For the first time, I feel guilty doing a mystery shop

I've been doing this for 6 or 7 years now (I can't remember!) and have never felt guilty about role-playing, making up scenarios, etc. Unless I end up taking up a lot of the employee's time. But even then, not so much. They know they get shopped, and they should give each customer good service.

But I'm in the middle of a large project right now, and I can't wait to be done with it. This project involves some in-depth work on both my part and on the part of the sales reps. There's never just one contact; many times there are a number of contacts required before the end result is desired. I thought this would be fun for me because it's in an industry in which I have a lot of experience. And, to boot, it's a competitor shop, so it's not like I'm doing the work for the actual client of the salesperson.

And it's probably going to end up being too much work for the money. I'm going to complete it, of course, but for the most part, I feel bad. I've spoken with some very nice people who have given outstanding service. OTOH, some have not been so pleasant to deal with, so I don't feel so guilty about them! LOL.

Do any of you ever end up feeling this way?

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

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Yes, Birdy, I do end up feeling guilty about taking up some associates time even when doing a competitive assignment. The knowledgeable/nice/hard working ones I am always grateful for although I do have a twinge of guilt knowing their efforts will yield nothing in terms of sales. It's the lazy/uncommunicative ones I have a problem with - especially now in COVID times. I just want to grab them by the shoulders, shake them and tell them to shape up. Jobs in these difficult times aren't a dime a dozen!

I never feel guilty about taking up an associate's time. Why should I? After all, I am giving him/her the opportunity to shine and show management that he/she is a great value to the store or company.

@AZwolfman wrote:

I never feel guilty about taking up an associate's time. Why should I? After all, I am giving him/her the opportunity to shine and show management that he/she is a great value to the store or company.

When I'm doing a job for which the end client is the associate's employer, I'm fine taking up their time (unless, for some reason it turns into what I think is an inordinate amount of it). But for this competitor shop, there is no reward for the associate in terms of positive feedback to the company for which they work or the end company they represent. Management will never know how good, or how bad, the service was that was given by the representative. If this were a shop directly for the company or the manufacturer, I wouldn't feel so bad.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I have occasionally felt a little guilt, but not for the aforementioned reason.

I have often felt really stupid asking the incredibly stupid grocery store questions ("which pepper is the hottest? How do you prepare spaghetti squash?" - ugh.), but never guilty. And sometimes I feel "bad", wouldn't describe it as guilty, when I ask dumb questions about refrigerators or clothes washers, knowing I'm not buying anything.

But sometimes when I do a shop for $300 which was on the board at $40....yep, feel just a twinge guilty. Like I'm being overpaid. Then I remind myself if they had been able to find anybody to do it for less, they wouldn't be paying that fee.

Naw I would not feel bad about what that you may be wasting someone's time but I have thick skin. Or water ducks back you pick.

I rarely feel guilty/bad about shopping but it is indeed more likely for me to feel guilty/bad when it is a competitor's shop. If they do a great job, I sometimes figure out a way to reward them.

I do not feel guilty as I feel it is all done to hopefully make sure the best service is being given. But now that you pose the question I am thinking about it in light of covid 19. Perhaps, aside from the jobs that are checking to make sure covid rules are being followed, it is not a good idea for one of us to go in and expose the staff who are already at risk in order to support themselves just by being out there all day long, to one more person who might infect them. I have done a few mailing jobs only and in those cases I needed to mail and item anyway.

Since this is a competitor shop, I don’t see where improving service for the client comes in. I would not do these kinds of time consuming competitor shops for ethical reasons. To me it’s too much like spying. I was once offered competitor shops for travel agents and turned them down. It just didn’t seem right to have the agent do a bunch of work knowing I would decline the proposal. Clearly, the client wants to know what the competition is up to for their own marketing reasons. I do complete competitor grocery shops but here the stores are not providing any non compensated services for me.

Do you really think that competitors do not know they are likely to be shopped?

@AZwolfman wrote:

Do you really think that competitors do not know they are likely to be shopped?

Whether they know it or not, I still feel uncomfortable taking up their time when there won’t be a sale. There is absolutely no benefit for the competitor being shipped. It’s not even a training opportunity for them.

Never have and never will

The one time I felt guilty was at a meeting with an insurance agent. He insisted on meeting at a restaurant 20 minutes from his office and 5 minutes from my house.The worst was when he insisted on paying for my 'meal'. I had forseen this and only ordered a cup of coffee. I left a fiver on the table telling the agent to please humor me.

I feel bad when it is someone working on commission or a quota. I don't do those types of shops anymore, partly because of the guilt factor and partly because of the sustained role-play.

@callinectes wrote:

I feel bad when it is someone working on commission or a quota. I don't do those types of shops anymore, partly because of the guilt factor and partly because of the sustained role-play.

I finally finished the project, and it was a lot more work than I'd anticipated. Some of the reps I dealt with were either not very responsive or were not interested in getting my business. Them I didn't feel guilty about. But there were two or three reps who were just wonderful to deal with: were friendly, responsive, gave me exactly what I needed, asked for the business in a non-aggressive way, etc. People to whom I would have given the work to if I had it to give. Them, I feel bad about. There's nothing at all in it for them. No recognition for being great salespeople, no sale, nothing. I don't care for that. I didn't mind the prolonged role playing and was comfortable with it.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Outside of shopping I feel guilty when I go to a presentation on my own where a meal or something is offered in exchange for listening to them. I do not go for the meal only but often after hearing their pitch I am just not interested. I do these occasionally and when ever I do them I am reminded why I stopped doing them. The worst experience I had was going to one from the Neptune Society with 2 friends. Turned out my friends were not yet ready for anything like that. I was not interested as you could not accompany the cremains when they went out to sea. There were just the three of us there and the sales person was soooo nice. On a shop or not, I feel just as guilty going to these although I realize that they do not expect to hook everyone.
At least with a mystery shop you can give them kudos if due them on the report.

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For the first time, I feel guilty doing a mystery shop

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