I'm new to this but I'm starting to think that this whole thing is somewhat dishonest and goes against my principles.

Now it's one thing to go in a store and ask a few questions, buy something- ok, that's fine. If people do what they are supposed to do then there should be no issues.

But I did a shop where I really had to interact and make up a story and at the end of it I felt like a big liar. I had to ask a question and the guy gave me an answer that I'm sure helps them maintain customers but I KNOW it wasn't the answer that the company wanted. I felt like he was just being "real" and now I have to go and tattle so I felt really bad because just about everything I said to him was a lie.

My spouse says it's not being dishonest and to stop worrying so much because it's a great thing to do and customer service is important. But I don't see how it's not being a big fat liar.

Do you ever feel this way?

No.

The folks we are observing are supposedly trained, competent personnel. We are going in to evaluate whether they are using their training and they are showing their competence. We often need to devise a scenario that will allow them to show both. But whether we are following a provided scenario or creating our own, it is designed for them to succeed and show their stuff. When I am personally shopping I am much less helpful in giving a salesperson an opportunity to show their competence because I am more guarded in my answers. As a shopper, I will give the details they need to do a successful presentation if they will only ask. Today I was inquiring about two products. I had salespeople who were mostly friendly and courteous but totally incompetent. They need further training.

These folks know they are shopped. They have been through training or they would not be on the sales floor. This is not some malicious espionage, it is a check to see if they are doing the job they are paid to do and all too often they are not.

Is an actor who portrays a murderer a murderer? You are an actor and your stage is the stores you shop. Perhaps we should have an Oscars or Emmys for shoppers

Nope, never felt like I was telling a fib. Depends on the shop I'm doing how I present myself. I can present myself as "grandma" or as "myself" looking for a particular item. I can be the "grandma" who is looking to be fit and trim. :-)

As I spend my "web" I generally tell them the truth if questions are asked about myself or my grandsons, husband or children. They have to ask questions to determine your needs. So I'm truthful about those things.

I do try to have some knowledge of what I'm shopping for and that helps. If it's something I have no clue about I'll look it up on the internet and give myself some pointers.

I do suspect if you go to a shop and have NO clue you could be in a little bit of trouble. A little working knowledge of the shop you are doing makes it go better.

billienicolosi Wrote:
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>
> I do suspect if you go to a shop and have NO clue
> you could be in a little bit of trouble. A little
> working knowledge of the shop you are doing makes
> it go better.


And when 15 minutes research on the internet gives you a better understanding of the product than the salesman has you KNOW why we are sent in to shop!

I did one for Best Buy where I was clueless at the beginning. The MSP inserted a photo of a "dinner set" on the directions. It was a large black square with a small red circle in one corner. Didn't look anything like dinnerware. At that time I was new, and not calling schedulers with problems.

I went into BB, and the "dinner set" turned out to be a new type of black electric cooktop photographed from above and a refrigerator (not pictured.)

Sometimes I feel like I'm lying, when I'm asking about something in which I have zero interest and would never, ever consider buying. When I replay the recording, I sound flat and unconvincing. But the bottom line is to help the client and to get paid, so I get over it.

Never.
I am doing my job, they are doing theirs.

Retail, restaurants, companies spend a great deal of time, money and effort to train their employees on the most effective way to get a job (or sale) done. Or even a specific way on approaching customer service.

The employer has the right to determine how their training of employees has fared.

Even if for a moment it is suspected that I am doing a shop - it should not matter - she/he is doing his job and I am doing mine.

good luck!

That's true Flash. If 15 minutes on the Internet gives me more understanding of a product than the salesman we know why we are shopping the store.

I'm not really a gadget guru so it takes a little bit of time for me to figure out the guru-ish-ness of some products. :-)

So far I've never been asked a question I couldn't answer and I've always had a pretty good working knowledge of the items. I may not know all the "bells and whistles" but I know which buttons to push.

In real life I find myself researching products on the internet and reading boxes in the store because the staff do not know their stuff. I was disheartened with a series of cell phone shops where I DID go in before the shop and read the terms and conditions of the plan and was very aware of what was and was not included in the plan. The salesmen were out there selling me the moon on the basic plan while the moon was only available starting at the next to most expensive plan. Dishonest or ignorant?

Too many employees read the box to you when you ask about a product. I thought there was a reason for putting specified types of materials or equipment in specified areas and training staff on the stuff in their section. I am perfectly capable of reading the box for myself and make less of a stumbling mess of even that.

I sometimes am uncomfortable when a salesman misses an opportunity to serve a real customer because he's already tied up with me. On one occasion I waited for a half an hour for what I thought was a real customer to go ahead of me, only to find out they were from out of town and weren't going to buy anything anyway.

