» Secret Shopping Blog

A secret shopping blog can help to keep your business on its toes. While hiring and using the services of a covert shopping service is important, it is also important to be aware of the trends in the world of undercover shopping.

Why You Need To Know

Many people might think that a blog would only be helpful if you were actively looking for a service. This is not true even if you already have one, it is a good idea to be aware of what happening with the world of anonymous shopping. The truth is that with the introduction of the internet, a number of shady covert shopping services have emerged. Many of these offer super-low rates. By regularly reading up on undercover shopping blogs, you will learn how to spot these kinds of shady operations. For example, a number of them will outsource all of their staff, from editors to evaluators. When it comes to the end shopper, they may only offer reimbursement costs and no other fee. These are all tell-tale signs of a dubious operation.

Reading a secret shopping blog will also provide you pointers on recent covert shopping scams. There have been a large number of scams, many of which target the end shopper. Unfortunately, many people do not learn about these scams until it is too late. Keeping up-to-date with a good undercover shopping blog will keep you aware of the latest threats, teach you how to avoid them and offer you some tips on the action you should take if you come across anything suspicious.

Another advantage of regularly following a blog is that you can update yourself on different trends. It is true that a few years ago, covert shopping was just relegated to retail outlets and stores. Today, many different businesses use these services – banks, non-profit organizations, hotels and restaurants, all use mystery shoppers to evaluate their businesses. In fact, a number of undercover shopping companies specialize in particular markets and services. Apart from that, most companies offer evaluations for different aspects of your business. For example, perhaps you would like to see how well your website is working and whether it is really user-friendly. If you operate a customer service line, you might want to know how effective it is and if consumers are able to solve their problems efficiently and quickly.

Checking into a blog will also teach you some extra tips about how to get the most out of your service. If you are a novice to these companies, it can be a little difficult figuring out how to make the most of your evaluation. Blogs can help you understand the kind of questions you need to ask yourself – are you specifically looking for feedback about a particular customer profile, like on elderly or disabled customers Are you looking for feedback on a particular situation, such as returning an item or requesting a refund You can also find information on how to assess what your problem areas might be and how the anonymous shopping feedback can help correct them.

It is a good idea for any business to use the services of an undercover shopping company on a regular basis. It is also a good idea to regularly keep track of a good blog to learn more about new scams and trends.

If you like this entry ; please visit our other Storage Mart blogs :
Storage Mart Property Management Blog :
http://www.propertymanagementblog.com/

Tweet This Post 

Our PhoneSmart call center operator, Mary knows how to greet people.

Welcome to the PhoneSmart secret shopping blog, an inside peek at the mystery shopping and secret shopping industry.

People get an impression of you within the first 20 seconds of meeting you. After the initial contact the impression can get better or can get worse. When meeting in person, notice is given to clothing, shoes, personal hygiene, expressions, body language, and quality of the conversation. If you are in a professional setting, then people expect you look and act with professionalism. If you are in a casual setting, then people expect you to be casual. For example, you would not usually see a farmer on his tractor in a business suit, or the President in a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt at an inaugural ceremony. Well, that might be extreme but you get the picture.
Since our customers don’t get the chance to see us in person, we have to give a good impression over the phone. This means we have to work even harder to get their approval. Your introduction is very important and after all it is within the first 20 seconds. By having an upbeat tone and clear annunciation of what location and who they have reached, should be quite beneficial in this process. Listening to the needs of the customer and keeping the conversation flowing in a professional manner will help gain their trust in a facility they may be just learning about. Our good impression will give them in turn a good impression of the facility itself as well as the management team. What a great reflection!

Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry
PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution
Total Quality Assurance Services Your all in one Quality Assuarance Portal

Tweet This Post 

Angela Perry, Trainer in Phone Smart call center gives us insight on helping new call center representatives confidence.

Welcome to our Phone Smart call center blog and insider diary of the self-storage industry

Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry

Property Management Blog The ins and outs of property management

Tweet This Post 

Secret Shopping Blog Your inside peek

PhoneSmart Your Source for Lead Generation

Self Storage Search Engine Finding Storage Faster

Self Storage Search Engine Storage in: California

Tweet This Post 

Submitted by Tron Jordheim, director of PhoneSmart

Welcome to the secret shopping blog.

