Mystery Shopping Is One Proven Way To Know For Sure
Recently, I was running low on dog food so I called the local hardware store and asked how late they’d be open.
The employee who answered the phone told me that the store was closing in the next few minutes, but assured me he would leave the doors open.
When I arrived at the store, the doors were locked. Worse yet, when I tried to catch the attention of the employees inside, they all looked the other way.
It was only after a few minutes of yelling and arm waving that a checkout clerk finally opened the door. I explained the situation to her and she just said, “Can’t help you. I just punched out. I’m out of here.”
I personally know the manager of the store. I have always witnessed excellent customer service while he was around. But a situation like this makes you wonder what is it really like when he’s not there?
Could this happen at your financial institution? How do you know your employees always offer the same level of customer service, whether you’re in or out of the building?
Mystery shop employees
One proven way to know for sure how your employees treat customers when you’re not around, is to use a mystery shopping program.
The program is simple. Identify a select group of customers at your financial institution and have them routinely evaluate employees’ manners, friendliness, name recognition and promptness.
Some financial institutions we talk to will notify employees two days prior to evaluation. However, for a true test of customer service, employees should have little or no advanced warning. In our opinion, employees should only be given notice that they will be mystery shopped on a regular basis thoughout the month or year.
Reward, retrain or fire
Once employees are fully evaluated on their customer service skills, take action on the results.
Employees who provide extraordinary service should be rewarded. Those who are not at this level should be retrained or fired. You can’t afford to have customers receive anything but top-quality service.
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