Mystery shopping is an excellent way to garner feedback about your organization. It allows you, as a manager, to discover many things about your operations that are not always apparent in your customer encounters.
Mystery shop evaluations allow you to discover:
- If your company, department or region is doing well,
- What matters to your customers,
- How your customers want you to improve the experience they have with your organization.
However, when it comes to managers managing the feedback received through the mystery shopping process, there can be challenges.
For example, the feedback received can make you feel defensive. We all like to think that we’re hitting the mark with our customers when it comes to their satisfaction, and when we find out we are not, it can hurt.
The feedback in mystery shopping reports can also be overwhelming because of the belief that you need to fix everything immediately.
Certain issues should be addressed immediately; other issues could simmer on the back burner for a bit, giving you time to think about the best, most effective and efficient way to fix the customer dis-satisfiers, while keeping true to your corporate mission and goals.
Feedback can also create a divide between management and the front line, who may perceive that organizational goals are constantly shifting to meet customers’ demands.
[tweetthis]Training your managers how to manage the feedback derived from the mystery shopping process is important.[/tweetthis]
In training your managers, give them the following advice about mystery shopping feedback:
- Let your managers know that as feedback is received, it should be included on a list. [tweetthis]Recording mystery shopping feedback is the first step in managing it.[/tweetthis] Creating a list will also help to spot trends that may be emerging.
- Managers who manage feedback should address critical issues first. These will differ by organization. Managers should create a timeline for addressing the other customer suggestions for improvement as time and budget allow. This helps reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed and overloaded.
- Finally, suggest that the manager include their employees in the problem-solving process. This generates greater buy-in on the part of the staff and helps keep them in the loop of how organizational goals and client satisfaction are related.
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[tweetthis]Does your company have a plan for managing customer feedback? What seems to work best for your managers?[/tweetthis]