Sometimes I do feel like I'm tattling when the client company expects a salesman to use unnatural language (requiring a cell phone salesman to say "Have you heard about our . . ." in his initial greeting) or do something that doesn't make sense (I don't expect the guy behind the parts counter at the local motorcycle shop to come out from behind the counter to greet me). But I remind myself that it is not my place to tell a company how to run their business. They have spent money to determine what sells their products. It's my job to determine whether standards are being observed, not whether or not they are effective. Occassionally I do put a comment like "Although so and so did not do such and such, I would not have noticed this if I had been a regular customer" in my report.

I think in some instances they are "taught" to try an upsale. May not work for them but they have to try. I get that question on report questions.."was there an upsale?" Or did they attempt "an accessory"? to the product in question.

I haven't done any cell phone shops. But I have done some work for some Cell Phone companies.

I'm like you no matter what I am shopping I don't like them to read the box or read anything else to me. I can read myself.

Ugly I consider myself a "real customer" when I'm doing a shop. That's pretty much the best way to pull mystery shopping off without suspicion. If I do my homework prior to a shop I don't get tangled up asking some "off the wall question" or something I dug up from "outer space" LOL!!

And as surprising as it may seem I have done some shops and I have purchased the product I was shopping.

Today I have a shop and the item I'm shopping is an item my husband and I have been debating about adding to our assets. And as it turns out he is free during the "time frame" of the shop. So he and I are going to be REAL customers. :-)

Frequently I *am* a real customer. Grocery stores and fast food (what can I say, I enjoy a double cheese burger a couple of time a month), for example.

But there is no way I'm buying auxilliary headlamps for my non-existant motorcycle. Donning my best silly blonde look--That I bought from my brother because it made his wife mad, and then my husband wouldn't let me ride it, but now with the gas prices going so high he's reconsidering, and I thought auxilliary lights would just tip the balance. Plus I really, really like the way they look.

And the $3000-$6000 bed was amazing with a great demo, but quite out of the question. Although if I knew anybody who had that much to spend on a bed I would surely recommend these,

I can only have so many cell phone contracts. I like cell phone shops because there are so many stores. I can often pick up a cell phone shop near another shop. But there is usually enough traffic that I suspect my salesman might be missing an opportunity. I'm happy with my current carrier, I have a pretty good plan, and it's unlikely that I'll be changing cell phone carriers anytime soon.

LOL!! I know what you mean Ugly.

There are just some shops I shy away from doing all together. Motorcycle shops are at the top of my list to NOT do. No way am I "riding of in the sunset on a motorcycle" It'd be "turn your cap bill back honey, we're heading for Memphis,TN"
Who knows how to stop those things?

I don't do gas shops either. $3 worth of gas isn't even a gallon in my car so why should I go to all the trouble.

I'm not going to take a shop that is totally out of my league.
Like I'm not going to take a auto dealer shop and that dealership carry Ferrari's. I'd be made on the spot. Granted I would like to take one for a test drive and I do "clean up good".

There is one fast food I do audits for and I do that one because of the pay and I pretty much like their burgers as compared to other fast food.

I don't have to make a purchase for the audit but I do and take home a couple of great burgers. :-)

There are a lot of shops I won't do either. I tend to pick and choose those that are age and interest appropriate and if there is something else nearby I can fake, I'll add that to the agenda.

Motorcycles and cosmetics/potions are shops I shun for philosophical opposition. I won't chase after a fast food but if I am going to be in the area around meal time I will spend a couple of minutes seeing if the ones I find palatable (both the shop and the food) are available in my target area.

When I am about to do something I will take all the shops available to learn more about the products available. Flooring shops when I was doing some remodelling that included flooring, paint shops when I was working on the project, storage units when I was thinking about clearing the decks into a storage unit to remodel, auto dealerships when we were thinking about getting a new vehicle, and recently appliance shops because I am getting frustrated with my dishwasher.

My reaction is that when I am on the location I am as valid as any other customer. The fact that I am doing a quick and hopefully anonymous performance review is valid whether the sales person is salaried or commissioned. I won't try to waste their time, I will take the time and try to encourage them to do a good performance, but they are supposed to be beyond basic training so shouldn't need to be spoon fed.

As for the $3000 bed, check the reviews of similar products on the internet. You will find that there are highly rated ones as good or better for around $500 plus shipping. The point of the $3000 bed is that the retailers are not allowed to have sales, specials or discounts to preserve the 'mystique' of it, though the product is far from unique.

Flash Wrote:
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> When I am about to do something I will take all
> the shops available to learn more about the
> products available. Flooring shops when I was
> doing some remodelling that included flooring,
> paint shops when I was working on the project,
> storage units when I was thinking about clearing
> the decks into a storage unit to remodel, auto
> dealerships when we were thinking about getting a
> new vehicle, and recently appliance shops because
> I am getting frustrated with my dishwasher.
>

Good idea.

