The Mystery Shopping Thread - X

Drea2904

loopy_lass wrote: »

can i just say, as a shop worker, i get mystery shopped, i would like to tell you how i (and a lot of my colleagues) feel

I feel that managers use mystery shoppers as a threat, we are constantly threatened that if we do not give 110% and get 100% in ANY of our mystery shop, we risk the following:-

we loose 6 months of our store bonus which is usally equivalent to around £70 to £100 depending on length of service.

We get disciplined under company policy, because we "do not reach company expectations" this stays on our records and if we get three we stand to loose our jobs,

We are constantly monitored by managers and drilled on our customer service.

one girl failed her mystery shop a few weeks ago because she didnt smile (had a death in her family and wasnt 100% herself). Another failed because they didnt make enough conversation (they were ill and subsequently was off with swine flu). Another failed because she was worrying about going home and didnt give the MS her full attention (she is in a difficult relationship and had been having a really had time recently). They had all turned up for work and done their job to the best of thier ability to earn some money and support thier families. They were all made to feel really bad about failing and all got disciplined. one lost her bonus.

Im not saying mystery shopping is at fault here, but beleive me it puts us under really pressure even when we feel good about things. Now no one deserves bad service, but come on guys cut us some slack sometimes, you are doing the job for the money, so are we, but you can help take our jobs away in certain circumstances.

so all im asking is that you consider your responses, be honest if you get bad service, not a problem, but just remember sometimes we are struggling to do the best we can under difficult circumstances.


loops

Hi, I think you should look at the company you work for then as Im sure they should know if someone has a bereavment it may not be best for them to be customer based, if they are and are shopped maybe they shouldnt be penalised.

We can not know why someone is not giving 100%, We are there to assess service and times if we bend the truth or lie we dont lose a bonus or get 3 chances we lose our job!

ruthiejane

Quite agree Josie, when we are asked a specific yes/no question then we have to give an honest answer. If staff in a particular shop are trained to look the customer in the eye, ask if they need their bags packed or whatever then they should do it. If they are having a bad day and aren't fit to do their job maybe they should not be in work that day.

If I answer no to a question I don't see it as that member of staff having "failed", just that the company are aware that more training is required, .

Catlin

MSing for me is a full-time job and the only way I am able to pay the mortgage at the mo. We report on what we are asked to assess. It is not up to us to make allowances for service that does not adhere to company procedures. If we report that the assistant didn't smile/make eye contact or whatever and that is not how the assistant normally behaves the management will be aware of that.
just leave us to do our jobs to the best of our ability, no one sets out to give bad customer service, but at the end of the day unless your in the high end market like harrods.... does it really matter,
Yes, it obviously does matter. What is your job - serving customers. If any customer receives shoddy service they will probably go elsewhere. No customers equals no job.

squidgeum

loopy_lass wrote: »

usuallty our job is our job and they wont move us out of front end service, sometimes we cant afford not to be at work., we also get disciplined if off sick and can loose our jobs after 3 sessions off sick, and i would like to ask if MS is a full time job or is it a top up position? i dont know, honestly, but i know if i lost my job, i loose everything.

yes we are "trained" to do certain things, yes very much like a simple animal in a circus, we dont perform we are history... i dont see what pleasure people get by "spying" on workers trying to get them sacked, if you get bad service report it, if you need to go sneaking in and out of shops trying to catch people out......... welllllllllllll mmmmmmmmmm, just leave us to do our jobs to the best of our ability, no one sets out to give bad customer service, but at the end of the day unless your in the high end market like harrods.... does it really matter,

trust me if we fail mystery shopping management dont look at it as more training, they look at it as a easy way to save money by not giving us our bonus, or putting us on a "report" so we get re assessed in a shorter period of time, or possibly they just say " you dont make the requirements of the company" Goodbye, this has happened to two people....

off now, as the mud is starting,,,

This is precisely why MSing is necessary.

It shouldn't matter whether you're shopping in your local corner shop or the 'high end market' as you put it....every customer is entitled to good customer service when handing over their hard-earned money for goods and/or services, and this doesn't always happen, sadly.

I can't speak for others on here, but I definitely don't get pleasure out of putting in a bad report. It is much much nicer to write up a good report praising the staff of the premises I have just assessed. And it's not a case of 'sneaking in & out to catch people out'....it's a case of seeing if people are providing the service they are paid to provide.

squidgeum

Catlin wrote: »

MSing for me is a full-time job and the only way I am able to pay the mortgage at the mo. We report on what we are asked to assess. It is not up to us to make allowances for service that does not adhere to company procedures. If we report that the assistant didn't smile/make eye contact or whatever and that is not how the assistant normally behaves the management will be aware of that.
just leave us to do our jobs to the best of our ability, no one sets out to give bad customer service, but at the end of the day unless your in the high end market like harrods.... does it really matter,
Yes, it obviously does matter. What is your job - serving customers. If any customer receives shoddy service they will probably go elsewhere. No customers equals no job.

Sorry Catlin, didn't see your reply before posting mine.

