Tag: secret shopping

1. In person, one on one:  One of the best ways to gain impact from mystery shops is to meet with employees one-on-one to discuss results.  If an employee does not score well on a shop, managers need to coach the employee privately. They can discuss ways to improve the customer interaction and also the employee’s concerns with any of the mystery shop expectations.
    
2. Email:  Companies send summary emails about regional and company performance within each mystery shopping area to keep everyone on the right track.  Highlighting the high-scoring areas compliments employees, while detailing often-missed sections lets employees know where to place more effort.
    
3. Staff meetings:  Whether at the unit, regional, or district level, staff meetings provide good opportunities to discuss mystery shop outcomes and improvement strategies for the more difficult areas of the mystery shop. For example, if many associates struggle with a closing question, use a staff meeting to brainstorm ideas about asking for the business. If some employees hesitate to refer customers to other departments, dig deeper into the reasons to develop process improvements.
    

Customer service is full of surprises. Sometimes, no matter how well we plan customer service strategies, something goes awry.  Usually, the customer is the first to know and the associate may be taken by surprise.   How does your team handle service recovery? Is your team prepared to respond in the best way possible when service recovery is needed?

Last month, Confero posed an interesting question to mystery shoppers:

Mystery shoppers observe and report on customer service every day.  What is the one thing an employee or business can do to turn a negative customer service experience into a positive one?

We received many insightful comments, including these:

“It’s the willing spirit that makes the difference; showing that they are listening, and that they want to make things right. “

A few months ago, Confero revealed 25 mystery shopper comments that shed some interesting light on shopper experiences in a humorous way. We know our clients take mystery shopping reports seriously, as do we, but comic relief is always welcome, so we decided to share more funny comments. Enjoy!  

• “Since there was not a bagger available, the customer bagged himself.”
•  “The music was not on, but a few employees behind the counter were singing ‘Hotel California.’”
• “When I entered the location, I saw one customer being hung up by the cashier.”

Customer Experience Measurement Firm President Receives Committee Contributor Of The Year Award

CARY, N.C. – Elaine Buxton, president and CEO of Confero, Inc. (https://www.conferoinc.com), a national customer experience measurement firm, hasbeen named a 2011 Committee Contributor of the Year by the Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF), a leadership development organization that empowers women in the foodservice industry to achieve their highest potential. Buxton was honored for her work on the Executive Programming (Summit) committee. The annual WFF Executive Summit was held in Sept. 2010, and offered executive-level education, provided by the Kellogg School of Business, in an intimate environment. Buxton received the award for her record of achievement of prompt and timely committee work and project fulfillment; enthusiastic and visible contributions that helped the committee and WFF succeed in its goal; consistent demonstration of significant efforts and contribution to the committee work; focus on developing the committee and herself; and exceeding expectations of committee chairs and assisting in making the committee better than it was in previous years.

Did you know that heart disease is still the number one cause of death among women?  Did you know that heart disease can affect women at any age?

Confero has made it our mission over the past few years to get involved in raising awareness about heart disease in women.  Earlier this year Confero staff members participated in National Wear Red Day by wearing red and attending a CPR information session. 

On Friday, May 6^thConfero sponsored the Triangle Go Red For Women Luncheon at the Sheraton in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Our staff members spent time attending seminars on these topics: Heart Healthy Cooking, CPR Training and Know Your Heart Health.