Technology Is Great...When It Works (Mystery Shopping Anecdote)

Technology Is Great...When It Works

Another of the many hats I wear in my self-employed world, is a "licensed real estate salesperson" hat. Awhile back I had the opportunity to do some temporary work for a local new home builder which gave me the opportunity to hear about an interesting mystery shopping story.

One of my duties was to meet and greet prospects touring the new home models (no the agents don't usually do it themselves, they are too busy). Yet when I came in Friday afternoon, the lead agent kept stepping in and cutting me off when I started to do my usual welcoming bit. Finally after he did this a couple of times, he apologized and said "I'm sorry, but I just found out I might be shopped today, so I have to meet and greet everyone who comes through the door".

How interesting and ironic! Here I am, a professional mystery shopper on hand this time not as a mystery shopper, but as a witness to a shop from the target's perspective. In-between customers, I couldn't resist telling him about my mystery shopping work, writing and coaching. He was quite surprised and responded with "so you teach people how to do this--you're the enemy". Quite a perspective.

I was curious why he was being tipped off that he would be shopped and if such a procedure was normal. It wasn't. Here is what happened. Earlier in the week, Mr. Lead Agent had been shopped which was fine with him, because he said he pegged the shoppers and "nailed" the shop (as he put it). However, he had been notified that he would be re-shopped because he failed his evaluation. Why did he fail? Because his was a video shop and the full shop had not been captured on the tape due to shopper error. Only the early portion of the shop where Mr. Lead Agent admitted being nervous because he realized he was being shopped had taped, and the rest where he calmed himself down and "did a great job" was not. He was very upset about this because now the pressure was really on.

Mr. Lead Agent spent the whole day obsessing about this, and I was secretly enjoying guessing which couple or couples were the shoppers. I told him that I would give him my opinion about which ones I suspected. One trio that came in I was sure were shoppers, although Mr. Lead Agent was not so sure. Finally he tired of the game and let me go back to meeting and greeting while he ran out to bite with explicit instructions on what to do if his shoppers showed up (pardon the expression, but his exact words were "give them the finger").

Now don't you hope Mr. Lead Agent failed again?

For now, all you video shoppers, be very careful when doing your work for as you can see, a bad tape can really cause problems. Sure it may not be your fault because equipment does malfunction, but remember your target is counting on you to provide a fair assessment of his/her work.

Have a great day and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan
http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com

Copyright 2005 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing