Check Your Pride At The Door

Ah, yes taking criticism. It is known how we all love and look forward hearing how we did something wrong or how someone is willing to give us advice on the situation. Every time it comes time to hear feedback, we start putting up walls that shield us from the comments. Most of the time, we are not receptive to the information even though it could greatly benefit us. Sometimes you need to check your pride at the door.

Most people like the idea of feedback secret shopping because you get immediate recognition on what you did well, and some coaching points that can help you going into the next call. In the past, secret shopping  just shopped different storage managers, evaluated their call, and then sent the call to the district manager for them to do as they please. Think how many calls in between the secret shopping calls, that self storage manager in between that time could take. They still could be using not as good sales presentations that they did not know they needed help on. The only problem sometimes with instant feedback from secret shopping, is that some people are too prideful and choose not to listen.

It is so refreshing that there are managers out there who receive a perfect score every single time they participate in secret shopping, mostly unknowing. We should applaud you for you efforts, but what about those who do well in the secret shopping evaluation? Even the perfect managers can still learn and tweak their presentations. They should still open up their ears during their secret shopping evaluation and be humble enough to say that they do not know it all. Whether you have been in the industry for over ten years or ten minutes, everyone can improve on their skills. It is up to you to want to. That is why secret shopping is in place to help all different experience levels.

With secret shopping, there can be a huge lift in your company if you use the feedback correctly. Of course, as stated, earlier that is easier said then done. You have to check your pride at the door and realize that no one is perfect. That is another reason secret shopping is out there. People just need to get over the fact that they believe secret shopping is there to judge, bring down the individual or attempt to get someone fired. It is hard to believe that there is a company out there that would spend money to have an outside source listens to their associates, just to have reason to let them go. Now with the secret shopping evaluations, if the associates choose not to improve or for some reason cannot, they need to not be part of your company. Let us be honest. Why would you have someone on your team who is not willing to accept feedback from secret shopping when it gives them a true snapshot of how they assist customers? Do they not believe that will help them see that they have something they need to work on?

Instant feedback seems to be sky rocketing with more and more companies signing up. Companies know that the quicker they change some behaviors the quicker they can see profits. It is good for these companies to sign up and use the instant feedback way of doing secret shopping, but they need to get their people on board to check their pride at the door and be more receptive to criticism. They have to remember, not all criticism is bad, and it is just how you receive it.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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