» Business Methodologies

There is an area of darkness which is felt by most establishments. They just do not know how their employers are working and how dedicated they are to the establishment. These establishments can range from department stores, amusement parks, restaurants, jewelry store, toy store and even the grocery store. These organizations depend upon the mystery shopper to help them with the task of keeping an eye on their staff. It is not feasible for these organizations to keep one more person on their payroll as a full time employee. Even if they did so, it would not be long before the other workers discover that the new person is a secret agent. An errant staff would never do anything wrong in their presence.

A mystery shopper is a person hired by an organization to keep an eye on their employees. Apart from this there are various other tasks that are allotted to these spies. Business houses especially departmental stores like to know which products are moving fast and which are not. It is imperative that the popular goods are displayed prominently instead of being stashed in the rear of the display rack. There are quite a number of employees who just do not bother to put such merchandise up front and these results in the loss of sales. A client is not expected to hunt around for popular items and it is up to the employees of the store to display the same prominently.

When a new product is launched, it is important for the manufacturer to know how the market is responding to the same. No doubt, online surveys can be conducted but for that to be successful, the end users need to know about the survey. This is a lengthy process and the time wasted on the same is not worth it. It works out cheaper for the manufacturers to employ a mystery shopper and send them to different outlets where the product has been launched. These spies mingle with the crowd and gauge their reaction about the product. Different people may have different views about the product, both positive and negative.

It is the job of the mystery shopper to interact with the shoppers and find out their views about the newly launched product in a manner that does not create suspicion. They will walk up to one shopper and initiate a chat with them regarding the product. A well trained spy should act just like another shopper and will not create any doubt in the mind of the person they are talking with. This helps the other person to open up to him and give their frank opinion. There are times when a person might air negative opinion about a product because they might be biased against the company that is manufacturing the same.

At the end of the day, the mystery shopper makes a note of whatever they have observed through the course of the day. The information is filled up into special forms provided by their employer. After a week or as specified by the employer, these surveyors submit all the data to their employers. Contrary to popular belief, this job is not easy, but it pays decent money. Apart from that, special incentives are given to the spies who help the organizations to rectify their flaws.

Hollis Furniture Storage

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No matter what you hear out in the business world, it is hard to make a buck these days. You need to be able to come up with ideas that no one else has thought of or beat other companies to the punch. If you are looking for a magic fairy to grant you three wishes of success, then you need to return from never, never land.

Running a business is hard work. You have to put a lot of your heart and soul into what you do. Many people say that you have to have priorities in life and working or your job is a low priority. In reality, working and your job should be one of your highest priorities. Family, your choice of faith and your friends are the most important things that most people look at. Without your job and without income, your faith is tested and your family goes through hard times. Most business owners understand that and know they have to make decisions within their company to grow the bottom line.

How much are you willing to spend to see the maximum return? Many people feel that they need to spend a lot of money in order to get a big payoff. When the truth is if you invest well, you will get a great value out of your investments. People use a mystery shopper program to find out and weigh how their business is doing from the client level. You live or die as a business at the client level. If you do not take care of your clients, they do not pay for your services and if they do not pay for your services, you do not have a business.

You have decisions to make. You can follow what other businesses are doing or you can lay your own path. By you using a program like a shopping program, you can see your company change for the better. Just because you use the feedback of a mystery shopper as most companies do, does not mean that you are following behind them. You can get a completely different response from the mystery shopper .

So much information can be given back from the mystery shopper that you can use to turn your business around. The information you receive is at your disposal and how you use it can make a huge change in your day to day business. What the mystery shopper will see and hear will not always be what you want to hear. The great thing about having them on your payroll is that they are an unbiased opinion on what they see. Having someone on your staff that is affiliated with you and the company might not give you tough criticism that you might need.

Sometimes a gentle push in the right direction can help a determined business turn for the better. A client can really appreciate knowing that the company they are investing in is taking all the necessary steps to grow the business. When it comes to being smart with their money investors want to know that their money is being invested well.  No one plans to lose money when they are trying to conduct and grow their business. When you are not being successful, what do you do then? Seeing the money stopping from flowing as well as it once did is not pretty site and could also mean the end for you as a business owner.

Springfield Furniture Storage

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Sarah Little, PhoneSmart mystery shopping professional speaks out on building trust.
Welcome to the PhoneSmart secret shopping blog, an inside peek at mystery shopping and secret shopping.

Self Storage in Georgia Storage in Bogart, GA, call 706-548-2252 for storage and RV, boat and trailer parking.

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Setting up a secret shopping situation can tell you a lot. Evaluating live situations will also tell you a lot. In order to help our clients evaluate the live situations, we have partnered with Foster Accuracy to offer live on-site phone recording. Here is the blurb on it…

New Service:

Ad Tracking/Call Recording

Do you know who called?

