The “Steps of Service” is used by many organizations to describe the process they want their associates to follow when interacting with their guests. They may include everything form initially greeting the client when they arrive to thanking them for their business when they leave – and potentially every step in between.
Mystery shopping can absolutely help you determine if your steps of service are being followed and executed. For many organizations, this is critical to their brand identity.
Receiving a Mystery Shop Report that details whether these steps were followed is nothing more than a report card. It tells you how your organization did – by looking in the rear view mirror. The key to building your culture is how you use this information.
Here are some rules of the road if you really want to make an impact to your culture:
- Understanding the Mystery Shop Report is just a tool to help you manage your business.
- When you receive the report, let the associate review the information.
- Set a time (5 – 10 minutes) for you and the associate to discuss the Mystery Shopping Report.
- Ask the associate what they thought they did well. Make sure you reinforce the positive behaviors! You don’t want these to stop.
- Ask what they thought could be improved. You’ll find that many associates are harder on themselves than you will ever be. You may even find procedures that need to be modified or improved.
- Here’s the critical step – create an Action Plan to reinforce the positive behaviors and modify the improvement areas.
- Make a copy of the Action Plan for you and your associate. This is a great tool for performance reviews and follow-up conversations. Catch the associate doing things right and celebrate their successes!
Let’s face it; your associates aren’t robots. Your culture is built on incremental successes that are repeated consistently to help you create Exuberant Customers.
