Snap Shot Of Your Business

Secret shopping comes in many different shapes and forms. In my business, we have the unique opportunity to have people come into our store to shop us looking and acting like someone who are interested in buying a product from us. They have particular things they are listening for us to say, they look around at the merchandising and then we get a report sent out to all the mangers. After we get those reports, it is up to us how we use those reports, to performance manage our teams.

Many people use excuses as to why they did not score high on these secret shops. I hear anything from, I was caught off guard or I had just got through talking care of three customers in a row, or whatever. When a secret shopper walks into our store, they have no intention on buying anything, but they are giving us a snap shot of how we take care of our actual customer base. Of course, we are not able to listen in on or get feedback from every shopper that graces our entryway, but through this method, we get a glimpse of how our employees are really treating our customers. 

As a manager, even I am secret shopped on occasion. I have to answer the same rules that I want my people to follow. Secret shopping is an awesome way to ensure that the coaching we are doing, as managers, are not ignored. I for one am thankful that a company as large as mine has decided to invest a lot of money to ensure that our employees are taking care of our customers. We have to realize, that if do not take care of our customers, we will not be in business much longer.

In the self storage industry, a shopper may call you on a busy day or at the end of the month. Even more important, a customer will always call on those days. We can explain away why we didn’t shine on our secret shop; we don’t have the opportunity to make excuses to our customers. They deserve our best every time we answer the phone or see their face.

If you’re in the self storage industry, it’s up to you to implement your secret shopping program when you receive the reports and call recordings. Take advantage of the opportunity to see your business through the eyes of your self storage customer and make a plan of how you can improve.

Just in case you were thinking it and did not want to ask, I scored a 92%. Not to shabby, but that just means that even we managers still have some work to do.

Joel Little, Experienced Manager.

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