You’ve created policies, trained your employees, and established procedures to keep your small business running smoothly. But sooner or later, a customer will bring you a situation your handbook doesn’t cover. Customers have a knack for that.
In “Every Company Needs a ‘Reasonable Department,’” customer service expert Shep Hyken explores an idea shared by Bryan Stoller: your team needs the judgment and empathy to handle situations that fall outside standard procedures. That means recognizing an unusual issue, getting it to someone who can help, finding a reasonable resolution, and learning from the experience.
For your business, that raises a practical question: How do you know whether your team can do this? Mystery shopping can help you see how your service standards hold up when an interaction requires more than a routine answer.
Look Beyond Whether Your Employees Followed the Rules
Following a procedure matters. But you also need to know whether following that procedure helped your customer. Imagine a customer asks for an item that’s out of stock. Your employee checks availability and politely confirms that you don’t have it. The information is accurate, and the employee may have followed every required step. Yet your customer still has an unmet need.
Could your employee suggest a suitable alternative? Check another location? Explain when the item might return and how the customer can find out?
A well-designed mystery shopping evaluation can examine both procedural accuracy and the effort your employee makes to help. You can assess whether your team asks useful questions, explains available options, and provides a clear next step.
You don’t need every interaction to end with a purchase or an exception. You do need your customers to feel that someone understood their request and made a thoughtful effort. A checklist can capture what happened; observations about the interaction help you understand how well it worked.
Give Your Team Clear Authority and a Mandate
“Use your best judgment” sounds empowering. Without clear boundaries, however, it can leave your employees wondering whether helping a customer will get them into trouble. That’s why your team needs to understand which decisions they can make independently, which require approval, and whom to contact when they need support. You can make that guidance concrete with examples, such as offering an approved alternative, correcting a minor service error, or referring a request to a manager.
Mystery shopping can help you examine how those arrangements work in practice. Using realistic scenarios agreed upon in advance, you can discover whether your employees explain options confidently or struggle to find someone authorized to help.
Pay attention to the handoff, too. Does your customer receive a clear explanation of what happens next? Does the employee share the relevant details with the manager, or does your customer have to start the story all over again?
Reasonable service still needs boundaries. Clear authority helps you deliver flexibility fairly and consistently while giving your employees the confidence to act.
Turn Service Friction Into Better Training and Policies
When a mystery shopping report reveals a difficult interaction, you have an opportunity to investigate what made it difficult.
Perhaps an employee needs coaching. Perhaps your instructions are unclear. Or perhaps your policy creates a problem that even a capable, caring employee cannot resolve. One observation can prompt a useful conversation. Repeated observations can help you identify a pattern. If several employees struggle with the same request, examine the guidance and resources you’ve given them before assuming each person has a performance problem.
Use your findings to practice realistic scenarios during training, clarify escalation procedures, and update policies that repeatedly create unnecessary frustration. Recognize employees who listen carefully and find appropriate solutions, too. Their approach may offer a useful example for the rest of your team.
Then follow up. Additional mystery shops can help you assess whether your changes make the interaction clearer and easier for customers. That turns an evaluation into an ongoing process of learning and improvement.
Help Your Team Handle the Moments That Matter
Your procedures provide a foundation for good service. Your employees also need the skills, confidence, and support to respond when a customer’s situation calls for thoughtful judgment.
At The Brandt Group, we bring over 30 years of experience and an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau to helping businesses like yours strengthen customer service. Our mystery shopping services help you identify gaps in the customer experience, while our leadership training seminars help you equip your team to address them.
Partner with us to strengthen customer loyalty, improve employee satisfaction, and support greater profitability. Contact The Brandt Group now to help your business reach new heights—one well-handled customer interaction at a time.
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