Overcoming Stage Fright

For those who’ve never mystery shopped, whether in-person or over-the-phone, you might feel apprehension before showtime. You might worry that you’ll miss an important detail, get tongue-tied when speaking with an employee, or even get found-out for being a shopper. These concerns are natural: most of us don’t have eidetic…
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Caveat Emptor – Let the Buyer Beware

As the proverb instructs us, buyers should always be vigilant when making purchases, even going so far as to say that it’s a buyer’s responsibility to evaluate a product before agreeing to part with his money. You’d be right to think this principle is a bit unfair; after all, sellers…
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Role-Play as a Training Tool

It’s no secret that most of us learn best by doing as opposed to merely watching, which is why so many trainers recommend using role-play to teach customer-service and sales techniques. As an article at Ready Training Online explains, “Think back to how you learned to drive a car and…
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Customer Service Never Goes Out of Style

The nature of time is that there aren’t many things that last. Trends come and go. New technologies replace old ones. Companies rise and fall. And whole industries sometimes transform into new ones altogether. If there is but one constant thread throughout all of this change and upheaval, however, is…
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Employee Retention and Customer Loyalty

All businesses should yearn for high customer loyalty. Loyalty, after all, means repeat-business and word-of-mouth. The sales that come from returning customers and referrals don’t come with the typical cost of customer acquisition that eats into the bottom line. In a sense, customer loyalty is a lot like free advertising.…
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A New Year

It surely goes without saying that 2020 was a difficult year for all of us. Pandemic. Social unrest. Lockdowns. Curfews. Questions about how to keep our businesses open or make ends meet haunted many of us. It’s no wonder that we’re so excited move into a new year. But we…
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Mystery Shopper Requirements

One of the first questions prospective mystery shoppers ask is what kind of training is required to succeed in this industry. There are many certification programs, for example, covering everything from shopper ethics to the nuances of different client industries (including dining, automotive sales, and so on). But which of…
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Creating Your Company Culture

The late Peter Drucker—regarded by many as the founder of modern business management—used to say that, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In other words, the collective expression of values is more important than plans of action. As The Management Centre explains, Drucker “didn’t mean that strategy was unimportant—rather that a…
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Principles for Great Management

Last blog, we discussed the qualities of great leadership, the personality traits someone has to either possess or develop to be effective at managing others. Today, let’s add some principles to these qualities. For inspiration, we’ll refer to an article at RunningRestaurants.com, which is geared towards restaurant management. As always,…
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