.

It all depends on what the client really does with the reports......... Some clients monetarily reward employees for doing well... Some discipline employees for not doing well...... Some never give the reports to the store managers..... Etc.

I was in line at a pizza shop taking timings. A couple behind me asked if I was a mystery shopper. I was blindsided and said yes. They said they used mystery shoppers at their hardware store. I asked if they used our feedback. They said they did.

While I did not shop their store, another store did not use my reports as I encountered the same issues.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2021 09:16AM by HonnyBrown.

I sense an underlying expectation here. If the shopper reports thus-and such, someone is expected to respond in some specific way as per the shopper's expectation. If a shopper approaches their work with this expectation, they have a bias. But the shopper is expected to be objective or bias-free.

I'm sure it's up to both the company and the local/regional manager.
I retired from a "Big Three" cable/internet/voice provider. Our "shops" were analyzed and used anonymously at our Monday Morning coaching sessions. Only the management knew who got shopped, unless it was really really bad and the employee got coached, or if it was a perfect score. Perfect scores earned the employee who helped the customer a lunch out with the store manager, plus a chunk of rewards points which they could use in the company store for everything from work bling to general merchandise, or the ever popular Visa/MC gift card. With a perfect score, the rest of the front end staff enjoyed a pizza lunch and a more modest number of rewards points. It took a clean store, clean parking lot, verbal greetings at the door or from the counter by anybody, plus an overall good experience to earn a perfect score, so it was a group reward.
So yeah, when we either got dinged bad or heard of a nearby store getting rewards, we upped our game and I'm sure it showed.
Funny anecdote... a regional manager was hanging out in the store one morning doing his quarterly observation and a pretty obvious shopper came in and was dealing with a relatively new associate. They were asking all the "buzz questions", which we're coached to recognize and he was practically ready to burst into flames... he so badly wanted to alert the associate she was being shopped. Not a problem, another associated alerted her via the "whiteboard" on the computer and the associate backed up, composed herself, took a big breath and then went into a textbook delivery. Unfortunately, the shopper decided the outside glass door wasn't clean enough and that the associate didn't offer her enough upgrade opportunities and we got a 94 score, or something like that. The regional manager still made sure she got some points.

I have noticed at a few upscale type fast food places that I continued to eat at on my own dime after they stopped their mystery shop programs that their consistency of service really took a hit. Of course the last 16 months or so have been during the pandemic so that might be part of the reason.

In my areas, I see a lot of positive improvements and changes. I can just about always walk into a store/business and tell if they get shopped/audited or not. What we do makes a lot of difference.

Some sites will immediately correct any issues. Others, the same issues are reported year after year and never improved. At two sites I reported rusty, peeling restroom stalls, and they had been completely replaced by the next month.

The expectation is from the client, not the shopper. The client determines what they want to see from the employees. The shopper executes that.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

I sense an underlying expectation here. If the shopper reports thus-and such, someone is expected to respond in some specific way as per the shopper's expectation. If a shopper approaches their work with this expectation, they have a bias. But the shopper is expected to be objective or bias-free.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

I sense an underlying expectation here. If the shopper reports thus-and such, someone is expected to respond in some specific way as per the shopper's expectation. If a shopper approaches their work with this expectation, they have a bias. But the shopper is expected to be objective or bias-free.