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GUEST
ARTICLE - Belinda Busoli and Tanya Busoli
The
Not-So-Mysterious Benefits of Mystery Shopping Your
Association
Mystery shopping is a tool that has been
used for decades by for-profit businesses wanting to look
at their business from the customer’s perspective.
Researchers are sent into a restaurant, a hotel, a
supermarket, or a hardware store to evaluate their
customer service experience. How long did it take for them
to be acknowledged by staff? Were their queries answered?
Were they encouraged to make a sale? Was it the right
sale? Did the staff member (or indeed owner) offer them
complementary products? Did they remember to mention the
current offer?
This is done in an attempt to determine
whether the business is meeting the needs of both the
customer and the business. Are the customer’s needs being
satisfied, and in an appropriate manner to facilitate
return business? Is the business making sales at every
given opportunity to facilitate profit?
A key difference between the examples
given and an association is tangibility. At a restaurant,
hotel, supermarket or hardware store you do not
necessarily have a product to take away, but you do
perceive a physical experience. Is the lighting too
bright? Is the cutlery clean? Is the food to your liking?
Are the queues fast-moving? These and many other elements
can be manipulated by the business to create a particular
experience.
In an association, you have fewer
opportunities to manipulate the tangible elements of your
members’ and prospective members’ service experiences. You
can’t touch, feel, smell or see an association. Therefore
people can only form a perception of the quality of the
organisation through their interactions and experiences
with you. It is essential that their perception of their
service experience is as positive as possible – both for
them and for your association.
The importance of perception to your
association
It is important to recognise that everyone
you deal with has an opinion of your association that is
revised, either consciously or subconsciously, after every
interaction with you. Therefore it is vitally important
that every interaction with members, prospective members
and other stakeholders is positive and continually
reinforces the image of your organisation that you wish to
convey.
Some of these interactions you can easily
control and monitor to ensure this occurs. For example:
the editor of the magazine controls content to ensure it
provides a positive reflection on the organisation, the
production of hardcopy brochures and information kits will
generally go through an approval process and material for
the website should be approved by someone.
But there are interactions that are harder
to control and monitor that will generally have a bigger
impact. These are those interactions that a member or
prospective member has with the staff and management of an
association – whether via phone, fax, email, post or in
person. For these kinds of interactions internal controls
are generally inadequate. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: I’ve just joined your
association. I decide to call for the first time to ask a
question. I call and the receptionist answers. She sounds
like she’s really busy. She’s not rude but the call sounds
a little rushed. Even though I got an answer to my
question I kind of feel like I’ve intruded or imposed on
her day. A little later in the year I decide to visit your
website. I’m quite excited to see you have an article from
someone I really respect in the industry. I click on the
link to view the text of the article but it doesn’t work.
I really want to read the article so I send an email to
the webmaster to let them know that the link isn’t working
and that I’d really like the information quickly. I don’t
get any reply to my email because it has gone to the
webmaster and not the association. When my renewal notice
comes in I decide not to renew because … well … “I didn’t
really use your services”..
Example 2: I’ve just joined your
association. I decide to call for the first time to ask a
question. I call and the receptionist answers with a
smile. I know she must be busy but she takes the time to
welcome me to the association (good use of database) and
lets me know about an upcoming seminar next week in my
area of interest. What a great service! I book over the
phone (income to the association). I have a great time at
the seminar. A little later in the year I decide to visit
your website. I’m quite excited to see you have an article
from someone I really respect in the industry. I click on
the link and view the text of the article. At the bottom
of the article is a link to a related book in your
bookshop which I purchase (income to the association) and
to a seminar on that topic by the author that the
association is hosting which I book for online (more
income to the association). I send an email to the address
on the website to say how great it was that I’m accessing
so much great information. Within a couple of hours I get
an email back saying “thanks for the feedback”. When my
renewal notice comes in what do you think I am going to
do?
From the association’s perspective, in
both examples, all they “experienced” was a single call to
their office and a hit on their website. Yet these two
simple interactions gave the member a strong opinion of
the association and influenced their renewal decision.
That is why exceptional customer service in all aspects of
member, prospective member and stakeholder interactions is
essential for the success of your organisation.
As an association manager it is imperative
that you have mechanisms in place to enable you to
experience your association from the members’ perspective
– mechanisms such as mystery shopping.
Why mystery shopping?
