Keeping an Eye out for People Mystery Shopping

Mystery Shopping — By Guest on October 4, 2009 8:54 am

When I worked at the student commons food court during college, my coworkers and I were always aware that we could encounter customers who were mystery shopping. Because of this, most of us were inspired to be the best customer service attendants possible. For myself, having good customer service was not that difficult because I have a hard time being mean… to anyone. For others though, polite and friendly customer service was a challenge.

Let me back up a minute first; for those of you who are not aware, mystery shopping is the employment of people to go to different stores and rate their overall experience as a customer. They would take note of the service, the product, and the appearance of the facility. On our campus, mystery shoppers were employed to go to all the different food service places and give feedback. If the people who were mystery shopping had a particularly pleasant or negative experience the person who was behind that would hear about it.

Because of mystery shopping, we were encouraged not only to be polite, but also to be in proper uniform and to keep our facility clean. Most of the time I worked at a coffee shop, so I was always wiping the counters down, refilling the milk and sugar, and taking out full trash. This way, if someone who was mystery shopping came by, at least they could not complain about the shop being dirty.

The one thing I struggled with that a mystery shopper could have reported was following the dress code. We were expected to keep our shirts tucked in, have a nametag present, and to be wearing black shoes and a hat. I had a pretty hard time with each of these things. I always forgot my hat and nametag, I hated how I looked with my shirt tucked in, and I did not even own a pair of black shoes. After working there for two years, I was amazed that someone who was mystery shopping never reported me for not following the dress code.

I was never reported about for anything particularly negative or positive, but a few of my coworkers did get in trouble from someone mystery shopping. One of my friends took an order from a mystery shopper who asked for hot chocolate and a cookie. When he repeated the order back to the customer he said, “So, you want hot chocolate and a cookie?” Apparently, the shopper took offense to this and thought that he was being a little negative and was implying that she was a pig or something for wanting both hot chocolate and a cookie. When my friend received the report he got a talking to, and then hearing about it was good for a laugh.

Another one of my coworkers was reported on by a mystery shopper because she sang too loudly while she was making drinks. She was always a little annoying to us because she was constantly singing at the top of her lungs, but nobody ever said anything about it to her until someone mystery shopping did!

Although it was always a little nerve wracking, knowing that someone mystery shopping could stop by at any time, I think that knowing mystery shoppers exist made us better at our customer service and overall appearance. Without these mystery shoppers, some of my coworkers would have had no incentive to do a good job.

Customer Service : http://www.royaltymart.com/category/careers-industries-professions/

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Tags: Mystery Shopping