There are many factors that work together to make a mystery shopping program successful. However, no matter how much support your program receives from management, it will not be sustainable, consistent and successful without the full participation of your frontline staff.
There are many factors that work together to make a mystery shopping program successful. However, no matter how much support your program receives from management, it will not be sustainable, consistent and successful without the full participation of your frontline staff.
Mystery shopping has taken a bad rap throughout the years. While savvy management may recognize its value, store associates are likely to consider mystery shopping as a way for management to spy on their daily activities, to find fault and criticize. This is due partly to the fact that mystery shopping programs have often been incorrectly implemented and the data from those programs has been incorrectly used.
Mystery shopping programs are not implemented merely to point the finger, but to look for excellence and reward that behavior. When used properly, mystery shopping is positive reinforcement at its best, and there is nothing like positive reinforcement to boost morale and create a happy workforce that gets the job done in the spirit of teamwork.
Of course, your mystery shopping program may uncover weak areas of your operation. This is to be expected. But any weak areas uncovered are simply opportunities to correct the problems and further strengthen your brand, your frontline staff, and your customer base.
Let’s look at several ways you can create interest in your mystery shopping program and keep your staff excited about participating to their best abilities:
First, and possibly most important, is providing individual and team motivation through recognition of excellence. How? Here’s a few ways:
“¢ Instant (non-monetary) rewards by shopper to employee
“¢ Shopper meets with store manager who then rewards employee
“¢ Associate of the month, quarter, etc., (including picture in internal newspaper or similar recognition)
“¢ Team of the month, district, region etc.
“¢ Post survey in store to reinforce importance
“¢ Post “blown up” shop results in store
“¢ Reward top performance
“¢ Reward most improved performance, store team, district, region
“¢ Contests based upon performance i.e. suggestion selling
Next, you might want to try changing your research methods. For example:
“¢ Change your survey questions”¦ask new questions, change the words, change the order of the questions
“¢ Focus on a limited number of behaviors that are reinforced
“¢ Set up program so managers and associates can succeed
“¢ Give associates chance to perform using scenario-driven Mystery Shop
“¢ Constantly analyze data and provide continuous feedback
Another area where you can make changes that will create excitement for the program and sustain interest in participating fully is through your Program Management objectives. Consider these possibilities:
“¢ Define clear objectives
“¢ Keep it simple
“¢ Hire a vendor that can be a partner
“¢ Obtain buy-in from front line
“¢ Provide adequate internal administration
“¢ Plan for change
And finally, the way you deliver the data compiled from your mystery shopping program can be instrumental in the program’s success. Your deliverables should be provided to store managers on a timely and consistent basis, so that managers can become accustomed to using the data to improve behaviors over time. In this way, managers will feel “˜in control’ of the store environment and can pass that confidence on to frontline staff. Once the staff begins to see the improvements to the store and the positive effect on customers, and feels the pride of individual recognition, your mystery shopping program will have become a true success: a program that created enough interest to get everyone excited, and now sustains that interest based on its own success.
