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A Reminder Of What It Means To Be A Mystery Shopper
Ever have a bad experience with a retailer or service business and wish it was a shop so that someone would definitely hear about your poor treatment? That's what happened to me recently.
I was at a new dry cleaner to pick up my husband's dress shirts. The woman behind the counter greeted me in a friendly tone (with eye contact and a smile--we always look for that, don't we now). I even found myself glancing down out of the corner of my eye quickly to look for a nametag out of habit. Don't laugh, my husband who has accompanied me on several restaurant shops now does the same thing!
The woman immediately went to get my shirt order without asking my name or taking my receipt to look it up! Extra points for you (oops, it's not a shop)!
At home, I looked over one of the shirts to see if a stain on the sleeve had been removed during the cleaning, and instead noticed that there was a large dirt mark on the shoulder. Plus, in checking the back, I found there were little dirt specks all over. Surprised that the shirt had come out of the cleaners dirtier than when I had
brought it in, I jumped in my car and went right back to the cleaners to catch them before they closed. I figured that the friendly woman behind the counter would offer to re-do it at no charge, and that would be fine with me.
Well, when I returned to the cleaners, the "friendly woman" was gone, and I showed the shirt to a man who appeared to be a manager or owner. He had what seemed to be a permanent scowl on his face, which deepened when he saw a shirt in plastic on a hanger coming into his shop, rather than leaving it. When I pointed out the black specks all over the back of the shirt, he muttered something about the marks coming from my husband's belt. I explained that the shirt had not come in to him like that, and a belt couldn't make little specks all over the entire back of the shirt (I thought to myself that he must have also believed in the "magic bullet" theory
demonstrated in the Kevin Costner movie "JFK")! After I said that, he turned away from me. I thought he was getting a ticket to write on for the re-do.
What happened next shocked me. Instead of offering a re-do, he plunked $1.25 on the counter in front of me and said "happy? You go NOW!" I told him that's no way to treat a customer, and added that he should be apologizing for giving me a dirty shirt and not offering to fix the problem. He repeated "You go NOW" and pointed
to the door. Since I wasn't getting anywhere with him, I just told him as I turned to leave, not to worry, that I wouldn't be back and I would be sure to tell everyone I know to never do business with him.
Thinking about this experience reminded me of something that sometimes gets buried when you are rushing around trying to get shops in, getting your target on the phone and filling out lots of paperwork. We are all so lucky to be mystery shoppers--whether you do a shop once in awhile, or are working to make it a steady professional part-time career. Most of the time when something happens to me--whether it is positive or negative--I get to tell the company's management and/or owners about it through my reporting. They then can take the necessary steps to improve their businesses, their employees and their customers' experiences (well at least they have the information thanks to me, acting on it is up to them). Oh, and then I get paid to boot!
In this case though, I'll just have to take comfort in the fact that there are about a dozen dry cleaners within three miles of where I live, so the "you go, NOW" dry cleaners is not likely to be long for this world.
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The next Coach's Diary column will be published on October 3rd. The next issue of Perfect Work-At-Home Job Update will be released on September 23rd. Your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome by e-mailing me at mysteryshopcoach@aol.com. New subscriptions are welcome by e-mailing me at mscoach@aweber.com.
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