Mystery shop reports are supposed to give companies information they can use to identify where they are performing well, and where problems exist. Appropriate ways of responding to the problems identified in a mystery shop might include providing additional training to employees or changing staffing levels to avoid under- or overstaffing.

An inappropriate reaction? Presenting employees with a cake that looks like a pile of poop, in “honor” of their poopy report.

The postal service has, like many businesses, specific service standards that are measured through secret shopper visits. Even when they are busy or understaffed, postal employees are expected to meet time standards as well as ask each customer a series of (in my opinion, mostly annoying) questions.

When the Cape Coral post office scored 48 out of 100 possible points on a recent mystery shop, the manager had a cake made to commemorate the occasion. This was not a particularly attractive or appetizing cake, as it was made to look like a pile of excrement. (If you want to see the cake, you can go to this mystery shopper story.)

The reaction of the postal workers? It was as you might expect: they were angry and insulted.

What could the manager have done to handle this situation better? Well, almost anything, actually. But for starters:

One major problem was that there was a long line when the mystery shopper arrived. Could the manager take steps to reduce the wait time by changing staffing levels, or bringing other employees to the counter when there is a line? There are limits (someone may not be authorized to work a cash register, for example) but at my post office they often bring someone out to ask if anyone is there just to pick up a package, certified letter or other item that does not involve handling cash. That usually removes several people from the line, as that employee can get all of the needed items for customers.

Are employees taking longer to handle each customer because they do not have everything they need at their stations? The manager could assign someone to make sure each work station is properly stocked before the post office opens and throughout the day.

Are there employees who continually have to ask other employees for assistance because they do not know how to handle situations that come up? Make sure those employees get the training they need to do their jobs without interfering with other employees and slowing everyone down.

Many employees resent mystery shoppers because management uses the results of mystery shop reports as a club with which they beat employees over the head. Berating or insulting employees because of a poor showing on a mystery shop report is absolutely the wrong tack to take. Using the results to find a way to improve service will not only make customers happier, it can make employees happier, too. And it works better to inspire them than a poop cake.

Why should businesses use mystery shopping? This video explains what mystery shopping is all about and how businesses benefit.

Should you tell your employees they will be mystery shopped? How are mystery shoppers selected and screened? How much does mystery shopping cost? These questions and more are answered in this video from MSNBC.

It includes interviews with employees and management of a grocery store that uses mystery shopping, as well as Judi Hess of Customer Perspectives and Jeff Hall of Second to None.

If they do read them, why would clients allow that? Doesn’t it make mystery shopping less valuable if the employees know exactly what was reported?

Many client companies do share mystery shop reports with the staff who were shopped. There are good reasons to do so.

One way mystery shop report data is used is to provide feedback to employees. The shop report lets them know how they did—where they performed well and how they could improve. The specific data in a mystery shop report can help employees to improve their performance or get positive reinforcement for doing a great job.

If the mystery shopping company or the client is concerned about the shopper being identified, they may remove identifying data that would make it clear who the shopper was. However, most of the time there is probably enough information (such as the date and time of the shop visit) that the employees could possibly know who the shopper was—especially if they have access to video surveillance tapes and can identify the transaction.

Does this mean that if you return to a location the employees will spot you as the mystery shopper. Possibly, but probably not. If you are concerned about that possibility, consider changing your appearance slightly on future visits. Nothing extreme—just style your hair a little differently, wear glasses instead of contacts, or other minor tweaks.

We may think we have been “made” when in fact we haven’t. That is just a part of the paranoia that comes with secret shopping, especially when you are new. Something to keep in mind: If they know I am the shopper, why do they not get a perfect score?

Although they may seem strange to us, those things are in the report for a reason: The client wants them there. The mystery shopping company may make recommendations or provide suggested guidelines and report forms, but the client decides what information they want from shops.

Businesses have service standards, and many of the questions on mystery shop reports relate to those standards. When you see a question about how long it took to get your food, or how much time passed before you were greeted, that is because that client has standards about how long those things should take. The same goes for things such as saying thank you, using your name or other shop details.

Suggestive selling is important to clients, so there will often be questions about whether the salesperson or cashier suggested an additional item, or the server recommended dessert. Those small questions can add a lot to the client’s bottom line, so they matter.

But what about the strange stuff? Do they want the employees to figure out who the shopper is? No, they don’t. First of all, what you or I think is weird may not be. I felt silly when I had to go to a store and try to buy a pair of mismatched shoes (two different sizes), but customers really do that. When they do, they leave the store with two shoes that can not be sold. It is the same as stealing from the store, and that is why they want cashiers to catch it.

And those weird questions we have to ask? They may not expect employees to know some obscure bit of information about a product, but want to know what they will do when asked. Will they look up the answer in their training manual? Ask another employee? Guess? Shrug their shoulders and say, “I dunno”?

Ask yourself this: When I have had to do things that I was sure would make it obvious that I was the mystery shopper, how did employees do on the shop? If they suddenly switched from being inattentive to Employee of the Month mode, it may be that they figured out that you were the mystery shopper. But how often does that happen?

