Good Secrets Are Hard To Keep

Sometimes secrets are okay to keep, such as not telling your sister about a surprise party planned for her. Can you think of other secrets that are okay? How about secret shopping? Many businesses think so and use secret shopping to improve the customers shopping experience. It is an undercover sales strategy where a person poses as a real customer, acts like a real customer, and shops like a real customer. The secret is that they are not real customers. They are secret shoppers and they work for a secret shopping agency. And it is a good secret because it improves the sales approach, while it enriches the customers experience.

However, secret shopping is no secret at all. Employees know they will be secret shopped. They do not know when it will happen. They just know it is a matter of time. The threat alone is enough to improve customer service. Companies that use secret shopping to evaluate performance have alert employees. Sometimes they suspect innocent customers as secret shoppers. But that is okay. They will try harder thinking their sales performance is being graded, except the only one being awarded is the customer.

Lots of us have sisters who cannot hold a secret and expose the surprise party plans. Some secret shoppers cannot hold a secret either but the surprise is not given away until after the secret shopping experience is complete. After the salesperson completes his sales approach a secret shopper might reveal his true identity. This is usually followed by an awkward moment, the surprise. Then the secret shopping event turns into a sales training seminar where the secret shopper offers feedback and suggestions. The salesperson also has a chance to ask the secret shopper questions about the secret shopping experience.  Now the salesperson can take this information to his very next sale and should ace his next secret shopping experience.

Just like when a milestone birthday approaches, we are on alert for a potential secret surprise party. Well, when a company uses secret shopping as a form of training, employees are on alert too. A potential surprise party enhances our senses and puts us on guard. The same happens with the intimidation of secret shopping. Salespeople are more aware and on the look out. But they do not realize they are always doing this. Their training possesses their body and they want what is best for the customer. After a few secret shopping experiences, their training becomes second nature. They do not have to try to perform well. It just happens.

Not all secret shopping programs are the same. In some secret shopping programs it might take a month for the salesperson to find out he was secret shopped. Meanwhile, he is using the same flawed sales technique over and over again and the company might be losing major revenue. This secret shopping design is purely used to evaluate, not train. A salesperson learns very little from the experience since he cannot remember or pinpoint the experience. Since the secret shoppers identity remained a secret, the salesperson cannot ask the secret shopper questions about the secret shopping experience. This strategy is merely for award and punishment, not training.

So do not think secret shopping misleads your employees and could ruin company morale. This type of thinking may come from the name, secret shopping. The word secret makes it sound deceitful. This is why some companies refer to it as mystery shopping. 

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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