Hard to bash my favorite store but...

Yesterday I shopped a store I regularly go to as a customer. I had to remain objective but it was hard. They failed on multiple points and it was bad. I could not find any employee on the sales floor for over 20 minutes. The problem is I know it is not normally like that but that is the "snapshot" I got during the visit. I was annoyed that the shop took over 40 minutes instead of the required 20 minutes because I couldn't find the employees I needed for the interactions. Rats! Why couldn't they just do it right????

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I have a strong philosophy which has served me well:

Don't shop your haunts.

I've seen locations I love listed on a few different websites, but I won't shop them because it would be a huge moral dilemma.

Or might be, anyway. I'd just rather not chance it.

Imagine if this was your first time in that store. Would it be one of your favorites? Or would you, more likely, have never returned? Most customers, given that poor of service on a first visit, will never return. Less customers is less money for company is higher prices, so you really are helping out!

I've had not problem 'telling it like it was' for visits even to favorite places. Several things are involved in that. Shop times are frequently not the times I would normally be there yet the staffing needs to provide adequate coverage during all open hours. The cleanliness of any business needs to be an on-going effort--simply cleaning overnight when they are closed is not appropriate. I think the biggest problem for me with any shop is that a higher level of employee interaction is expected with a shop than I would normally want or need.

@Flash wrote:

I think the biggest problem for me with any shop is that a higher level of employee interaction is expected with a shop than I would normally want or need.

I'm glad you said that! You've just put your finger on where I think my biggest disconnect with Mystery Shopping is: I am a fairly low-maintenance shopper by nature. I don't really want or need a lot of help from the employees while I'm shopping for myself. Of course, in my double-agent role of Mystery Shopper, I have to pretend to be someone else; someone who needs to wait to be offered a soda before I could possibly think of that on my own while ordering lunch.

Shopper in California's Bay Area

@OceanGirl wrote:

I have a strong philosophy which has served me well:
Don't shop your haunts.
I've seen locations I love listed on a few different websites, but I won't shop them because it would be a huge moral dilemma.

I disagree. First of all, why is it a moral dilemma? That does not make any sense to me. Second, why wouldn't I shop my favorite brands? By giving an honest report of my experience, I am ultimately helping that business stay on top of things and make me want to return as a customer IRL.

Sybil, I believe that we are very different personality types.

In my case, the moral dilemmas would occur for several reasons:

1. If you are a regular, it could affect how you are treated and compromise the integrity of the shop.

2. There is one location to which it would be moderately emotionally difficult for me to return...I no longer shop there, though I used to with beloved deceased family members.... and my grief issue would also compromise the shop.

3. Some of these places are just going under, everyone in town knows it, and I would just like to 'remember it like it was'.

Some clients don't care as much about Issue #1 for certain shops, but I think many or most do, at least in the shops I see in my area. The rotation schedule is probably a good indicator of how concerned a client is with that.

CaliGirl925, I so hear you!

I am a naturally low-maintenance shopper, myself, and I have to stifle a lot of internal dialogue during my shops.

@OceanGirl wrote:

Sybil, I believe that we are very different personality types.

I agree 100%. We are complete opposites when it comes to running a small business. I have little to no emotions when I am working. To paraphrase a famous movie quote, "There is no crying in mystery shopping." Just state the facts. Have a journalistic mentality.

I'm low maintenance as well. When I want attention, I'll ask, so always needing to ask a question or two of associates is just not like me personally. As for shopping my haunts, I don't mind. It's just like a friend, if they mess up at the wrong time, they mess up. Plus, there is often turnover and a lot of times it is new employees that need a push in the right direction.

My post above was not referring to that person's discussion on low maintenance vs. high maintenance. I was referring to her high emotional mentality while performing shops.

High emotional mentality? WTH is that? One of Ghandi's seven sins is commerce without morality. While I have issues with shoppers treating MSCs and their clients like charities, ethics and morals within this business are already in short supply.

Personally, I won't mystery shop a store where I am a regular because I am already being treated differently than other customers. It means there would be no way for me to provide the "any customer" point of view. How could anyone if they are not being treated like every other customer?

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I observe how other customers are being treated and they are being treated the same way as I am. I am not receiving special treatment and I do not give them any special treatment. I am Switzerland.

I love grocery shops but I do not like the questions that you sometime have to ask. I feel like the employee wants to tattoo idiot on my forehead sometimes.

****************

Motivation increases when we assume large responsibilities with a short deadline.

Sybil has the key. If you are treated differently at your favorite haunt, than maybe you shouldn't do a shop there, but a lot of us have favorite haunts we love for various reasons where we still are just another customer. A favorite place does not necessarily mean you are put on a different playing field than anyone else.