Do you know which ad made them call?

Do you know what was said?

Get Foster Accuracy and know for sure.

Foster Accuracy tracks your calls, shows the effectiveness of your advertising and provides a wealth of marketing information to help you rent to more people. Using Foster Accuracy you have the technology to build a more productive database, plan growth strategies and guide your business with precision.

“Foster Accuracy is an essential service. It will save you money…and it will make you money”

Tron Jordheim, PhoneSmart Director

For info contact Tron at 866.538.2468 or tron@phone-smart.net

Foster Accuracy is a PhoneSmart Co-Marketing Partner

Also there is a new look for:
www.phone-smart.info

Check out our re-done site. Let us know how it looks to you!

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog.

I heard a great presentation on customer service at the ICCM conference last September. ON of the presenters talked about the four Sees ( Not the four Cs)

SEE yourself as the customer.

SEE yourself as the owner.

SEE the customer you rare dealing with as your only customer.

SEE yourself on T.V.

If you see yourself as the customer, won’t you make the experience as pleasant as you’d like it to be? Seems simple, no?

If you see yourself as the owner of your company, won’t you try to make things go “right”? Won’t you focus on the growth and stability of your company?

If you see your current customer as the only customer you will ever have, won’t you make sure that customer gets treated well and tells everyone lese how well it went?

If you see yourself as if you were on T.V., wouldn’t you act in a way that would get you good reviews?

Maybe the four Sees aren’t too bad a way to look at things.

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog, our diary of the secret shopping world.

At this time of the month, we are trying to finish up the last undone shops. There are always a few employees we need to shop that are next to impossible to track down. We sometimes have to call multiple times and ask for the subject over and over in order to get through. It makes me wonder how effective these staff members are in dealing with customers if they are next to impossible to find.

If they are building rapport with any customers, it must not last long. Once the customer has had a few minutes of frustration trying to catch that specific employee, they get annoyed and turn to another employee for help. Maybe you have it set up so that every employee is equally good at developing and keeping rapport with customers. In this case, it may not hurt you to have a few employees that are not always easily available. But you might also be annoying a lot of people who end up spending their money elsewhere.

Tron

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog. We like to post our experiences in the world of secrets hopping, mystery shopping and sales and customer service training.

Many times we take an issue and turn it into a test or pop quiz. We use it to learn the item. Then we coach and review. Then we pull our recordings of calls or make secret shopping calls to our reps and see how well the training stuck.

In this case we are reviewing how to handle current storage customers who want to rent an additional unit, what holiday hours will be for the Labor Day weekend and a general question about current tenant calls.

As you develop quizzes and training material, you will find some interesting results. Sometimes you find your approach and your training is good. Sometimes not.

Here you go:

PhoneSmart Newsroom Name _____________________
Date ______________________

Please return to the Pop Quiz folder ASAP. Thanks.

1. Which of the following specials can you offer to a current tenant who is looking for a 2nd storage unit?

A. Student Discount, Military Discount OR a Senior Discount.
B. A long term pre-pay special IF they pre-pay for 12 months or more.
C. A Permanent special noted in the operator notes no matter what they are always available to any caller.
D. Answers A AND B are available because they are current tenants.
E. You can NEVER offer more than one special to anyone at anytime.
F. Other

2. Which are the following are correct?

A. All Stores are closed on Monday Sept. 5th for Labor Day.
B. Only stores in Canada are closed on Monday Sept. 5th for Labor Day.
C. No stores are closed on Monday Sept. 5th for Labor Day.
D. Refer to your store screens only (i.e operator notes).
E. Only stores in the United States are closed on Monday Sept. 5th for Labor Day.
F. All stores are closed for the entire weekend for Labor Day weekend.
G. Other:

3. What do you consider to be a reasonable time length to spend with a caller on the phone regarding an issue other than a rental inquiry?
Why?

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What Now???

Here in the Secret Shopping Division at PhoneSmart we make your calls and complete the evaluations each month. Once we send them to you, the ball is in your court. However, we still want you to know that we are here to coach you through the entire process. We realize that just making calls and sending evaluations alone won’t give you the outcome you’re looking for. Secret Shops are a tool, and like any tool, they must be picked up and used in order to build your profitable business.

We understand that each of your employees may be at a different level in their sales training. In order to level the playing field and get everyone on the same team, we have a few ideas that can make secret shopping a fun tool.

First determine the method you will use to implement your secret shops. Then identify what level your employee may be on and put some of these suggestions into play.

Methodologies:
• Will your shops be used as bonus?
• Will secret shopping scores be part of annual reviews, pay rates, etc.?
• Will your shops be used to monitor and maintain company standards?
• Will you set goals for each employee or property?

