RUNNING A MYSTERY SHOPPING PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION
The two key areas to measure success in any business are the Quality targets and Financial targets. Measuring the financial results and comparing to the targets (budgets) can be very straight forward. However, in order to achieve our financial targets consistently, it is always critical to achieve the desired quality targets set by the company. It is a more complicated affair to effectively measure quality scores, and to learn what must be done to improve the service provided to our customers in order to increase revenue and repeat clientele and achieve higher satisfaction scores. Most hotels measure guest satisfaction through review sites (i.e. trip advisor) or internal questionnaires that guests are asked to fill in. Both these tools are extremely important and can give a business great inside about the guest experience and how the business rates vs the competition. The downside is that both tools are subject to the guests’ emotional experience. They provide a subjective snapshot of the guest experience throughout their stay. Guests are not trained or required to “audit” your business, so they will not give you specific feedback of what did not work in terms of standard business practices or procedures and where you need to concentrate in order to improve. The biggest risk is when a business is doing “well” with general guest feedback being satisfactory. Without the use of an objective tool to measure performance, a company will miss out on the tremendous potential it has to go from GOOD to GREAT.
WHY RUN A MYSTERY SHOPPING PROGRAM
1. See your business through the eyes of your customer... objectively. Mystery shoppers are just like any other guest in your hotel. They will behave and be treated by your employees like a normal guest. The major difference is that they are equipped with the training and tools to make objective observations and provide feedback about your basic brand service standards, employee behavior, property condition and potential problems at your hotel. There is no subjectivity and no comparisons to previous visits to the specific hotel or any other hotel.
2. Check compliance to your hotels brand standards If you have specific standards and policies that you would like your employees to adhere to, your MS checklist will be customized to reflect these standards. Mystery shoppers will be clear on the standards you expect from your staff.
3. Get real insides into customer satisfaction How are employees interacting with guests when a manager is not around? Mystery shoppers will give you feedback about their own interactions with the employees, but they will also be able to They will note how well your team are executing to these benchmarks and notify you if they don’t. gather feedback through observation of how your staff interacts with other customers, or away from customers.
4. Keep Employees Vigilant Should you tell employees you are starting a mystery shopping program? The answer is yes, for three reasons. First, you build trust when you tell staff about mystery shoppers. Properly communicate the importance of mystery shopping as a tool to improve customer service to your employees and they will fully support it. Imagine how your employees would feel if they receive feedback from a mystery shopping program you ran without informing them. Successful businesses create high- trust cultures. Second, you get better performance from every employee. When employees are properly trained on what a mystery shopper would expect, your brand standards, and they know that any customer could be a mystery shopper, they remain focused on what is expected from them and build confidence in the knowledge that they are delivering. Third, if you do not consistently review the expected customer experience with your staff, it will be more difficult to execute it. Share the results in a constructive manner and use them to learn. NEVER punish suboptimal performance when it is combined with good intentions.
5. Reward best practices and build more loyalty Mystery shoppers will report your employees’ good practices and will give you names. Build a reward program, or incentive to publicly recognize the employees that stand out. Employee morale will go up, staff with be proud, and your will have shining stars that show the way on how things should be done.
6. Improve employee productivity Run campaigns on specific sales initiatives like promotion of wines for a certain period and inform your colleagues that the campaigns will be included in the next mystery shopping visit. Best performers will be awarded.
7. Target training to the real needs Where should you spend money to train your staff? Are their sales skills, time management skills lacking? What is the level of customer service they provide? The options for training are endless. Your end goal is to improve customer experience, and mystery shopping shows you how. The mystery shopping results provide feedback about which training areas need urgent attention Experienced mystery shoppers can even step beyond their brief, highlighting problem areas affecting your business. With this feedback, you can choose training programs that will have the biggest impact. You can focus your training efforts where they will make the greatest impact.
8. Make Good Customer Service Great Moving from good to great is about coming out of our comfort zone and stretching our limits to new heights of achievements. The most difficult time to do this is when things are going well. This is also the most critical time. High levels of guest satisfaction ratings coming through the social media and reputation sites can be dangerous because they can make us complaisant. “If things are doing well, why change anything?” This is what Nokia was saying until it was taken by storm out of nowhere and disappeared from the market in no time. That’s why you should always strive to improve your customer experience in any way possible, and mystery shopping is the best tool in your arsenal to do just that.
You need the kind of feedback that will help you stay on track and improve further in areas where you are doing well. The kind of feedback that should point to the areas you need to improve, even if they are not many. Moreover, it should expose underlying problems and outline possible solutions. Your Mystery shopping partner will be the never resting guardian of your path towards excellence.