Self Storage Education Learn about the Self Storage Industry

Property Management Blog

PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution

Tweet This Post 

Welcome to the secret shopping blog, where we watch the trends in mystery shopping.

Last night I spent some time with several clients and our new partner Alan Foster from Foster accuracy. We talked about the next level in secret shopping and quality control monitoring. Using the Foster Accuracy technology coupled with our PhoneSmart evaluators, clients will be able to find new and effective ways to raise the bar for sales and service performance. There will be more about this in coming weeks as the spring shopping season forces businesses to look for more ways to be better than they were last year.

Tweet This Post 

Welcome to the secret shopping blog, our window into the world of secret shopping.

Marketers are aiming at ethinc groups all the time. Be careful how you do it for your business.

I got a direct mail piece at home the other day from a company in Gretna, Louisiana. The first page was written in Vietnamese. Unfortunately I don’t speak or read Vietnamese, even though I know enough about it to recognize it. I have heard it spoken and it sounds like a beautiful and interesting language to learn. After looking at the direct mail piece, I figured out it was a company that sells karaoke equipment. How did I get the piece?

Obviously the Phong Le Karaoke Company practices ethnic marketing. They bought a list of Vietnamese first and/or last names. Tran or sometimes Tron is not an uncommon Vietnamese name. My ethnic background is Norwegian and German. Tron is also not an uncommon Norwegian name. My dad, who is my Norwegian parent, thinks the reason Tran or Tron is often seen in Vietnam is because the Vikings traveled all over the place. His assumption is that a Viking named Tron ended up trading or plundering or both in Southeast Asia and his name carried on his legacy. I think it is because there are only so many sounds the human voice makes and Tron or Tran or Trun is a pretty simple one. So why shouldn’t it be found in many languages.

Depending on what part of the country you come from, you might be surprised to find out I am not Vietnamese. Many people who heard my name before meeting me were surprised that I was not. People who live in areas of heavier Nordic populations assume I am a Swede or a Norwegian. I often get catalogues of Swedish or Norwegian craft, clothing and culinary delights around Christmas time, when other companies are buying their Scandinavian first and or last name lists. So I am lead to believe that Norwegian-Americans buy sweaters and crafts and Vietnamese–Americans buy karaoke machines. At least this is what these companies are hoping. Lots of companies do this kind of ethnic marketing. My neighbor, who is Black, got a brochure from a large bank that is promoting its services in our town with a picture of a Black family on it. I got the same brochure with a picture of a white family on it. We had a little chuckle about it.

Is ethnic marketing effective and should you practice it in your self storage business? Well the answer is, “Do it well”. When I ran a bottled water company and we were trying to add new customers, our sales people loved to sign up a new customer who was any kind of newly arrived immigrant. One of our route drivers had been in the Army in Korea and could speak enough Korean to get a laugh out of a native Korean. He had a bottled water cooler in about every Korean household in town. One of our other salesmen set up a Cambodian couple and ended up signing up 8 other accounts for cousins and in-laws. Every sales person had a story of striking a vein like this. It is true that immigrants create their own networks and communities with their own group until they get settled in and comfortable. This can take one, two or more generations. Even after many generations these networks still exist in some looser fashion.

Here are a few ways to take advantage of ethnic marketing at your store. Find out which ethnic groups live nearby. Learn about them and the things they are comfortable with and uncomfortable with. If the dominant ethnic group in your neighborhood was Iraqi and Islamic, you wouldn’t roast a pig for customer appreciation day. Make whatever accommodations you need to make everyone feel at home. Don’t try doing fake tributes to people’s cultures. Fake tributes will blow up in your face. If you have people on staff who speak languages other than English, advertise this and let people know the hours that these staff people are available. Put up a sign in the office, so if someone comes into the office that really wants to speak Urdu, they can see that your Urdu speaking staff person is in from noon to 5 today.

Then take advantage of your language skills and put direct mail to work for you. Buy a mailing list of ethnic names matching your staff people’s language skills for you area and send out mailers. This will bring excellent results.

