If you walked out of your office to find your building burning down, would you grab the first extinguisher or call 911? Similarly, if your company’s revenue is decreasing exponentially, staff turnover is high, your reputation is sinking, and you’re dreaming in red ink, are you going to blame it on your mystery shopping program? Some companies do.
If your company is considering committing to a mystery shopping program to bolster failing profits, there’s one thing you’ve got to know. Mystery shopping is not a panacea. Companies who begin mystery shopping programs as “˜last ditch’ efforts to dig out of a hole they’ve been slowly sinking into for years will be disappointed. Why? Because mystery shopping programs take time to effect change. The problem is, the companies who need them the most seem to bail out the fastest. They begin a program, expect instant results, and at the first hint that won’t happen, they cut the program. What a waste! All the time, money and planning spent on the program simply slides down the drain, along with those unrealistic expectations.
The truth is, mystery shopping is an investment, not an expense. It’s like the stock market. The highest earnings occur over long periods of time. And companies who are most successful with mystery shopping””in fact, companies that are most successful, period””understand this concept. They get it. They know that the most effective mystery shopping programs are literally ground into the company’s DNA. Mystery shopping is in the blood, as it were, of every person working in that store, from the CEO and managers on down to the person who holds open the door. They recognize that excellence comes from consistency”¦ that it takes years to enmesh this type of program into the corporate culture”¦and they’re willing to make that investment in their company’s future.
