Mystery Shop Surveillance

Living in the world today we are always being watched. When we go into any supermarket or retail establishment, we are being watched by employees as well as by surveillance cameras. When we stop and get gas, cameras are everywhere. We get our pictures taken if we run a red light at the intersection. Cameras are everywhere, even in some schools. We are even watched in parking lots of apartments and self storage facilities . Most of us rarely think about the fact that just about everywhere we go we are being observed. Perhaps it is for our safety in some instances, such as the cameras that are located within ATM machines to ensure that it is we who are accessing our accounts. It is fair to say that we have become numb to the observation, oblivious to the fact that people that we do not know nor do we suspect are checking us out.

Is that why it is so easy for evaluators to stand back and watch as they perform mystery shops on employees? Have the employees become so use to outside evaluation that they have managed to go on about their lives without even the slightest clue that an evaluation is taking place? Of course. We have all done just that. We have conveniently managed to forget that we are observed every single day of our lives, and we somehow carry on as if nothing had ever happened. Mystery shops are like surveillance, in a way, though not necessarily trying to catch employees in the act of doing something wrong. Rather, it is more along the lines of grading the employee for the job that has been witnessed.

Mystery shops seldom hurt an employee. In fact, the employee is actually the one who is inevitably hurting himself by failing to perform his duties according to his job description. The evaluators who are responsible for doing the mystery shops just happened to be there to witness the oversight and report the incident, as they are required to do. Poor performance or uncooperative customer service will eventually make itself known, with or without an outside evaluator assisting in the process. Sooner or later someone would have complained anyway. 

Perhaps our world has become so technologically advanced that we really do not mind being repeatedly observed. There are cameras recording us on computers, allowing us to stream our live image across the world in seconds, even from our cell phones. It is a fact of life that even in our own homes we are likely being observed at some point without even knowing it. Instead of fretting about it, we have grown accustomed to it as a source of evaluation itself. Mystery shops may not use cameras, but they are absolutely effective tools for evaluating the level of customer service that is being offered in just about any kind of establishment from self storage companies to hotel and resorts.

Cameras cannot make true evaluations, they can only record images. The human touch occurs when more than just a mental image is painted. Human impressions add that sense of depth and honesty to an evaluation that merely witnessing the incident on a camera could never do. As long as businesses cater to customers, there will be evaluations. It comes with the territory. Perhaps just getting used to the fact that evaluations can be occurring at any time strengthens the resolve to do a better job. That is the hope, at least.

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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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