Secret Shopping In Public

I have been in customer service since 1964.  I started as an operator in a small, rural telephone company and was “promoted” to the customer service office 2 years later.  Before they let me speak with a customer I was taken through an extensive training program learning all about how telephone service works, what services and extras were offered, and all of the Tariff rules set forth by the Public Service Commission.  I was instructed in how to greet a customer, how to discover what they needed from me as a service representative and how to handle complaints even from customers who were upset, angry, and aggressive. This started my life in customer service, call center work, mystery shopping and writing a business blog.

Today, I visited a local sandwich shop on my way to work.  Sometimes when I am out in public I notice that I keep an eye open for secret shopping and mystery shopping opportunities. They have a Tuesday special that is a good price on more than enough food for lunch and dinner.  As I entered the order line the young lady behind the counter was having a conversation with her boyfriend.  I stood patiently by while she concluded and when he left stood patiently by as she regaled her co workers and another customer with the details of why she loved and what a great guy he was.

Next, she got a box of the gloves that food service workers are required to wear when handling cold food and chatted with another worker about the condition the gloves were in.  I had been patient for about as long as I could and asked, “Will I be placing an order anytime soon?”  Her response was a slightly smart mouthed and snippy “Just waiting for you!”  I did not bother to try to point out that she had completely ignored me for several minutes, as I did not think that it would sink in.  She will be unpleasantly surprised to find out that the owner of the shop is a client of mine in a business venture and that her conduct will be discussed with him at length tomorrow.  It would have been so easy for her to glance in my direction and greet me and assure me that she would be with me right away. This attitude would not fly at my customer service job here at PhoneSmart’s call center for self storage. 
In the PhoneSmart call center there is real emphasis placed on how we greet callers.  WE are trained to smile before we answer and to answer promptly.  There are monthly incentives based on our “speed to answer”.  In our “internal shops” for Total Quality Assurance (secret shopping) we are judged on several greeting parts.  Did we answer in a friendly voice giving the name of the store and asking how we could help?  There are many parts to a successful reservation call and not one of them is more important than those first few seconds when the customer decides whether or not we are interested in really helping them with self storage.

I hope my friend will realize that he will not lose a long standing customer over this but I hope that he will encourage his employee to lose her unpleasant attitude and focus on the customers coming in the door more than her personal conversations.  I don’t think she would make it here at PhoneSmart and I hope I do not have to work with her unless she learns some customer service skills.

Written by Kay Johnson PhoneSmart reservations specialist and editor and writer or our business blog.

Thank you for visiting the PhoneSmart secret shopping blog, a peek inside the mystery shopping industry.

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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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