Mystery shopping allows you to monitor and
assess the perceptions that are being generated by your
interactions with members and stakeholders. Mystery
shopping involves having people assume the roles of
member, prospective member or other stakeholders and then
undertake interactions with your organisation. These
interactions could include calling your offices, attending
events or training courses, visiting your website or
calling your alliance partners to gauge the service they
provide to your members.
The benefits of mystery shopping your
organisation
The benefits of a formal program of
mystery shopping include the:
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Effective ongoing monitoring of customer
service levels within the organisation.
-
Opportunity to ensure that
organisational standards and policies are adhered to.
-
Ability to identify weaknesses in your
current processes.
-
Attainment of a better understanding of
the perceptions you are fostering amongst stakeholders.
-
Creation of an exceptional customer
service focus in your organisation as it motivates staff
to provide good customer service always.
-
Improvement in staff moral – as good
customer service is recognised and rewarded and poor
achievers are given training to enable them to improve
their performance.
-
Increase in member recruitment and
retention levels as a result of the improved customer
service and processes.
How to undertake a mystery shopping
program
For those organisations looking to
conserve cash you can conduct mystery shopping in-house.
Organise your friends and family to contact your
association, posing as current or potential members, to:
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seek details of membership or upcoming
events;
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sign up as members;
-
book into a training course;
-
call association staff posing as
prospective members, conference attendees, etc;
-
try and find information, book for
events or make purchases on the association website;
and/or
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sign up for email and hard copy
publications.
Once you have compiled their feedback,
list the issues that have emerged, your strengths and
weaknesses. Determine if those issues are personnel or
process related. Develop a plan to correct issues and
overcome weaknesses. By undertaking regular mystery
shopping and quickly communicating the broad results to
staff it reinforces the fact that exceptional customer
service is important. Combine this with customer service
training and/or rewarding staff who perform well and you
should see marked improvements in member satisfaction
levels.
However it is generally more effective to
utilise professional mystery shoppers who can provide you
with unbiased feedback, and who will generally have very
limited prior knowledge of your association and its staff
members. They will be able to produce a report that
provides examples of mystery shops and an overall summary
of how effective their interaction were. In addition their
anonymity means that all people in the organisation, as
appropriate and including yourself, can be shopped. The
results are also more likely to be better received by
staff members and avoid the feeling of being spied on.
A few examples of issues that we have
uncovered recently include:
-
Calls to eleven staff members at a
number of state offices for one national association
found that only one staff member knew the cost of
membership, and only four could list the benefits of
being a member.
-
Seven messages from a “prospective
member” were not returned.
-
A shopper who specifically said she
wanted to book into a workshop did not end up doing so.
-
A nonprofit website had no information
about membership on the website nor any way to enquire
about membership. An email sent to the “contact us”
email address requesting information was not answered.
-
A query to an email address was
responded to in a very friendly but unhelpful manner,
despite the ease with which the information could have
been found.
-
After joining it was four months before
the first edition of the magazine was received.
-
Four weeks for information requested
urgently to be posted.
-
Renewal notices issued with a large red
sticker proclaiming “payment due in 7 days or legal
action will be taken”.
-
Receptionists with extremely poor, even
outright rude, phone manners.
-
Information packages received with
illegible handwriting and membership forms copied so
often that they were unreadable.
-
Information sent out with no cover
letter.
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Shopper’s contact details not kept for
future follow-up.
-
Shopper’s contact details kept but no
follow-up occurring.
If you were considering joining an
association and came across any of these examples of
service it is likely you would be discouraged from
joining. Mystery shopping enables you to ensure that these
things aren’t happening in your association.
Informing staff about the mystery
shopping program
Opinion seems to be divided on whether or
not to inform staff about the fact that mystery shopping
is taking place. We have always left that decision up to
the client. However the trend is for the initial mystery
shop to be conducted without informing staff to accurately
gauge existing customer service levels. This first mystery
shop is treated as an investigative tool only with adverse
action only rarely taken against staff members in extreme
cases. Future mystery shops can be compared against these
initial results to determine improvements.
After reporting the findings back to the
organisation all staff are then informed that regular
mystery shops will be undertaken at regular intervals. It
is important to bear in mind that – if staff do know
mystery shopping is taking place – the shops will need to
occur over a long period to avoid the shoppers being
identified.
The purpose of the initial mystery shop
will determine who in the organisation will be shopped.