> My reaction is that when I am on the location I am
> as valid as any other customer. The fact that I
> am doing a quick and hopefully anonymous
> performance review is valid whether the sales
> person is salaried or commissioned. I won't try
> to waste their time, I will take the time and try
> to encourage them to do a good performance, but
> they are supposed to be beyond basic training so
> shouldn't need to be spoon fed.
>

I agree, and I try to keep that point of view in mind. In some respects its better for me when there are other customers because its less likely that the sales person will remember me when I was the only customer they saw on a particular nite.

> As for the $3000 bed, check the reviews of similar
> products on the internet. You will find that
> there are highly rated ones as good or better for
> around $500 plus shipping. The point of the $3000
> bed is that the retailers are not allowed to have
> sales, specials or discounts to preserve the
> 'mystique' of it, though the product is far from
> unique.

Well, I suspect I'll never need to research it too thouroughly. If given a choice between me and his waterbed, I'm not sure which my husband would choose;}

uglysocks Wrote:
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> Well, I suspect I'll never need to research it too
> thouroughly. If given a choice between me and his
> waterbed, I'm not sure which my husband would
> choose;}

Waterbed has been my choice for decades. But we are having to change because of back surgery to hubby due to work related injuries over the years. He can no longer get in and out readily. The $3000 bed seemed to me to be a viable alternative in that it supplied similar whole body support. Not nearly as good as the beloved waterbed, but not too bad a second choice--in the $500 version.

Flash Wrote:
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>
> Waterbed has been my choice for decades. But we
> are having to change because of back surgery to
> hubby due to work related injuries over the years.
> He can no longer get in and out readily. The
> $3000 bed seemed to me to be a viable alternative
> in that it supplied similar whole body support.
> Not nearly as good as the beloved waterbed, but
> not too bad a second choice--in the $500 version.

Actually I like our waterbed too. I'm concerned about being able to get in and out after the looming knee replacement, though.

And to swing this slightly back toward the OP's question--when a 53 year old woman says "I need to talk to my husband before I write a $3000+ check for a bed" it is unreasonable to expect the poor salesman to try to close the sale a second time. IMHO

Probably would be more like $5000 for us-my husband is 6' 6" and we must have a king or else he has to sleep diagonally and I get about 1/4 of the bed to sleep on.

I don't feel dishonest, just uncomfortable and unconvincing. I'm not much of a shopper in real life. I wouldn't do anything that's totally foreign to me, and where I'm totally unconvincing: motorcycle shops, cosmetics, new cars or home equity loans. In fact any kind of loan bec I don't want my credit checked.

I've even had problems my first time at McD's because I didn't really understand everything I was ordering. I don't eat fast food. They asked me what kind of sauce I wanted and I didn't know what to say. The first time I went to a drive-through, I drove up to the cashier and ordered, not knowing about the speaker box. I faked that part on the report. OK, you can laugh. I'm not mainstream.

I was nervous about the motorcycle shop. But the write up said clearly that you didn't need to know anything about bikes to do it, so I gave it a shot. The paperwork included pictures of "my bike", the make, model, year, the fact that it was unmodified, and pictures and descriptions of the accessories I was supposed to be interested in. I didn't try to pretend I knew about motorcycles, just that I owned one. Buying lights for a motorcycle because it looks good seems silly to me, that's probably what inspired the silly woman scenario I came up with.

I certainly didn't feel dishonest about it though.

I enjoyed the shop, and would do it again, but I'm sure the salesman will remember me. I've seen these shops listed for up to $27.00 in outlying areas. I don't shop out of town very often, but I wouldn't hesitate to pick one of these up if I did take a job out of town.

uglysocks Wrote:
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> Actually I like our waterbed too. I'm concerned
> about being able to get in and out after the
> looming knee replacement, though.
>
I find that rolling in and out is not a real problem for me but for some reason Bert never got accustomed to doing it that way so gave up on it more than a year ago for the bed in the guest room. If you do the roll out onto the good leg you should probably be okay. It is a standard mattress and box springs and for one works well but for two becomes saggy like a hammock. (One of those "lessons learned"--have two people test the mattress together if two people are going to try to sleep on it.)

1K,
I do feel the same way you do. My solution is don't pick the ones that go against my conscious. I might not earn a lot from this mystery thing but I will not sell my soul for $10 to do something that contradicts to something inside of me. There're tons of other shops that you can just be yourself and evaluate them with honesty.

KV Wrote:
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> 1K,
> I do feel the same way you do. My solution is
> don't pick the ones that go against my conscious.
> I might not earn a lot from this mystery thing but
> I will not sell my soul for $10 to do something
> that contradicts to something inside of me.
> There're tons of other shops that you can just be
> yourself and evaluate them with honesty.

