@jgoodwin wrote:
Its hard to say whether it was a report that fixed a situation or another factor - maybe the employee is having a better day or maybe the location was due for renos anyway.
As long as I get paid and the shops keep coming, they could fold up my report and use it as a paper airplane for all I care!
My sentiments exactly. I regularly shop and re-shop gas stations in my area, and the many, if not most, of the same infractions I found a year ago still exist today. It doesn't bother me that changes aren't made, in a way I guess that it is job security if they aren't.
I do, though, often wonder why corporations spend the money for mystery shopping programs if our reports bring about no changes. Does a certain amount of money get thrown at R&R departments each year that HAS to be spent? I could see some lazy department head spending dollars on mystery shopping, because when you think about it, it wouldn't be that hard for him or her to set up. The actual work is outsourced, so no in-house employee hours are lost to the program, and really its just a matter of a phone call or a web form to one of our MSCs to get it set up. What you then have is a paper trail of money seemingly well-spent, but if no one is checking up on the R&R department (I suppose that is the department who would handle the program at a corporate level, but whichever department), then our reports probably hit the circular file as soon as they are received.
Another consideration I've thought about is how much mystery shopping programs affect the prices consumers pay for goods. If our reports make no difference in a shopper's experience, then the pubic is getting shafted for no reason, which seems very wrong to me.
But, the previous paragraph notwithstanding, I am still content to shop and audit as much as I can squeeze into a day as long as I'm getting paid. If my reports cause no changes to made at a location, that's on them, not me.