Many employees still (wrongly) assume that the customer giving them a hard time, being demanding and obnoxious, is the mystery shopper. Not the customer asking dumb questions.

Never change the scenario or substitute other questions for what you are instructed to ask. Those questions are there for a reason, and failing to follow the guidelines could invalidate your shop.

Even when you are certain that the scenario will give you away as the secret shopper, remember that real customers do weirder things than we are asked to do.

As mystery shoppers, we are often asked to present a specific scenario, and we may have to “act” the part of a customer much different from ourselves. However, the mystery shoppers described in a recent story in the New York Times seem to have taken this to new levels.

De Gelderse Roos is a psychiatric complex in the Netherlands, about 40 miles from Amsterdam. They hired a consulting firm to provide feedback on conditions in a locked ward in the facility, by placing mystery shoppers posing as patients in the hospital. The “undercover patients” were psychiatric nurses who were given detailed back stories and extensive training before being admitted to the facility. And just in case things got out of hand, they even had a “safe word” to use when communicating with the actors playing their family members.

Although the typical mystery shopper would never be asked to do such a potentially dangerous assignment, it is interesting to learn about the ways mystery shopping is being used to make conditions better in all kinds of places.

Do businesses that we shop tell their employees that they will be mystery shopped? I have heard that they do, but that doesn’t make sense to me. If we are supposed to be checking up on them, why tell them that they will get shopped? Do they tell them what we will evaluate them on? And doesn’t that mean that we are more likely to be spotted if the employees know to look for mystery shoppers?

Most businesses that use secret shoppers tell their employees about the program, and there are some very good reasons to do so.

First of all, whenever you measure something you get better results. Mystery shopping is a good example of that. When employees know that they may be mystery shopped, but they do not know when or by whom, they will treat each customer as if he or she were the mystery shopper (at least in theory).

Companies usually let employees know what the evaluation criteria are. Mystery shopping programs are designed to verify that employees are following the policies and procedures established by the business. That means that all the mystery shoppers are doing is checking to see that employees are doing what they were already trained to do. For example, are they saying thank you? Upselling? Smiling? Serving customers promptly? I have been in businesses as a customer where I have seen memos and mystery shop report forms on the counter by the cash register. These businesses knew exactly what the mystery shopper would be evaluating them on.

Does that make it easier for employees to spot the mystery shopper? Not usually. In most cases, they know that they will be mystery shopped on a regular basis, and the shopper will be checking to see if they are upholding the standards established by the business. Employees are not told what scenario will be used, or exactly when the mystery shopper will visit.

The existence of a secret shopper program should not be a mystery. Educating employees about standards and expectations, and letting them know that mystery shoppers will be checking to see that they are living up to them, is a good way to make sure that customers receive top quality service—even when the mystery shopper isn’t looking.

Mystery shopping questionnaires may include questions about suggestive selling techniques used by employees. Here are examples of upsells that mystery shoppers may encounter:

• The cashier at a shoe store asks if you need shoe polish or socks.
• The electronics store salesperson suggests an extended warranty for the gadget you are buying.
• The order taker at a fast food restaurant asks if you want to “make it a combo” or “supersize” your fries and drink.
• The grocery store cashier points out a promotion where you can get a bottle of shampoo for only $1.
• The bartender asks if you have a brand preference when you order a gin and tonic.
• The stylist tells you about a product she is using on your hair, then suggests you buy it for home use.
• The toy store cashier asks if you need batteries when you buy a toy that requires them.
• The cell phone sales person recommends a car charger or case for your phone.

There are many more types of suggestive selling used, but you get the idea. Suggestive selling is important to the client because it has a direct impact on the bottom line. When employees suggest additional items, the average purchase amount goes up. That means profits go up.

But the customer benefits from suggestive selling, too. Suggesting you buy batteries may save you a trip to buy them later, as well as avoiding the problem of an unhappy and disappointed child when you discover too late that the toy you purchased requires batteries you do not have. And making customers aware of promotions that can save them money will make many customers happy.

When your assigned mystery shop involves upselling opportunities, the guidelines will tell you what the employee is supposed to do. There may be specific language the employee is supposed to use, or a certain product or promotion they are to mention. It is important that you listen for the upsell by the employee, but do not encourage them to suggest an upsell by asking leading questions. Just let the employee do her job.

The client will probably expect a comment about the upsell. What product did the employee suggest? What did they say? When did they suggest the additional item or upgrade? Pay close attention so you can provide useful details.

Suggestive selling benefits both the merchant and customers. As mystery shoppers, we help companies learn if employees are properly using suggestive selling techniques.

I have to admit that the headline, “Police search for mystery shoppers,” got my attention. My first thought was, “What did the mystery shoppers do?” But, no, the mystery shoppers are not on the lam. In fact, the Thames Valley Police Department is looking for citizen volunteers to evaluate the service provided by the staff at local police stations.

