Exploration shopping

We have already written about the profession a secret buyer, which appeared in our country several years ago and every year it becomes increasingly important. This is due to the increasing interest of companies wishing to get information, how their employees are "at best" - those who directly interact with customers.

Last week, a seminar "To you is the secret buyer - get ready for a change!", Organized by the company "your people" together with the Institute of Psychoanalysis. Workshop participants were fairly well-known in the market of the company. Why are they so interested in checking undercover buyers what they emphasize and what are the characteristics of selection and training of undercover buyers companies providers Mystery Shopping? |

Why Mystery Shopping?

The seminar was attended by representatives of companies such as RUSSLAVBANK, "Steklov", "PEUGEOT", "Rosbank, TD" CUM ", LLC" clothes "Christy", "Technosila", "ECONIKA" and a number of other equally famous enterprises. Some of them have repeatedly used the services of the secret buyers, while others are just going to do it. But they all unanimously said that in a crisis and heightened competition, Mystery Shopping (MS) is a tool that can positively affect the company's position in the market.

In September and October this year the company "your people" carried out a study, which was attended by 53 companies, of which 62.5% indicated that they had already applied Mystery Shopping, and 16.7% plan to do it. The initiators of this instrument in the designated company acted executives of companies and marketing departments, and divisions to work with staff, departments of quality control and sales departments.

The reasons for conducting the audits of the company stated:

The desire to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the service
Low level of training vendors,
Passive sales staff,
Increased competition,
Violation of corporate standards of service
Reduction of financial results.

With regard to the expectations of the results of the MS, then the company notes the following: a desire to assess the effectiveness of training programs conducted in the company's corporate standards and efficiency, increase sales by MS and to evaluate the level of staff knowledge. Also - learn how customers evaluate their company, or even just "shake up" team. As a result of the MS 54,2% of the respondents have established new training programs, 41.7% adjusted standards for personnel, 37.5% have optimized the system of personnel motivation and 29.2% had a qualification of their employees.

In addition, Mikhail Kalashnikov, CEO of "your people" told me that the base cost of one visit to a secret buyer of the company customer service varies from 1.3 thousand to 3 thousand, depending on the socio-demographic status of the agent and the complexity of the script. As a result of visiting an agent fills out a detailed questionnaire, a questionnaire, which may consist of 40-90 parameters.

What are we going to evaluate?

As mentioned earlier, the number of indicators that have to evaluate the secret buyers can reach hundreds of one object. However, this does not mean that there is one immutable form, from which he walks out of the company in the company.

Everything is just quite the opposite: each company has its own standards and its own vision of exactly what items to include in the questionnaire. One important having a working cooler with water to customers, others - the appearance of the audited staff, the third - the illumination in the office. But there are common features of audits of different companies that they represent when signing a contract with the service provider Mystery Shopping.

As Nader said Alimov, Managing Partner SERVICEMAN, the work of agents based on the following pattern: he walks into the room, looks around and says: I clean the office, if all the lights are burning, whether omissions in the calculation of the goods (if not empty shelves, or vice versa, not whether a product is chaotic). Sometimes even have to pay attention to whether to play music and how much it is pleasant to the ear - if it is a shop and by the standards of the company decided that music was performed.

Next, you need to determine - as a look consultants (whether neat if there was a large quantity of jewelry, do all the badges, etc.) and what they are busy (if not talk to each other or on cell phones, do not discuss of visitors, not sit and do not lean on commercial equipment).

Then the secret buyer enters into a dialogue with the consultant. Here, the agent said it drew attention to him or his fellow himself had come up and ask for help, as well as he has the knowledge and skills, which the company expects from him (all of these competencies identified in the questionnaire, and their presence or absence should be noted Checker).

Typically, the skills are divided into professional (product knowledge, ability to present and reveal the buyer's needs, etc.) and communication (appeal to the customer by name, friendly, smiling or not during intercourse, the clarity of the formulation of responses, I listened carefully and Do not interrupted by a client, etc.).

This is a general requirement that meets business-employers to their employees, but there are many specific requirements, depending on the kind of company. For example, in restaurants, according to Nadir Alimov, the three main evaluation criteria are the quality / culture / cleanliness. That is estimated purity of the hall and toilets, quality of meals (at the level of simple layman - "warm-cold," "delicious, not tasty") and the culture of service, that is the level of the waiter. In addition, often assessed the appearance of a waiter.

If we talk about cinema, there is often manual and the owners want to track integrity of staff, in particular, bartenders. Also commends the work of administrators and ushers. On the disclosure of theft can be emphasized as in the retailers, such as computers. By the way, the reason for seeking the company to the provider of Mystery Shopping may be a desire to find out who of sellers consultants selling "Left" software.

The fact is that in most companies, a consultant who sells computer must offer the client to license the software. Instead, this is some "very nimble" employees offer at half price install any unlicensed software from your DVD - with, of course, they put money in his pocket. Therefore, the entire test can be aimed at identifying such consultants, expropriating profits from the company and their subsequent dismissal.

In car dealerships and banks of emphasis on the quality of advice. In some stores paramount display of goods, and again the level of consultation. Where there is a cashier, and his work is evaluated. First, it's fast customer service. In addition, some companies necessarily want their cashiers to greet customers and smiled at them.

Summarizing, we can say that the process of Mystery Shopping - very individual for each company, so buyers must have a secret number of professionally important qualities (PBC), the most important of which, according to the company's employees "Your people" are: attention to detail, clarity in the performance instructions, good memory, ability to correctly and completely fill out the check-list, and emotional stability.