Mystery shopping is not much different than what I have been doing as an entrepreneur since I was 12 years old when I created my first business. I have been helping people by mentoring and suggesting. If they got it and made customers satisfied the customers rewarded them with more business and more referrals. You must be friendly, intelligent and have integrity as no one wants to be abused mislead or cheated. So you are not taken advantage of you must avoid people who attempt to take advantage of you. fool me once shame on you, fool me again, shame on me. I am 73 years old and time has proven that being friendly, intelligent and not cheating anyone even though you could get away with it was valuable mentoring handed down from when
merchants first began to trade.You can spend years enjoying your reputation or spend years replacing people you have abused.
. .

I do mostly restaurant shops. There is a chain I have shopped in locations in 4 different counties. They want their servers to give a TON of information and ask lots of questions...and none of them ever do. Well, some will ask 1-2 questions, but most don't and no one ever provides all the information about how they cook their food, where their ingredients come from, etc. I had one really fantastic server, but the person didn't give all the information (as usual). I felt bad and wrote in my survey that no one ever gives that information, blah blah, lots of my own opinions about whether or not that info is even necessary. The editor informed me that this is not how they want the surveys completed, and I need to objectively state whether or not the server does ABC, XYZ... She was very nice about it as I was pretty new to MSing.

Some of the requirements though, are hard for servers to fulfill IMO, especially when the restaurant is very busy. One of the locations that I shop is 5 minutes from my job and I eat there regularly- not on mystery shops. No one EVER gives all that information. Why do these companies put in requirements, have MSers come evaluate, and then not make changes? What a waste of time. If you aren't going to actually train your staff to do A B and C, don't bother with it.

I have been shopping that restaurant chain for about 4 years now. I don't get it. But thanks for the reimbursed meals! Ha!

Does it make a difference if the client is the owner/franchisee or a competitor? Competitors are not in a position to make changes within other businesses, but they might be able to use our feedback in other ways, such as considering a purchase of location or brand. I do not know of any methods for determining which shopper or shoppers have influenced any such decisions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2018 12:57AM by Shop-et-al.

@mlzg wrote:

Some of the requirements though, are hard for servers to fulfill IMO, especially when the restaurant is very busy. One of the locations that I shop is 5 minutes from my job and I eat there regularly- not on mystery shops. No one EVER gives all that information. Why do these companies put in requirements, have MSers come evaluate, and then not make changes? What a waste of time. If you aren't going to actually train your staff to do A B and C, don't bother with it.

I have been shopping that restaurant chain for about 4 years now. I don't get it. But thanks for the reimbursed meals! Ha!

Being a good shopper usually means being objective. That goes for your observations as well as your attitude about the shop. And often you don't have all of the information. For instance the shop you're talking about could be inpacted on how it's scored. They may have 15 things they're supposed to say but the report is scored so they only have to hit 4 of them or something to pass. Who knows. So while you may think OMG why do they make them say all of this they couldn't possibly but at the same time most of the shops you've done could have been passes.

Also you have to be impartial about the shop itself. Your job isn't to tell them what you think they need to know, it's to tell them what they ask for.

If you were a painter and someone hired you to paint their house, would you tell them ok but that color is crappy and looks like skunk butt on your house and you need to use a different color but I'll paint it that way if you want but I won't be happy about it? I would imagine you wouldn't be painting their house but basically that is what you told this MSC.

Also, you need to learn that not every company does mystery shops for the reason you think they do. I would guess maybe half of them are actually doing shops to get feedback from shoppers on how they're doing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2018 01:21AM by bgriffin.

What do you think the other half of shops are for?

Measuring something specific, looking good to owners, and competitor shops are the most common.

Take the McDonald's shops I already mentioned. They simply wanted to measure how long it took customers to get served. That was the focus on the shops and from what I could tell the only metric by which a location passed or failed was timing.

I won't mention any clients specifically but I know of several who run their shopping program specifically to hand to their owners to say hey look how good we're doing 98% of our locations passed or wheatever. They are much more interested in making their results look as good as possible than they are getting feedback.

I have noticed a few changes that I attribute to my shops — probably the biggest was at the meat counter at a grocery store I shop.

I usually try to give the benefit of the doubt about attitude — in fact, if someone is “too happy” it comes off as fake and actually makes me uncomfortable, even though I’m pretty sure that’s what a lot of these retailers are going for... but this lady just had an attitude. It went beyond not saying “thank you”, which I can understand — but this went into “go look for yourself it’s right out there” or “I’m busy, you can just come back in a few” and “I don’t know. Check the website”... so I wrote it up... and again the next time when she did it... the third time she had the fakest smile and patronizing tone of voice that it almost seemed mental, and answered everything as expected but almost in a singsong tone of voice... wrote that down the next time I shopped... next time I shopped after that, she wasn’t there. Haven’t seen her there, or anywhere else I’ve been for that matter in 2 years.

I know this store has multiple shoppers, so I’m sure she wasn’t just me — and I’m sure a few regular customers complained as well... but that was the most obvious one. I generally try to give the benefit of the doubt, and 99.5% of the time I never mark down for attitude — unless it’s obvious they just don’t want to be there — and this lady obviously didn’t.

That said, I also regularly shop a certain restaurant and their report has a huge section on the restroom — they seem to want to know everything about it... and I’m deadly honest. The men’s urinal gets nastier every time I visit. I’ve been going there for 2 years and the stench is noxious. They obviously don’t clean the urinals like they should — this is “there’s buildup there” bad. The restaurant itself is clean, the bathroom is always well stocked — but man, that toilet is gross. They STILL haven’t done anything about it. Makes me wonder if the manager ever reads the reports.

Not at all. I have been writing about a restaurant chain letting their servers leave dirty dishes on the table while they serve more dishes and dessert, bring the check, and after guests leave, left dirty dishes on tables for quite a while before someone clears them. This chain badly needs bussers. The servers here buss their own tables, so most of the time, they just left them there.

Apparently the client does not care. It is the same story every time I shop this chain.

@LIJake wrote:

I am not so egotistical that I think my reports are the main reason for clients making changes. Nor do I shop for altruistic reasons. My goal is to submit a fair and accurate report following the MSCs guidelines and get compensated for my efforts.That being said, I do believe that our reports are read by the client and are a factor, although probably a small one, in the decisions made by the client.

I do a lot of gas stations and have a quick story about one I did yesterday that I have been auditing periodically for four years, dutifully reporting each infraction. Early on I noticed a metal grate covering a one foot drop to some plumbing fixtures which was on the walkway to the outside restroom. The grate was rusted out and would not have held my weight. In the comment section I reported that this was a law suit waiting to happen. On my next visit a new grate had been installed. In this instance I believe I definitely influenced the client. Yesterday when i arrived the manager told me the MID was being repaired and the two front windows were replaced. The MID needed new LEDs and 15 years ago hurricane Sandy was the cause of the cracked windows. The manager thanked me and said I was the reason the repairs were being made. It was nice of the manager to say that but I don't know if I had no influence or a little influence in getting the re pairs done. Perhaps they got tired of seeing my repetitive pictures or perhaps it was just time to upgrade the station. But the manager was happy. We are now working on replacing the restroom mirror and sink cabinet.

You should have reported it to the relevant building inspectors. Somebody could have been hurt.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2018 08:47PM by jameschicago.

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!

@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.