If you’re happy with your scores?
Congratulations!!! It takes a lot of hard work and determination to reach your goal. In order to maintain this high level of efficiency we recommend:
o Rewarding employees with consistently high scores
o Using your star employees to teach others
o Promoting or giving more responsibility to encourage company loyalty

If you see consistently middle scores?
It isn’t uncommon to get stuck in a rut. We often do things out of habit, repeating our action but expecting a different outcome. The key to advancing is to identify what techniques are working for you and which ones aren’t. Your facility may stay at a certain level of capacity just because of the location, it’s your goal to drive revenue and boost your bottom line. Here are a few suggestions that can help develop your selling skills:
o Try our Role Playing Helpline
o Focus on one aspect of your sales presentation at a time
o Refresh your employees with a training program
o Set a realistic goal and celebrate when you’ve achieved it

If you have consistently low scores?
Don’t’ fret; you’ve taken the first step in the right direction! Secret shopping is a great way to increase sales knowledge and maintain a level of consistency. There are numerous ways to improve your scores which in turn will directly affect your profit.
o Have you given your staff a sales training course?
o Repeat your training, or use the PhoneSmart training packet
o Use our Role Playing Helpline
o Set goals and make sure your staff is aware of them
o Do your employees hear their shops and see their evaluations

Training Ideas:
• Use our Role Playing Helpline
• Try our Training Packet
• Make it fun!
• Offer an incentive for scores that improve
• Have a pizza training night (Who doesn’t love pizza?)
• Ask your best employees to share what they do that gets positive results
• Start small
• Work on one item at a time, then build on what works
• Keep staff refreshed with pop quizzes or surprise visits

Incentive/ Bonus Ideas:
• $$$
• Have the owner/ supervisor detail the winner’s car
• A day of paid vacation
• Tickets to the movies
• Dinner at a favorite restaurant
• Display awards
• Create a “Wall of Fame”
• Mention a great employee’s name in newsletters
• Display everyone’s scores
• Be creative!!!

Are you missing a piece of the puzzle???

As a result of client demand, PhoneSmart has developed the complete sales solution! Please take this opportunity to explore our winning sales solution.

We’ve broken down basic consumer needs into these four categories. Which areas are you most concerned with?

Missed Calls

Sales Training

Generating More Leads

Increasing Conversion Rates

Call or email us today and we can help you achieve great success in any or all of these areas.

We appreciate your business!

Natalie Thomas Sarah Little
866-639-1715 866-639-1715
nthomas@phone-smart.net sarahlittle@phone-smart.net

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog, our window on the world of mystery shopping and secret shopping.

Technology is certainly making the monitoring and training of staff an interesting situation. With call recording and micro video cameras, you can record intimate details of transactions. Even if your technology is top notch, you still have to make sure your evaluations are “real world’ and pertinent. Your evaluators have to have enough knowledge and good judgment to put themselves into the situation and get beyond simply reporting what apparently happened and make constructive comments to help move the project forward.

Do your evaluators know the emotional state of your customers and prospects? Do your evaluators know the challenges your staff is up against? These issues are even more important than the state of your technology.

Bye for now, Tron

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog, our diary of our mystery shopping and secret shopping experiences.

Many businesses deal with some sensitive issues. Don’t leave these issues to chance. Create some protocols and structures for handling them and then shop the situations.

For instance we deal with a lot of self storage facilities. They sometimes deal with people who are fleeing abusive living situations. So our clients need to be sensitive while not getting caught up in the situation. Here are a few phrases PhoneSmart uses to try to empathize without getting involved and while still making the sale.

Handling confidential situations i.e. abusive spouse:
Be as sympathetic and as calm as possible. Let them know you will do what you can as quickly as you can to help them out.
Stress in managers notes as much as information that is useful to keep information confidential.

***Note in the manager notes – Confidential Situation – Do not give out any info. – and any other helpful notes.

“Sounds like you’re making a good first step and moving on! Let’s hurry up and get you out of there…”

“I’m sorry to hear that… let me get some information so we can get you a unit …”

“I’ll let the manager know that this is a confidential situation so they do not give out any information to anyone else other than your self.”

“Well, let me get some information so we can get you set up quickly, o.k.?”

“Let me get a safe call back number so in case you need to get off the phone and you call back later, we’ll know who you are, o.k.?”

“Is there a message phone number that we can reach you at or get in touch with you at?”

“I’ll make sure that we do not call your home number, o.k.?”

“I understand your situation and I’ll help you in any way I can. Let’s get this done quickly to avoid them getting upset.”

“I will make a note to the manager about the situation so they do not discuss your storage need with anyone other than you.”

“I am really sorry to hear your boyfriend beat you up. What time do you think you will be here tomorrow?”

How do you prepare and practice for sensitive situations?

bye for now, Tron

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