Your point about 'no customers equals no job' is a very valid one, and one that I was always told to remember when I worked in frontline customer service. The other point I was told to remember was that just because you're having a bad day doesn't mean the customer should have to have a bad day as well!!

scotsbob

loopy_lass wrote: »

of course, at the risk of repeating myself, of course report bad service, even i do! but i mean things like "not making eye contact", not asking if you "have everything, is there anything else i can get you", or saying "goodbye" or "smiling all the way thro the transaction", i call these little things, but of course if you get ignored, grunted at, your shopping thrown at you of course yes report it.

And my guess is if you feel bad, you make allowances for your views, all im asking is you make allowances for our unseen issues. you can make allowances for your own, we cant.

loops

Loopy_Lass

I would draw an analogy with school prefects/teachers/policemen/traffic wardens etc etc. There are those who insist on doing everything by the book and those who use a bit of common sense and make allowances.

Some mystery shoppers do it all by the book and some even come on to this forum and crow about how they hope some poor shop assistant will get the sack. Others are more flexible and have the attitude that when dealing with humans they make allowances.

I don't claim to represent others on this thread, but personally I make allowances.
If someone who has been on their feet all day, serving the public, doesn't give me a smile at 4pm and everything else is perfect then I report that they smiled.

I would also like to think that the majority of employers don't act on the basis of just one report but rather look for a general picture emerging over a period of time.

buttabean6

Just to add, I also work in customer service and get mystery shopped. I also work part time as a mystery shopper. I can fully understand why companies use MS to assess standards and I have no problem being mystery shopped. If you have received training on how to deal with customers and what the company expects of you in terms of service, then you should be performing to this level for each and every customer, this is your job after all and what you are being paid for.

I totally agree with Squidgum, and don't like to express a bad report, it doesn't make you feel good, and actually makes the job harder to do and becomes more time consuming, but it is necessary to have integrity and to report honestly each and every time.

Becles

loopy_lass wrote: »

one girl failed her mystery shop a few weeks ago because she didnt smile (had a death in her family and wasnt 100% herself). Another failed because they didnt make enough conversation (they were ill and subsequently was off with swine flu). Another failed because she was worrying about going home and didnt give the MS her full attention (she is in a difficult relationship and had been having a really had time recently). They had all turned up for work and done their job to the best of thier ability to earn some money and support thier families. They were all made to feel really bad about failing and all got disciplined. one lost her bonus.

I've been customer facing and I was told to leave any non-work related problems at the door when I walked in. I had to be happy and smiley as that's the impression my boss wanted to give to customers, even if I felt crap inside. I agree the problems you mention are reasons for being miserable but the customers don't know about the death/illness/relationship problems, and will leave thinking the service is poor.

KaramelRose

Becles wrote: »

I've been customer facing and I was told to leave any non-work related problems at the door when I walked in. I had to be happy and smiley as that's the impression my boss wanted to give to customers, even if I felt crap inside. I agree the problems you mention are reasons for being miserable but the customers don't know about the death/illness/relationship problems, and will leave thinking the service is poor.

Completely agree with this. When working in customer orientated enviroments - there is no excuse for bad service. Obviously havign a death in the faily or whatever is tragic, but if it's stopping you from working, then you shouldn't be working or you should be taking a back step (a girl who used to work for me broke up with her fiance and was in pieces. She wasn't to be at work but she was no good infront of the customer so she worked some shifts in the kitchen instead). A customer shouldn't have to make allowances due to your personal life.

I recently had a meal out in a restaurant and was served by a girl who the week before had been driving with her boyfriend, tried to overtake someone on a winding road and ended up ploughing into a 40 ton lorry. She walked awy with scratches but her boyfriend died. She returned to work immediately, working in a restaurant which her boyfriend's Dad managed.

Needless to say, her service was DIRE and was the one thing I remember about the meal. Shoudl she have been on frontline service? I don't think so. And I wonder how many customers they lost that week that didn't know the circumstances and just assumed the service was awful 100% of the time.

A business is a business, no matter what, reputation is key.

I always give the benefit of the doubt when I'm mystery shopping but there's no point me doing it if I don't tell the truth. I think we all know where to draw the line.

tbw

loopy_lass wrote: »

of course, at the risk of repeating myself, of course report bad service, even i do! but i mean things like "not making eye contact", not asking if you "have everything, is there anything else i can get you", or saying "goodbye" or "smiling all the way thro the transaction", i call these little things, but of course if you get ignored, grunted at, your shopping thrown at you of course yes report it.

And my guess is if you feel bad, you make allowances for your views, all im asking is you make allowances for our unseen issues. you can make allowances for your own, we cant.

loops

Loops, I see where you are coming from but, as mystery shoppers, we often have a very basic form to fill in with multiple choice answers. If the form asks 'was eye contact made' or 'did the CA ask if you found everything you needed' and the choices are just yes/no , then we don't have much room to make any allowances for whether the CA has got a migraine or trouble with her husband. We do have to tell it like it was !

Personally, if everything else has been great then I will always try to justify or give possible reasons for minor issues in the comment box and will alsomake a point of emphasising all the good things that happened. Its really not a case of being petty - we are paid to do a job. and the staff are paid to do a job as well and, although I know its sometimes REALLY hard to put a brave face on when things are difficult on a personal level, unfortunately thats what your management expect.

I