Mystery Shopper cover blown!

Hermia

lisa76 wrote: »

When I worked in a pub years ago we knew when the mystery shopper was coming in, it made good fun all day trying to guess who it was!!

Ha, yes! Where I work we get told what month they mystery shopper will be visiting. I find it's usually not too difficult to spot them. I think I have guessed right over half the time. We were mystery shopped last month and all we were told was that four people would come in over the course of a month. We spotted every single one. It's surprisingly hard for people to act 'natural'.

linzi686

Hermia wrote: »

Ha, yes! Where I work we get told what month they mystery shopper will be visiting. I find it's usually not too difficult to spot them. I think I have guessed right over half the time. We were mystery shopped last month and all we were told was that four people would come in over the course of a month. We spotted every single one. It's surprisingly hard for people to act 'natural'.

when you spot them do you question them or just let them carry on? and how do you find out that he/she was a mystery shopper?

plattinum

My son works for a burger chain and they have mystery shoppers visiting regular, they know in advance of any visits, and also what times to expect them. He says he can easily spot them, as they are very specific as to what they are ordering and always ask for a receipt. they usually pass their mystery shop, but has told me when they have failed the manager views the cctv footage to spot any reported problem. so it's quite easy to get busted!

donnaessex

When I worked in Faith as a supervisor we were told the qualifying questions that the MS asked - i.e. what size is a 39? As soon as someone asked one of the questions, we ran around like headless chickens trying to vie for her attention in case it was the MSer! By the end of the visit we were usually certain it was/wasnt ths mystery shopper based on their buying habit.

fatlad9

My wife works in a bookies, and she has told me in the past its easy to spot a mystery customer. The bets they place, their body language, and the fact they aren't a regular customer. Even though her shop is in a busy town centre she knows just about everyone that bets in there. Its the same for the under 21s that the gambling commission send in.

And as mentioned, once the report has gone in, its easy enough to look back through CCTV, print an image of any unknown persons, and circulating them.

[Deleted User]

I used to work for an employment helpline and we were told which week the mystery shoppers would be phoning us. Not that we needed to be told, you could tell which caller was one from a mile off. They asked lots of questions which callers generally never ask. Never called anyone's bluff though.

realshannon

When I worked for the jobcentre, we were told, for example, what the scenario would be and for what period the visits would be. But when you are busy you just do your best, you havent got time to worry about it to be honest and at least then it is genuine feedback but we were never told, of course, who it would be, but sometimes it would be obvious by the questions they asked as they would be quite unusual and prolonged. I mystery shop now and I do understand some supermarket assessments are ones which you are allowed to tell them who you are etc but I have only ever done the covert ones.

bobbiely

When I worked at McDs, we were told the kind of answers a mystery shopper would give, for example when I tried to sell up - they'd supersize (before the big supersize scandal) and always buy dessert if asked. We even had a button on the drive thru machine that would tell the people in the restaurant to hurry up probable mystery shopper!

Had to admit a skinny woman in a nice posh car supersizing and buying 2 chocolate donuts for a quid always had me pressing the button!

garcon6

oh well you can't win them all!!!

AnonymousForObviousReason

Are you sure you weren't being mystery shopped by a mystery shopper working for your mystery shopping company? You should give them a terrible score, they shouldn't be talking to new customers like that.

Actually, where I worked a department was set up to be visited by one, the manager told them the details because he didn't want it to be seen to be bad.