Volunteer mystery shoppers will be given a variety of scenarios to use when visiting the police stations, but none will involve making a false police report or other dodgy activities. And, no, you do not have to get arrested as part of the mystery shop.

In addition to interacting with the staff, the secret shoppers will be asked to comment on other issues commonly found on mystery shopper reports, such as cleanliness, waiting times and whether opening hours are clearly displayed. (Uh, does that mean that the police department closes down part of the day? Must be a quiet town.)

Kelly Axtell, force counter services manager, said: “Most people don’t visit a police station often, some only when they have been a victim of crime or had a collision for example, and it is vital people are treated in a polite and professional manner, especially when they may be upset.”

That certainly shows an understanding of the importance of providing good service to their citizen customers. And that is what mystery shopping is really all about.

Oxfordshire citizens who wish to participate in the police mystery shopper program can download an application at the police department’s web site.

Employees may fear or resent secret shoppers because they think that if the shopper is in a bad mood and gives them a poor report, they could lose their jobs. You can see these ideas and attitudes on many of the employee sites that discuss mystery shopping.

So are employees correct? Are shoppers out to get them, and could they lose their jobs as a result?
First of all, let’s do away with a couple of myths:

Mystery shoppers are not looking for the bad. We are there to provide an objective report of what happened. We do not look for negatives, but record the good and the bad. Most shoppers prefer writing positive reports for two reasons: we want employees to look good, and good reports are easier to write. (The more ‘no’ answers on the report, the more comments we have to write.)

Mystery shoppers do not decide what makes good or poor performance. We are simply evaluating whether employees meet the standards set by their employers. Secret shopping is not opinion research, it is the reporting of facts. And the types of facts we report are based on the questions asked by the client/employer.

Once clients receive our reports, they decide how to use the information. Does that mean they will fire employees who receive reports showing they performed poorly? Probably not. Although mystery shop reports may be used as one factor in employee evaluations, it is unlikely that one poor report would result in an employee being terminated. That would have to be one really bad report.

What is more typical is that the report would be used to counsel the employee to help them do a better job in the future. Most employers use some sort of progressive discipline, involving several steps before termination. If the employee has a history of poor performance, the mystery shop report would be one piece of documentation in the employee’s file, but it would not be the one thing that causes termination.

Most mystery shopping companies advise clients that mystery shopping should not be used as a stick with which they club employees. It is a tool to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of a business, and to determine the adjustments needed to improve as well as recognizing the people who are doing well

Just about any organization that has contact with the public may use secret shoppers. That means not only for-profit businesses, but non-profit organizations and government agencies, too.

Secret shoppers may not disclose specific clients for whom they have shopped due to the confidentiality agreements we sign. However, it is acceptable to discuss the types of businesses that get mystery shopped. Here are some of the ones I have heard of. Although this list is far from complete, it will give you an idea of the many industries that rely on mystery shoppers to give them information about their businesses (including some kind of odd ones).

Of course, all kinds of retail stores use mystery shoppers, from small kiosks in the mall to boutiques, specialty stores, outlet malls, giant department stores and discount stores. Likewise, many restaurants, ranging from fast food to fine dining, rely on secret shopping.

Housing shops may include apartment complexes, new home sales, assisted living facilities, etc.

Financial institutions, including banks, credit unions, brokerage houses, insurance companies and others are frequently shopped. Mystery shopper assignments might include inquiring about opening an account, actually opening an account, participating in a transaction (such as making a deposit or cashing a check), viewing a sales presentation, applying for a loan, or other types of transactions the organization offers.

Automotive shops might involve getting service on your car (such as an oil change) or shopping for a new or used car.

Airlines, hotels, casinos, rental car companies and other travel services are mystery shopped, although these shops can be hard to come by. You may also see mystery shops available for movie theaters, bowling alleys, amusement parks and tourist attractions, as well as professional sporting events, such as football games.

Health care providers, including doctors, hospitals and clinics, use mystery shopping services to evaluate customer service but not typically to judge the quality of medical care.

Home services, such as carpet cleaning and maid service, have secret shopping programs that may involve getting services or just an estimate. Other services you might be asked to evaluate include day care centers, salons and spas, florists, and delivery services.

Online businesses use shoppers to evaluate the user-friendliness of their web sites and the service available online and via email.

Now for some of the more unusual shops: I once shopped a hypnotist. Unfortunately, I didn’t get hypnotized (“You will give us a good report…”), I just had to observe their sales presentation.

Shoppers have told me about mystery shopping adult book stores (where they had to make a purchase) and truck stops (where the shopper had to take a shower to evaluate the facilities). I have also seen jobs posted for mystery shops of funeral homes, where the shopper would call to inquire about services.

You can see from this list that the variety of mystery shops available is almost limitless. Of course, you will never have to do a shop that you do not want to do, so don’t worry about having to go to an adult book store. It will not happen. You get to decide which shops you are willing to do.

If you are ready for an adventure, mystery shopping has one waiting for you.