Salesclerks, watch your step
Naperville Sun
By Mike Sullivan
Some anonymous consumers who regularly enter retail stores do
so with no intention of buying a thing.
What they do, however, has a measurable effect on those who come
with a shopping list.
Mystery shoppers, as the undercover per-diem workers are known,
enter shops and businesses, observe the demeanor of customer-service
representatives and report their findings to the corporate entity
that hired them.
It's an industry that has experienced double-digit growth in
a year-over-year comparison.
More than 150 people representing the Mystery Shopping Providers
Association will be honing their skills at the third annual educational
conference today through Sunday at the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville.
John Swinburn, executive director of the Dallas-based association,
says some of the world's largest companies regard mystery shopping
as a valuable strategic tool.
The trained mystery shoppers anonymously evaluate restaurants,
hotels, retail stores and other companies.
He said his mystery shoppers, all independent contractors, do
not step into a retailer's shop behaving badly in order to provoke
a response from a salesclerk.
"They're actually given some guidelines on specific things to
observe and to record," Swinburn said.
He acknowledged, however, that there are some situations that
mystery shoppers might be asked to document, such as "an interaction"
between a customer and a salesclerk in which there might be some
perceived difficulty, such as when an item is returned to a store
for a refund.
"Generally speaking, it's just to capture exactly what happened
in an objective fashion," Swinburn said.
He said the main role of the mystery shopper is to determine
whether corporate policy is being carried out effectively at the
retail level.
Mystery shoppers, for example, may observe whether a salesclerk
greets customers with a smile within 30 seconds of the customer
entering the store, as dictated by corporate policy.
"If that doesn't happen, it is simply noted in the mystery shopper's
report," Swinburn said.
Candidates for these positions, Swinburn said, are recruited
through the company's Web site, where corporate opportunities
are posted. He estimated the total number of mystery shoppers
in North America at about 1 million.
Mystery shoppers, in general, are not highly compensated, according
to Swinburn. "It depends on the shop and the complexity (of the
assignment)," he explained.
Some mystery shoppers, he said, may end up with a meal at a fast-food
restaurant as compensation for their report on how sales transactions
are handled at the restaurant. Or the mystery shopper could receive
a $5 to $20 cash payment. "Generally speaking, it's certainly
low compensation," he said.
He cautioned potential mystery shoppers against responding to
Internet advertisements from scam artists who require candidates
to pay a fee to receive job information.
"That information is readily available for free on our Web site,"
he said.
The concept of the mystery shopper, Swinburn speculated, evolved
from retailers who wanted to evaluate whether they were experiencing
loss due to pilfering. "That was many years ago possibly 50
or 60 years ago," he said.
Now, employee dishonesty is handled by the retailer through a
private investigator and does not involve a mystery shopper, he
said.
