Wednesday 18 July 2007

Mystery Shopping

I used to be a Mystery Shopper, what's that? I can hear you thinking. Well once upon a time, when customer service meant something, organisations would employ a Market Research Company to send 'Virtual Customers' to their shops, banks, garages etc to test the service given by their employees.

For instance when we were looking at Banks we had to note (surreptitiously) how many people where in the Banking Hall, how many Tills were open, how long we had to wait in the queue to be served, whether the cashier used our name,were polite etc. At the end of the day a report was then sent to the Bank's Head Office detailing the service received around the country at their Branches. This information was then used to inform the training given to Bank employees and also to praise those Branches which had 'scored' well on our visits.

During the time I worked for the company I looked at Fast Food outlets, quality Car Sale rooms, top of the range designer jewellery outlets, electrical retailers, Bingo Halls (one of the funniest nights of my life) and of course a number of high street Banks.

Are these 'Virtual Customers' still around? well if my experience yesterday in Warrington are anything to go by, the answer is a resounding NO. I may be picky and probably overcritical at times but when I see bad customer service it really annoys me.

In Boots the Chemist for example their machine wouldn't accept Lesley's Advantage Card. Was she given an apology or explanation, No, she was just told to 'go and see that blond girl on the Number 7 counter, she can put the points on' I'm sorry but that isn't good enough, we had spent over £50 in this shop and the impression we were left with was that they didn't give a damn if we shopped with them or not, especially as the only words from the 'blond girl' were OK. That's right OK, no sorry for the inconvenience, no explanation of why in a brand new store the machines were broken, nothing, just OK.

The next shop we went into, H&M, had only one cashier open. Lesley only wanted to buy a hair clip costing 99p. She waited about 7 minutes to be served and there was only one customer in front of her. Bad enough, but when she was finally served there was no apology for the wait, no friendly banter, no thank you, nothing just give me your money and get on your way!!!!!!!!!

I think that it is time to Name and Shame these stores. Why should they get away with treating us, their customers as if we were an inconvenience? Not that I blame the staff, they are only doing what they are told or trained to do. I blame the lack of leadership in these organisations. I blame the Managers, who obviously don't know how to manage or motivate their staff.

I think that my message to these organisations s BRING BACK MYSTERY SHOPPERS you know it make sense.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree, on the way to a certain family party I managed to find one of those queues that appear to be static, Tescos Salford. Now normally I am patient but not when there are six tills manned and only one open for business. I do hope the young lady who looked startled at my basket being dumped full of fresh produce enjoyed the exercise she received free of charge-putting everything back