PET PRODUCT NEWS ARTICLE

FOR MAY 2006

“Secret Shoppers Help Secure Superior Service”
by Paula and Lewis Turner
Special to Pet Product News

Before delving into this month’s topic, we wanted to say “thanks” to all of you visiting our website! Your comments have been extremely significant in addition to great suggestions for future discussions. By the way, we definitely hit a nerve with some issues, like… “Thou Shalt Not Share?” (November 2005).

We hope to provide you with insight on how to make the most from the secret shopper service, reduce cost, and obtain more reliable information. Sounds like a tall order, but we’ll give it a go.

The secret shopper is nothing new to our industry: An outside company provides people to come into your store with an agenda - generally made up from criteria you provide. Often, the company will offer suggestions that you can modify. Once you’ve outlined what the shoppers need to assess… they come in, act like a customer, complete the questionnaire after their visit, and send you a report.

Your Checklist

Avoid making it too comprehensive. There is only so much a person can absorb and remember in a single visit.

Be specific. Questions like, “…how was your experience?” are way too vague. When gauging precise areas of concern, a rating system of 1 though 5 might be more helpful. Some of the following requests are easy to grade with yes/no or rating points:

• Did a staff member approach you?
• How long were you in the store before being approached?
• What was the greeting given?
• Rate the cleanliness and neatness of the aisles.
• Were there boxes or clutter in the aisles?
• Were staff talking amongst themselves or working on projects?
• Were any suggestions made to you during your visit?
• How many staff did you see in the store?
• Did the store smell clean?
• Were any add-on sales suggested?

It is beneficial to request that the shopper make a purchase, and then have the product and receipt mailed back. In this way, you will know what day/time they came, if the sale was wrung up correctly, and by whom.

Other considerations include having visitations on different days of the week and at various times. Provide a list of questions for the shopper to use. During the summer, flea infestation would be a great topic. If you’re promoting specific products, have them ask the staff about their use.

The criteria you provide should vary between departments. Example: Feedback on the sales floor would be different from that sought by your grooming service or puppy area.

One of our mistakes was trying to retrieve too much information on a single visit. We found it more productive to have the shopper focus on one specific area at a time. Example: How was the staff working on a delivery day? What was going on at the registers?

Now What?

What do you with the reports? Posting them could be productive. You might consider darkening out the shopper’s name and visitation date. It’s what the shopper observed that is important.

Rewards for good reports are always supportive. If an unfavorable report comes in, you might take that into consideration when financial inducements are provide for achieving specific goals.

Shop by Phone

Many shopper services will also provide reports on phone experiences and look at variables like:

• How many times did the phone ring before being answered?
• Did the staff follow your procedure for announcing your greeting?
• Was there a “smile” in their tone?
• Would you visit the store based on your phone experience?

We have used a number of different services and have finally come to a conclusion. Although the concept is good, the people sent were not. Many of these companies employ college students or retirees and advertise how cool is it to be paid for shopping. On many occasions, our staff was able to identify the shopper and found that most weren’t even pet owners. Regretfully, they were correct nearly all of the time.

Finally, the light bulb switched on! A better answer was right in front of us … our customers. We know they’re pet owners… and who better to provide information about your store than those who frequently visit?

Distributing fliers eliciting our patron’s assistance is now in the planning stage. Consider paying them with product. Most would probably enjoy the prospect of helping improve their favorite pet store!

Unquestionably, the secret shopper program can have a dramatic impact on your store, but only to the extent that you make it important. Working with your own customers instead of an outside service may be a more reliable resource. Assuredly, it will communicate your desire to achieve excellence.

If there are topics or issues you would like to see addressed in this column, please email us at lewisnpaula@petcarecompany.net and we’ll give it our best shot. To learn more go to: www.petcarecompany.net/great-reading.html

Lewis and Paula Turner own The PetCare Company in Hermosa Beach, Calif.