When organisations are exploring the idea of launching a mystery shopping programme, sometimes there can be a couple of internal stakeholders that need a bit of extra persuasion – which is understandable, particularly in organisations that have never used mystery shopping before.
We get it – it can be a bit scary and daunting thought… “What are they going to find?”, “Is this legal?”, “Are staff going to embrace it?”, “Are we going to see any change?”, “Is it worth it?”
These are all questions we’ve received by organisations over the years and here’s our proven strategies and advice on how to overcome them in your organisation…
Is mystery shopping legal?
A common question we get asked – especially in today’s world where digital security and technologies have evolved. The use of mystery shopping is perfectly legal, and where video mystery shopping is used, you can refer to the ICO ‘Data protection code of practice for surveillance cameras and personal information’. It does not specifically reference video mystery shopping – but it does explain the use of using body worn video cameras.
The Governments ‘Surveillance Camera Commissioner’ can also provide a self-assessment tool for body worn video. This document assesses the 12 guiding principles of surveillance camera code of practise – the tool has helped clients to establish compliance with each principal.
Performance in People is an ISO27001 accredited organisation - the world's best-known standard for information security management systems. This means we can provide full confidence to our clients that we will manage and store their data following the highest level of international standards for security. So that’s a big easy tick in the box for organisations legal and security teams…!
How are we going to get staff to embrace it?
Another commonly asked question – but one we absolutely love answering because we have developed a range of tools, resources and methodologies to get this one right.
It’s extremely important for front line staff, managers and area/regional teams to buy into the programme and welcome the method – we want to get people excited about mystery shopping! After all, it’s going to be a chance to develop their skills, provide an even better customer experience, and an opportunity to be recognised and rewarded for it!
TRIAL/PROOF OF CONCEPT
What better way to showcase the excellence and power of using mystery shopping than showcasing results, real feedback, and output from a pre-programme trial! Evidence that ‘this stuff works’.
Some of our clients have seen great success in using this to launch the main programme to their full network. See our Specsavers case study for a great example… Read more >
COMMUNICATION
We all know that whenever there is something new, or a change in business that communication plays a critical part in how well that change is received. We have a range of communication messages that our clients can use to launch a mystery shopping programmes effectively.
The key message is to relay the purposes and reasons for adopting a mystery shopping programme; It is a tool to celebrate great performance, share best practice, train, coach and develop skills to provide an even better service to our customers.
It is NOT used as a ‘beating stick’ of negativity – we all know that doesn’t work…! A platform of positivity is the only way to make real changes in behaviour.
LAUNCH EVENT
When commencing a mystery shopping programme with Performance in People, we encourage our clients to kick off activities with a launch event. It facilitates the opportunity to share with your managers the key aspects of the programme upfront. Bringing your managers together and sharing these key details sets your network up for success, they know what to expect and how to bring about change in a positive way.
Not only do our launch workshops provide all the tools and skills for your people to maximise the outputs of their mystery shop activity – but they also improve engagement and get your people excited, providing a confident and positive mindset about the upcoming programme. Read more about our launch events >
TRAINING
The key to ensuring consistency across a store network is regular training. Providing your people with the knowledge and skills to deliver a great customer service, and your managers to effectively coach their teams to their full potential is a key cog to the mystery shopping programme machine. Performance in People provide two key training workshops that support our mystery shopping activity:
- CBX ‘Coaching and Behaviours for Service Excellence’ is designed for Managers and Team Leaders to improve their understanding of the Behavioural Measurement Score (BMS®) (the ‘science behind great CX’) and learn how to coach their team to become even better through Continue & Begin Fast Coaching® (C&B®). The course consists of 4 x 60–90-minute modules and is available for virtual and face-to-face delivery.
- BMS® Direct is designed for customer-facing team members to improve their knowledge of the Behavioural Measurement Score (BMS®). Team members will learn the 6 key behaviours and their contributing characteristics, the scoring methodology and what they can do to deliver a great customer experience with every customer interaction. This 90-minute course is delivered virtually or can be completed at their own pace through our e-learning platform.
RECOGNITION & REWARD
We always encourage clients to reward and recognise great performance. It’s the best kind of motivation to continue to do a great job, and an inspiration to others to follow and strive towards.
Performance in People also run a quarterly competition to determine the very best video and telephone mystery shop experiences. PiP conducts over 17,000 mystery shops each quarter, making the selection of winners for our video and telephone competitions quite a challenge! Our top 3 are selected by our in-house panel which includes our BMS® Manager. The winners receive a prestigious personalised engraved glass trophy, a bottle of celebratory bubbles, and a monetary prize of up to £500!
How do we start a mystery shopping programme with Performance in People?
We follow a robust and rigorous on-boarding and set-up process. We assign a dedicated and experienced Account Management team to each client and work closely to set-up large nationwide programmes in as little as 4 weeks!
We are proud to be industry leaders in our field. On average, 99.8% of our programmes are delivered on time (in 2023 we delivered 859 programmes, of which 857 were on time!), audited at an accuracy rate of 99.97% (in 2023 we marked over 2,000,000 questions!)
We also hold industry leading staff retention and turnover rates, so you can be comforted to know your programme is managed by an experience and established team. 54% of our people have been with PiP for 5 years or more and 23% have achieved their 10-year service awards!
If you’d like to know more about how to get a mystery shopping programme successfully, effectively and positively implemented within your organisation, contact us today!
