They spy lousy service
Mystery shoppers do quality-control checks surreptitiously
by Shade Elam Maret
Her job is to pass for a normal shopper, but she is no such thing.
Like a private agent on a secret mission, Nancy notices everything.
After ordering a meal at the drive-through window of a local
fast-food restaurant, she punches her stopwatch, timing the seconds
until she receives her food. She notices how quickly she is greeted,
whether her order is correct and whether her food is warm and
fresh.
She eats in the parking lot and then walks inside. This time,
she checks for clean bathrooms and neatly groomed employees. She
orders more food. Did the cashier offer a receipt without asking?
Did he suggest other products when she made her order?
Nancy -- who asked to be identified by her first name because
of the importance of anonymity in her work -- is a mystery shopper.
She's one of an estimated 1 million people hired each year by
businesses to shop for goods or services to help determine how
they are measuring up. The goal is to blend in, pretending to
be a real customer while secretly evaluating cleanliness, service
and products in stores, restaurants, banks, doctors' offices,
hospitals and elsewhere.
"I enjoy doing it because I like to shop and I'm interested in
customer service," says Nancy, a 51-year-old Raleigh resident
who works part-time as a preschool teacher. "It's all about being
polite to the clientele."
And this time of year, stores dependent on holiday sales must
be on top of their game. It is important that retail employees
keep customers happy during the holiday shopping season when consumers
are often stressed and frenzied. Many retailers, such as toy stores,
rely on the holiday season to make their business.
Mystery shoppers have been around for more than 30 years, but
experts say businesses are using them more in the past few years.
Many types of companies are trying to gain and retain customers,
because consumers have more options and are careful with their
discretionary income.
"We're getting more finicky as a society because there are more
and more choices," said Elaine Buxton, chief executive of Confero
Inc. The Cary-based training consultancy has a roster of about
40,000 mystery shoppers that it supplies to automotive, retail,
restaurant and banking clients across the country.
"Companies have decided they have to make sure they are competitive,"
Buxton said. "The long-term consequences for losing a customer
can be bad."
Mystery shopping has become a $1 billion business worldwide,
according to the Mystery Shoppers Providers Association, a Dallas-based
trade group of companies that specialize in mystery shopping and
market research. The group estimates that 70 percent to 80 percent
of restaurants have a mystery shopping program.
Raleigh-based Capital Bank began using mystery shoppers two and
a half years ago.
The bank requires three mystery shops per quarter in each of
its 21 branches. Bank officials use the information to improve
customer service through coaching.
"Retention and referrals are important to just about every type
of business," said Shop'n Chek's Hottle. "Everyone is concerned
with customer service" to help build brand loyalty.
Based on feedback from mystery shoppers, Capital Bank realized
that its employees weren't greeting customers quickly enough.
It implemented a rule that each customer entering the bank must
be greeted within three seconds, said John Anthony, senior vice
president and chief administration officer.
Besides using the mystery-shopping results to train employees,
the bank has realized one more gain: Two out of five mystery shoppers
end up so pleased with the service that they keep the account
they opened while mystery shopping at the bank, Anthony said.
Sometimes, when a shopper can find good service in a sea of rudeness,
it makes the job worthwhile. For every cashier in a convenience
store who forgets to put his name tag on and is talking to his
girlfriend on the phone, there's another front-line employee who
will surprise shoppers with old-fashioned customer service.
"I like the anticipation of not knowing what may happen," said
the mystery shopper in Wake Forest. "This is my Nancy Drew time."
