Chapter 6: Surveillance
I do not think surveillance should be used in any position where security or theft is not a threat. Certainly a bank or prison has a legitimate need for surveillance, however in those situations it is necessary in order to protect the safety of employees and not just the company's assets. However, I am vehemently opposed to surveillance in the form of "secret shoppers".
For one, these reports are highly unreliable. Most of them are comprised of a list of steps that an employee is supposed to hit during the course of the service transaction. For the employee, this means saying and doing the same thing in every situation, and leaves little to no room for flexibility to tailor the service to the individual needs of the client.
In my current job we have secret shoppers, and one of our marks is to inform the customers about our featured wines by the glass. However, if I have a customer who is obviously pregnant, I'm not going to describe the full bodied Merlot to her. If she happens to be a secret shopper, I would be marked down for not hitting this step. Just like if there are no crumbs on the table in between courses, and so I don't wipe the table for crumbs, I could be marked down on a secret shopper report for not doing it.
I tailor my service to my guests, and refuse to follow a script. My managers know I am a good server because they receive compliments about me, observe my work first hand, and know that I rarely make mistakes or create problems during my shifts. In my opinion, if they still felt the need for a secret shopper report on me to evaluate my service, then they are not properly doing their job as managers.
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I also had to deal with a secret shopper program when I worked at Slaveway, er, Safeway. If a customer asked where an item was in the store, we had to take them directly to the item, or we would lose points. Sometimes the item was within view, so physically walking the person over seemed kind of ridiculous. Also, we were supposed to offer carry-outs to everyone. Does this mean we need to offer someone help out with their pack of gum? Another one was the "thank by the last name" thing. I'm sorry, but some names are pretty hard to pronounce.
ReplyDeleteWhat really was frustrating for me about this system was the fact that it didn't serve to show off our good customer service skills, but to highlight our bad ones and our mistakes.
During my brief time with Starbucks, I was warned about the possibility of secret shoppers. Fortunately, I didn't encounter any during my time there. The particular Starbucks kiosk where I worked took great pride in the awards they had received over the years for high marks on received by secret shoppers. I don't think I have worked in any other retail positions that took into account secret shoppers. I think with the corporate world, every person you encounter is a "secret shopper." Your work, attitude, etc. could be recounted by a colleague or manager to your manager and your manager could use this to either compliment you or reprimand you.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to retail secret shoppers, I know this is terrible but when I get really bad service, I always think to myself how I wish I was a secret shopper. I know I could say something to the person but sometimes that's not enough and being able to have written documentation about poor service seems to be a better way of getting the person to change their behavior.