Mystery Shoppers Get Paid to Gripe
By Dana Flavelle, Business Reporter, The Toronto Star
KEITH BEATY/The Toronto Star
SERVICE SPY:Mystery shopper David Lipton
tries out the soup at a downtown Toronto hotel.
If you've ever waited an eternity for a restaurant meal, tried
to find a helpful clerk in a nearly vacant department store, or
been put on hold by a telephone answering device, you want to meet
David Lipton and Craig Henry. They're professional consumers.
They get paid to shop - anywhere from $40 for a one-time restaurant
visit to $1,600 for a two-day hotel stay complete with an in-depth
assessment of all services. And they get paid to complain - something
the rest of us don't do very often or very well, they say.
"Canadians get the service they deserve," says Lipton.
"Americans and Europeans would never put up with the service
we get." In fact, that's one of the big reasons, especially
retailers, are starting to pay more attention to the service they
provide.
In the much ballyhooed global economy, where we're all competing
with companies beyond our borders and in some cases - such as Wal-Mart
- foreign firms that are invading our turf, it's no longer good
enough to just send out the sales staff with instructions to smile.
Bad service isn't confined to the obvious stuff, like surly cashiers
and hotel staff who can't give directions to major tourist attractions.
It's more subtle.
Did the airline reservations agent thank you for choosing Air Whatever
- and did they sound like they meant it? Did the department store
clerk think to
ask whether you needed batteries for your new tape recorder?
Some of it, they say, just makes good business sense, like encouraging
restaurant staff to "up-sell" the customer. If you can
get customers to order cake with their coffee, it not only boosts
the restaurant's sale, but increases the size of the waiter's tip.
That's one of the reasons why two short years after launching their
business, Sensors Quality Management has a long list of well-known
clients, including the Delta Chelsea Hotel, Arby's restaurants,
Sears, the Deerhurst Inn and the Colony Hotel.
Mystery shoppers - as they're called in the industry - aren't new.
But they're in growing demand. "Service is the basis of the
business," says Pradeep Puri, a controller at a major downtown
hotel that uses mystery shoppers. "It costs you more to get
a new customer than to keep one. Unfortunately, a lot of companies
are still not where they should be."
"It's an important tool to ensure we measure up to the standards
we've set," says Gray Sisson, whose company SIR Corp. owns
a string of restaurants, including Jack Astors, Walt's Beanery and
the Armadillo Texas Grill. You think it's easy being a waiter? Staff
at Sisson's restaurants must measure up to a 100-point checklist
that includes things like: Was the appetizer served within five
minutes? Did the server check on the main course within two minutes
of serving it? Did the customer have to ask for the bill?
Not surprisingly, the union that represents many hotel and restaurant
workers isn't keen on the concept. After all, would you want a corporate
spy looking over your shoulder? "We're totally opposed to them,"
says Bryan Neath, a spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial
Workers union. For one thing, there may be good reasons the staff
can't measure up, he says. "Was the staff cut in half that
day? Was the line-up seven miles deep? Did the cashier have time
to think let alone greet the customer in a friendly way?
"Why don't companies spend the money they spend on mystery
shoppers to train the employees? In most cases, in retail, there's
no training whatsoever in customer service," Neath adds. But
Lipton and Henry say they're on the workers' side. More training
is exactly that they're trying to promote. Their reports aren't
supposed to be used to slap anyone's wrists. And they're quick to
give credit where it's due. Besides, Lipton and Henry both know
what it's like to be on the other side of the cash register. Both
have degrees in restaurant and hotel management from Ryerson Polytechnic
University, and both worked in the hotel and restaurant business
before opening their business.
So they know what's reasonable to expect. And what's not. Sometimes,
they'll go to extremes just to see how the staff will react. They've
gone into exclusive clothing stores wearing ripped T-shirts and
a three-day-old beard to see whether it's the security staff, not
the clerk, who approaches them first.
They've insisted on "turn down service" - chocolates
on the pillow, drapes drawn, lights dimmed, bedcovers turned down
- in hotels that don't normally provide it. Things most of us wouldn't
even dream of demanding. In fact, most of us don't complain enough.
Do complain, they say. Don't shout or use abusive language. Bear
in mind the waiter or store clerk may not have the authority to
bend the rules or meet special requests. Ask for the supervisor
or manager, and keep climbing the corporate ladder until you're
either satisfied or can't go any higher.
For Lipton, mystery shopping is a natural occupation. He's a born
consumer advocate, the kind of guy who'll call the company president
directly if he doesn't get the kind of service he expects. Sometimes
it pays off.
Now, if Sensors can just land that contract with Club Med, checking
the service at its world-wide chain or resorts, life would be perfect.
"Can't you just see my lying on the beach drinking pina coladas?"
Lipton asks with a grin.
Copyright © The Toronto Star, 1995
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