When you employ people either for a restaurant, store or other such business where the employees are in regular touch with the public, you need to be sure you employ people with the right skills and people approach. This is not always easy as though first impressions count, they can also turn out to be mistaken later. Using the services of mystery shopping companies to help you to recruit the right type of staff could save you trouble down the line. What is mystery shopping? Mystery shopping companies are a group of professional people who specialise in sizing up people with regard to their suitability for particular jobs. It is like a covert operation where they observe but are unknown to the potential candidate. If the job is for a post in a Department store, the mystery shopping people would observe how the store staff members interact with the clients while they go about their shopping. Later they are able to report to the management on the plus and minus points of such interaction. Action to be taken After getting a report from the mystery shopping companies as the store or restaurant owner you can draw up an action plan on how to coach the staff members to improve the standard of their performance. Areas for improvement • Since there would normally be areas for improvement you can start by discussing with the employees the areas where they excel and the areas where improvement is required. • If there are some employees who have performed exceedingly well you can use their performance as an example for others to follow. Performances are not necessarily limited to front line areas. Even in places like the warehouse where the public need service, improvement methods can be introduced. • Nothing works like being rewarded for good service. To this end you can set up a reward programme. Those staff members who are able to shine in the list provided by mystery shopping can be rewarded suitably. This will also act as an incentive for other employees to works towards this reward. Upgrading of company procedures Sometimes it is not just the employee performance that is required to improve the business. When you employ mystery shopping to help you to upgrade your business there could be areas where as an owner you would need to make some changes. These changes could apply to the standard procedures you have in place, to the property itself or to furniture and equipment. So in the final analysis how successful you would like your business to run, rests with you. By employing the services of mystery shopping you will be able to identify and rectify any problems that might be hurting the business. Since mystery shopping companies does not only give negative feedback, you will also be able to see which good procedures are in place and whether they need to be upgraded from good to excellent. It is a system that will help you immensely in making the right moves and putting your business on the top rungs of the service industry.
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