Ten Steps to Successful Mystery Shopping

A "mystery shop" is a tremendous teaching tool. It can refine acceptable sales and service behaviors or eliminate negative ones. Although some bankers have maligned mystery shopping's effectiveness, Affinion's experience shows that a well-designed mystery shop can be an immensely positive experience for an institution. Failures are usually the direct result of either lack of organization or poor execution.

To achieve its goals, a mystery shop should be a total campaign with clear-cut expectations for all involved. For example, an institution may set out to increase awareness of problems in customer service, improve sales performance, or to change a behavior by following a few basic principles.

To plan a successful mystery shop, follow these 10 tips:

• Have an official kickoff rally. Use the event to point out all the positive aspects of monitoring ourselves for best behavior. Explain that your purpose is to identify current performance trends, so you can develop better training and support for staff. Announce an incentive or a reward program to create feelings of goodwill, which will eventually trickle down to customers.
• Alert all employees who will be affected by the mystery shop. Provide details about what will take place, and let them know exactly what is expected of them. Reassure them that positive behavior will be rewarded; however, less than perfect behavior will not be penalized.
• Train employees to meet your standards. Show them how to perform so they know how to make a perfect score. Provide them with the mystery shopper's questionnaire.Be thorough and specific in training.
• Recognize and reward perfect scores immediately. Managers should personally deliver rewards, which may include: cash; a flower arrangement; personalized stationery; an hour or two hours time off; a gift certificate to a local restaurant; or a plaque for customers to see the names of the "outperformers." The ways to reward employees are as varied as the employees. Be creative. The only criterion is to make sure it is something the employees will like. And it's always a good idea to follow up with a personal thank you note from senior management.
• Keep all employees in the loop on the success of their co-workers. Newsletters, e-mails, and memos can all be used to motivate employees and recognize achievements. A newsletter could also educate the employees on customer service tips and sales techniques if those are the goals of the program.
• Measure performance. To achieve an accurate picture of how employees are doing, routine measurements of the desirable traits are important. Results will be directly proportionate to the duration and the consistency of the mystery shop.
• Establish benchmarks. Consider borrowing from other industries. Southwest Airlines and Nordstrom provide reliable anecdotal and quantifiable results in their own successful quests in improving customer service.
• Use the results to improve performance. Adjust training materials to address specific areas that should be improved. Offer mini-training sessions during the campaign, using actual data from the mystery shops -- both positive and negative -- to illustrate realistically and undeniably employees' successes and their shortcomings. Use actual instances, and read from the mystery shop reports, changing only the names.
• Keep excellence as the goal, and continue to reward employees after the initial mystery shop ends. This may be accomplished with a monthly or quarterly luncheon for everyone who scored 100 on a mystery shop or for those employees who continue to meet and exceed the sales and service guidelines.
• Consider rewarding the entire branch staff when an individual achieves 100 percent of goal. This creates a teamwork atmosphere. Group rewards should be awarded in addition to immediate personal recognition.