I'm always rooting for them to do it right. I've had two shops that came within 30 seconds of being official and then I was served. If you see that you can leave after 15 or 30 minutes, bet that the client has a system that gets you service right before that time limit.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

Doesn't it depend upon the company? In some reports, I'm asked if I'm a regular customer.

I've never been asked that yet (being a regular customer). Whosear, there was one place I love and perhaps go to just 3 or 4 times a year, and it's just a fun place to be, but the service is very spotty. I've had some bad service amid the fun and good food. They popped up as a shop and I grabbed it. While I was waiting for service, I was thinking about all the bad service during some visits. BTW - it's usually not the server's spot, in my opinion, but poor staffing. There was a part of me that wanted them to 'fail' when I was there, just so I could say, you guys need better staffing and organization! Servers often end up working a table in one section, three in another, two more in another. I mean, seriously, it's a zoo watching them try to keep up ... and they do try. Anyway, wouldn't you know it, the day I did the shop, they made all the deadlines but one I think. It was close on others, but they made it.

This just happened to me yesterday. I was shopping a fave chain, but a location I rarely visit. The service (lack thereof) was awful! I would have been happy as a regular customer - the less interaction, the better. This will not be a positive report. I dislike writing negative reports, but those are "just the facts, ma'am".

@Lisa4984 wrote:

This just happened to me yesterday. I was shopping a fave chain, but a location I rarely visit. The service (lack thereof) was awful! I would have been happy as a regular customer - the less interaction, the better. This will not be a positive report. I dislike writing negative reports, but those are "just the facts, ma'am".

I agree with this.. when I have to report on an upsell and say no they did not try, or even worse, they did mention one or two things briefly but the shop requires them to ask about numerous types of upsells and cross selling. In my personal life I prefer it if I am just asked once do I also want this or that but would hate it if the salesperson would keep showing me other items that match or go with what I am buying and then at the cash register suggest several more things. One mention is enough for me and I do not like marking the person down for not asking when I prefer the person who does not keep on and on. Sometimes the msc will provide a box for shopper commentary and I always say in those cases that even though the salesperson did not meet the standard it was the type of approach I as a customer prefer.

I'm also very low maintenance as a rule and I had a nightmare shopping experience at a grocery store near my home. The other stores for this company have been remolded and are much larger than my neighborhood store, they are building a new store for us but for now it's a very small store.

I had to interact with someone in meat. I had to interact with someone in cheese. Problem is you look at the meat shelves and turn around and there is the cheese, so finding a new associate you didn't already shop was hard. It was like this for every department of the store. I'm sure they KNEW I was a shopper. I had to ask about wine then later the person I asked looked in my basket and said, "What kind of wine did you end up with?" I had no wine because it's overpriced at this store and I get wine elsewhere.

I had to check out the restroom which was down a long flight of stairs, around the pallets of goods in the basement, only shoppers desperate for a restroom would venture down there.

I thought that was bad enough but then I came home and had to fill out 6 pages of 90% narrative which took about 2 hours.

Never again, well maybe in the new location but the report was a real turn off.

How much was the shop fee and the reimbursement? I'd rather pay for my groceries than have to fill-out a 6-page narrative report.

@Sybil2 wrote:

I am Switzerland.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Love it!

@Sybil2 wrote:

. . . I am Switzerland.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

When I worked in retail, the home office always kept us understaffed. As someone who worked there I wouldn't have minded a neutral third party (the mystery shopper) telling the powers that be that Hey, there aren't enough associates there to cover the floor.

I ran into the same situation yesterday. It is a store I no longer shop at because getting assistance is like pulling teeth. A 20 minute shop took 58 minutes and the sales associate just stood there. I ran out of questions to ask and just thanked him and left. Nothing more I could do.

My first and last grocery store was like that but in addition one of the only two combo floor and cashier people was stocking the produce and the huge cart blocked my access to most of the shelves. This was an audit I took when I was trying to get a grocery store shop for the first time. After applying and applying and getting rejected each time I finally applied for this location that sat there forever thinking I would drive to it and then get accepted for the closer ones next time. I sure found out why no one ever did this place. It was a Vons (Safeway or Pavillions in other neighborhoods) that must have been the original 1945 version of a mega market. It took me 4 hours in the store to not find most items on the list. Then hours to do the report. I felt compelled to purchase an expensive piece of cheese when one of the two employees I kept bothering with questions about every single dept came and spent a long time helping me look for the exotic cheeses I was hoping to buy for "my party." At least I had some good cheese to accompany the long and tedious report.

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