Occasionally we are asked to shop all staff – including
management – for fairness’ sake. However, it is more
natural to shop topics than people – members and
prospective members are unlikely to ask to be put through
to your Finance Officer to find out about membership,
however you may be interested to know you’re your Finance
Officer answers more calls than your Receptionist and
therefore answers more membership enquiries. In a recent
mystery shop we undertook we discovered that almost all
enquiries were directed to one person in the organisation,
despite the open availability of information to all staff.
When informing staff about mystery
shopping it is important that it is communicated in a way
that does not create an atmosphere of distrust or fear. It
is simply an information gathering process that allows you
to determine whether your processes and procedures are
working, and whether staff are distributing the right
information and are comfortable actually making sales.
A point to note here is that often we have
found that management has performed more poorly than staff
in these initial mystery shopping expeditions, or has
failed to inform staff. In some of these cases poor
customer service skills by staff can be traced directly
back to the poor example provided by management for staff
and a lack of emphasis by management on the importance of
exceptional member service.
Who is responsible for customer
service?
It is important to note that a less than
optimal experience with a staff member does not
necessarily reflect that staff members’ devotion to their
role. Instead it can be a reflection of inadequate
management support.
It is the responsibility of management to
provide an environment in which exceptional customer
service can thrive. It is through exceptional customer
service that favourable perceptions are created within the
marketplace. It is management’s role to:
-
Set customer service standards –
let people know what is considered good service. For
example, instigate a policy that phones must be answered
within three rings, and that all staff are to ensure
that the organisation adheres to the policy, it is not
the sole responsibility of the receptionist.
-
Provide staff with information –
give staff the information they need to answer
questions. Create a common resource base (whether
through your computer network or a manual) where
information is kept, including frequently asked
questions.
-
Empower staff to provide solutions
– ensure staff have the authority to provide solutions.
Give them guidelines so that they know of any
boundaries.
-
Train staff – have staff attend
customer service training, or bring in customer service
speakers reasonably regularly to keep customer service
top of mind and to keep staff motivated. Staff will gain
skills and also realise that customer service is a key
priority of the association.
-
Pass on feedback – when good
feedback on customer service levels is received from
members pass it around and congratulate staff on a good
job. Pass on adverse feedback in private.
-
Reduce distractions – from a
flickering overhead light to cheap toilet paper there
are quite often annoying or inconvenient things in an
office environment that could be fixed reasonably
cheaply. Find out what things are frustrating your staff
and have them fixed. Reducing distracting annoyances can
create a more productive working environment.
-
Build satisfaction – happy and
motivated people are more likely to provide higher
standards of customer service. By creating a good
working environment you are fostering customer service.
This environment can be created through showing staff
that you care about them as people, involving them in
the organisation and showing them that their opinions
can make a difference, showing appreciation for a job
well done and only ever criticizing staff behind closed
doors. Create an atmosphere that people will enjoy being
in each day.
-
Recognise the role of each staff
member – ensure staff are aware of the importance of
their role in the association. Everyone in the
association – from the receptionist to the executive
director – has a valuable part to play in the smooth
running of the organisation.
-
Foster communication – encourage
your staff to express themselves. Staff are at the
frontline of the organisation. They may have opinions
and ideas that could make the association a fortune – or
save a fortune. They may just be reluctant to share
their ideas. Foster an environment where staff feel
comfortable expressing ideas – safe in the knowledge
their ideas will be listened to, considered and, if
implemented, they will be acknowledged for their
contribution.
-
Recognise the role of senior
management – the role of senior management is to
lead by example and to motivate and encourage
exceptional customer service. Staff will take their lead
from the top. So people at the top should act as they
wish their staff to behave.
-
Mystery shop – conduct regular
mystery shopping. Reward staff who perform well in these
mystery shops. Use this mystery shopping to identify
weaknesses in your processes that lead to sub optimal
customer service – for example “contact us” links on the
website with incorrect email addresses.
Conclusion
Ensuring that your
stakeholders have a good perception of your organisation
is vital to the success of your association. A key
contributing factor to the creation of favourable
perceptions is the provision of exceptional customer
service. By undertaking regular mystery shopping you can
monitor customer service levels in your organisation and
take action when necessary to ensure that your customer
service levels are conducive to the creation of favourable
perceptions.
Belinda Busoli and
Tanya Busoli are association marketing specialists and
partners in the
Association Marketing Network. AMN provides specialist
marketing resources, training and advice to the nonprofit
sector.
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