I’ve had a bad week. Well, Tuesday morning was bad. By lunchtime on Tuesday things were looking a bit rosier, and by Wednesday I was back to my default “glass (at least) half-full” state of mind. Let me explain. Being quite new in my role here at Yomdel and wanting to get closer to our operational processes, I volunteered to do a video mystery shop for one of our clients. Reader, I messed it up… Without going into too much detail, it basically failed to record (turned itself off in my pocket) and all the rich insights I’d gathered and worked hard to engineer into the visit were wasted.
As I sat outside, swearing in my car, I realised that I’d actually gained more from this experience than I’d lost. OK, so my team back at HQ were going to have to re-assign the job and I looked a bit of an idiot, but crucially, I now knew what it really felt like to be one of our mystery shoppers. I knew how important it is to practise with the equipment and research your scenario; I understood the churning stomach feeling as you get into character; I knew how important it is to have a supportive office team behind you; and I knew how important a well-designed questionnaire is. First-hand experience of the tasks you are asking your staff to perform is invaluable and leads to effective and empathetic management, which in turn leads to motivated and high-performing staff.
Mystery shopping is a practical short-cut to this. Maybe you’re a Director whose selling days are a distant memory; maybe you’re a senior manager from a non-sales background; maybe you’re a Sales Director with little customer service experience; mystery shopping gives you that in-the-moment feedback on every step of your sales and customer service processes. Detailed reports and audio-visual footage mean you can observe, first-hand and unfiltered, the challenges your sales teams face and how they deliver your company ethos and hopefully top-notch customer service to boot.