What kind of shops go against your conscience? I'm not trying to be a smart alec or be argumentative here. Taking cell phone shops as an example-I really don't feel like I'm selling my soul even though I have no intention of making a cell phone purchase when I do these shops.

Even though I think its silly for a cell phone company to require its salesman to use awkward language in their sales pitches, I also believe that the company has the right to set any standards they choose. And they have the right to monitor compliance with those standards. I'm not sure how they would do that without mystery shoppers. I guess they could review tapes to determine compliance instead. They would lose some input regarding physical plant maintenance, show room stock levels, and the like. And they would have no control over the scenario, so they might have to spend quite a lot of time searching for sales presentations that could be fairly evaluated.

I didn't feel like I was selling my soul when I did the motorcycle job either. Almost everything in that scenario was made up. If I had a moral objection to motorcycles in general, I wouldn't have done it. But I don't. I picked up some interesting trivia, I enjoyed the shop, and I provided a valuable service to the company. And I picked up some money to feed my knitting habit.

How do you feel about the "Oops, I forgot about the large item under my shopping cart" grocery shops? I've had my large item missed more often than caught. I suspect that a lot of merchandise walks out of grocery stores that way. Those lost sales impact everyone's bills. I think its a good idea for grocery stores to monitor employees' performance in charging for everything that customers walk out with, and I don't feel dishonest at all when I do these shops.

Which is more weasley--pretending to own a motorcycle or pretending to forget to pay for an item?

Haha! You all crack me up. I don't feel dishonest about doing a shop that I have to make up "scenerios" about... I enjoy acting and being "undercover." Just the other day I had a shop where I had to walk to the back of the store to the car audio section looking for an Ipod... definitly in the front... they were just like, what the heck are you doing back here???? I made up a silly blonde excuse and they got me on my way. I laughed about it all the way home

Hardly ever. Once in a while, if the scenario is so ridiculous that it is appalling I do feel bad, and when a commission only sales person wastes their time doing an exceptional job for me, who will never buy, I feel worse. Most of the time I am happy to do it.

I too have some qualms with commission sales people. If there are real customers about, I do tend to make it short and sweet or else suggest, "Why don't I look around a bit while you help ___________. My mind is far from made up." It may cost me an extra 10-15 minutes, but the person I yielded to is much more likely to make their purchase quickly so the sales person can get back with me.

There are some scenarios that are so old and so stale that they are like wearing a hat with flashing headband saying "SHOPPER!" I do try to play those in a slightly different twist to avoid detection. There is one particular restaurant shop where perhaps in some markets people use the option to call ahead and get their name on the list for priority seating. They don't do it in my market, yet it is required for the shop within 30 minutes of arrival. I try to mix it up and call asking if they have a kids' menu and end up with asking if there is a wait and let them come to the suggestion of getting put on the list as a party of two. We then appear as a party of two without a kid and at least can observe if they ask if we called ahead. When I did this as a normal party of two asking to be put on the list we were treated to a display of everybody stopping by the table to see if we needed anything, giving us their names unsolicited, etc.

I would say "uncomfortable" more describes how I feel and if so, I won't do that type of shop again. I'm uncomfortable playing handicapped; doing integrity shops; shops where I'm totally out of my comfort zone - posing as a buyer of a luxury car, as I am frugal and practical; covertly taking pictures or video; returning perfectly good merchandise and informing customer service that it is of inferior quality... I've done these shops, but only once. If it's uncomfortable for me, I'm sure I seem disingenuous. That's not what the client is paying for and it's not worth it to me.

I want to enjoy what I'm doing.

We are pretty much in the same boat on those, Mert. Though I will admit that I had wonderful fun posing as the buyer of a Lexus last year. I found it rather fun to see the stuff that people evidently think is worth that kind of money. And there were buyers in the offices picking out their upholstery and other amenities on both my visits to the shop. PT Barnum's quote came to mind about a sucker born every minute, though I played my part as scripted and negotiated like heck to get the base price down and amenities thrown in gratis. Granted it was a very comfortable vehicle to sit in, but not a car that could make me feel good about myself spending money like that. Different strokes for different folks.

I feel dishonest only when the scenario is idiotic, in which case I feel embarrassed too.

Do You Feel Dishonest? not at all, I worked in retail far to long and I understand both sides of the fence. I am getting pd to do a job and unless its so far out of my league I usually have no problems.
dee

Dishonest? When I'm doing a shop I am an actor on a stage. I am playing a part in a play that's being directed by a MS company and end client. Sometimes the role I play is a bit part (a fast food burger) other times I get into my part really well (multi-day in-depth loan shops). Other times I'm just having fun in an off-broadway role (motorcycle mama). An actor doesn't stand on sanctimony and conscience about playing a role, he does his job, gets paid and goes on his way.