Mystery Date
Tip and trends for your growing business.
Ever wonder how your employees perform when you're not
watching? A mystery shopper can help you find out.
Mystery shoppers pretend to be customers and provide an
evaluation of your employees' performances. The reports can be
used to improve customer service, develop training, and reward
workers for superior performance. If you use a shopping service
that's also a private investigation company, it can provide
reports on employee honesty.
Silia A. Smiley owns SAS Associates in Bettendorf, Iowa, which
provides investigations, protective shopping, business consulting
and loss prevention services. Smiley offers these tips:
Content Continues Below
Decide what you want from the service. Do you want to
measure customer service or identify training needs, or are you
concerned about possible theft?
Ask about the shoppers' backgrounds. You want a
service with professionals trained in observation skills.
Check references. Find out what other clients think of
the service.
Make a commitment. Commit to at least one year and have a
shopper report on each location once or twice a month.
Look for mystery shopping services in your telephone directory
under "protective shopping" or "price comparison
shopping"; also check under "market research" and
"investigative services."
Page 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5