception desk is messy and ugly and plastered with an out-of-date poster. You may not have considered that the music you play in your store causes many of your customers to wince on entry. It may have passed your attention that the forms customers have to fill out when joining your database are so long and off-putting that they never get properly completed. An honest and observant third party will alert you to all of these and help you improve the impression you give clients.
You don’t need to spend a fortune hiring an expert mystery shopper – a couple of honest and perceptive friends or family members will do. Just make sure they haven’t been into your business before or you may find they get preferential treatment.
In order to get real and helpful feedback, don’t tell your staff that a mystery shopper will be stopping by. Some businesses warn staff in an attempt to improve their performance, but not only does this give an inaccurate representation of their usual manner, it also makes employees nervous and puts them on edge. Let them act naturally so that you get an accurate account of the experience your customers have.
Obviously it depends on your type of business as to how far your mystery shopper will go. If you’re a restaurant, get them to dine in, with all the courses. If you’re a retail store, get them to buy something. That way they can give feedback for the entire transaction, not just on the initial approach. Even getting someone to phone or email your business is helpful – they can report back on how long it took to get through to the right person, how helpful they were, what lengths they went to to help and so on.
Don’t worry about getting the mystery shopper to write a long report. You’re better to get them to give honest feedback on a few areas. Either give them a form to fill out or meet them immediately afterwards off-site and ask them questions, while the experience is still fresh.
Areas you may consider assessing are the level of customer ser- vice your staff give, the first impression your business makes, how the mystery shopper was treated, what they thought of your physical business (ie was it clean, tidy and representative of the image you want to portray?), what they thought the tone of your business was, and the knowledge level of your employees.
Mystery shopping is not about finding ammunition on your staff or turning it into a witch-hunt. It’s about finding out where your business is lacking and how you can improve. When your mystery shopper gives positive feedback, pass it on and celebrate the wins – let your team know you appreciate the good work they do. And immediately start working on those areas that you’re lacking in.
Zac de Silva is a business coach – www.business changing.com