Secret Shoppers
Most companies want their employee to supply their customers with the best customer service possible. The hiring of mystery shoppers is not always to spy on company employees but help with training programs so the company can develop their associates to give the very best service to their customers.
A well-trained employee should deliver the same type of service to each customer. A mystery shopper is supplied with specific questions to ask an employee and to look for certain things like the type of clothing being worn by the employee. Most companies have a dress code and want their employees to follow it.
An experience shopper can fool even the most experienced associate because the shopper really shops the store rather than role-play.
A shopper will enter an establishment and usually be looking right at an associate waiting for the greeting that is suppose to happen in the first 15 seconds whether it be a smile or a verbal greeting of "hi, can I help you find something". The look on the shoppers face can be very telling if they have entered unfamiliar territory. I believe it's referred to as the "deer in the headlight" look on their face.
Once the ice is broken the shopper should lead in with a question about a specific product so that the associate is able to respond and engage in a conversation about that product and the others available for the shopper. An associate cannot provide service for a shopper who wants to browse. An associate cannot help the shopper if the shopper doesn't give the associate some information as to want they are interested in purchasing. After the entire associate isn't clairvoyant.
Mystery shoppers like to pretend which is fine except when the associate refers back to something the shopper mentioned and the shopper forgot she was there to buy something for her husband its pretty obviously this is a shop.
A shopper will try to watch the associate as she/he interacts with other customers all the while trying to do it without the associate knowing it. However, the associate who is trained to keep an eye on all shoppers because of theft usually observes that. Noticing the customer watching gives the associate two thoughts, either this customer is going to shoplift or is a mystery shopper.
The shopper will be asking for warranty, return, and refund information. The shopper will ask more than once for the same information because it usually is too much to absorb in just a few minutes. Some shops require a return of the product, which can be done no sooner than 30 minutes after the purchase. Its pretty much a dead give away if the shopper walks back in the store exactly 30 minutes later, returns the item and then requests a copy of the receipt for their records.
A bad shop can be reported because a shopper really didn't understand their directions, didn't understand and wasn't really interested in the product. A bad shop definitely affects the associate and the store. It can result in termination or low pay increases.
The fee paid the shopper is very low so unless they are really interested in purchasing product from the company its quite perplexing as to why the shopper is performing the shop.
If a person comes into your business and asks a million questions, but don't really care what they buy you can pretty much believe you just got shopped by a professional shopper.