Set up a booth at ethnic food fares in your area. Give some discount to the local cultural or religious group that will help you spread the word that you are a friendly and reliable place for this particular ethnic group to store their belongings.

Learn to be patient with language and cultural differences. I met a gentleman a few weeks ago who has been living in the US for 23 years. He has two PHD degrees and is a University professor. However, his native accent is still rather thick. If you were not careful, you might assume he was uneducated, unintelligent or lacking funds if he showed up at your store one day in his yard-work clothes all sweaty and dusty from getting his three car garage cleaned out and organized. You might accidentally or on purpose treat him with disrespect. Wrong move! Assume anyone with a thick accent is a worthy potential customer with lots of friends and relatives.

Pay attention to the ethnic groups in your market and make the most of their presence. You might be surprised who you find. As one might expect, Spanish is the largest new language group of new immigrants in Missouri where I live. But can you guess the second largest new language group? Email me your guess to tron@phone-smart.net and I will send you a prize if you are correct.

Good luck with your ethnic marketing. I hope you store lots of karaoke machines, sweaters and crafts for you business customers.

Tweet This Post 

Welcome to the secret shopping blog. Today’s secret shopping blog comes from

PhoneSmart’s sales rep, Lucia. She has had a lot
of experience talking on the phone to customers and prospects.

When trying to make a good phone impression, you can think about this:

By telephone we only have eight seconds to give the Customer the first impression, and we need to practice two skills:

Primary Skill; Speak so others can understand you. Speak clearly.

Secondary Skill; Listen actively, and keep the conversation going.

How many times have you tried to deliver a message, but instead of people understanding what you were trying to say, they understood almost the opposite?

Disappointed, you ask yourself why that occurred.

In order to express a certain thought the way you want to come across, you have to keep a few things in mind:

Before stating something important, take the time and meditate on it. Your voice is your ally, speak with conviction do not rush. Take breathing breaks and articulate the words as best as you can.

If you take your time you will find people listen to you more closely and your point will come across to the caller.

Lucia

Tweet This Post 

Today’s secret shopping blog comes from Dana. She is expressing the frustration that we like to help customers avoid.

I walked out of the electric company and thought “I can’t quit the
electric company.”

My blog begins 2 years ago when I did not pay my electric bill
on time and I had to pay additional deposit in cash in order to have
service.

At the time I paid the deposit, I asked when would I get the deposit
back.

I was told if I pay on time for a year I would get it refunded. So
about 8 months in to my year of paying on time every month, I was in the electric company office and asked when would I get my deposit refunded. I was told Jan. 06.

I continued to pay my bill on time and in Dec. when I was in the
office paying my bill, I asked when in Jan. I would I get my deposit refunded.

I was told I would not get it refunded in Jan. It would be two years before I would get it refunded. I asked why I had been told it would be in a year and why I was told Jan. 06 was the end of that year.

I was told “I’m sorry I don’t why you were told that, but it would be two years before we will refund that.”

I work in a call center where we reserve storage units for the managers of the store when they can’t answer or their store is closed. We all try to give the same information to callers, as if they were talking to store themselves. They are told the same thing there as they were told on the phone.

We don’t want a situation where the customer goes in to the store and is told something else and then gets upset and leaves or quits.

Your business is probably not the only game in town, like the electric company. Your customers can and will quit you if you tell them two different versions of a story, won’t they.

This is why I walked out of the electric company and said to myself “I can’t quit the electric company.”

Dana

Tweet This Post 

Welcome to the secret shopping blog, our diary of secret shopping trends and the secret shopping business.

I got my review today form our 360 degree assessment. This is a form of secret shopping that is a little like a secret Santa. You know what was said about you and how you were rates, only you don’t know who it came from.

There were some good observations. In general it looks like I could be better at motivating employees and giving them better structure when it comes to policies and enforcing rules. These are things that I would like to be better at, too.

It also seems I am perceived as being good at taking care of our customers, communicating and listening and being respectful of people. That isn’t so bad.

How do you think your peers would rate you on how you approach your job and the people you work with?

Tweet This Post