Mystery Shopper Invades Bank


by Self-Storage-Owner - Date: 2008-08-04 - Word Count: 583 Share This!

She was a young mother working as a mystery shopper at her local bank. She was hired by a financial service firm to evaluate the service received by customers. She entered the bank posing as a normal customer armed with a list of questions the company provided. She observes the friendliness of the staff and how fast she is waited on.

Many banking institutions are able to differentiate themselves from their competitors with the advent of ATMs and Internet banking. Customer satisfaction is higher and productivity increases. The financial institutions success depends partially on how good the employees performance is. They hire a mystery shopper from a research firm that specializes in evaluating the performance of banks.

The bank shoppers use a different technique such as face to face, through the internet and video assessments as well as over the telephone and through the postal system. When doing a face to face shop, the mystery shopper evaluates the sales and service level of the employee while a telephone shop allows the shopper to judge courteous communications from the staff.

The shopper must evaluate the quality of service received and find areas that need improvement. They assess the managerial roles and how the employees interact with the customer. They evaluate the effectiveness of the teller staff, analyzing how well the staff listens to the customer, how friendly they are and how much time the customers must wait for a teller. Another area the shopper evaluates is the personnels knowledge of the banks services and products.

After evaluating the service and performance of the employees, she submits a report to the branch manager, normally through the research company that hired her. The report measures any changes in performance over time. The reports include a comparison of branches within a region and provide recommendations to further train and modify behaviors.

She was able to find the job by doing a search on the internet and visiting the MSPA website that lists companies hiring shoppers. The searchable database let her locate companies and local assignments. She also visited shoppers forums to learn of the legitimate firms to apply to. She filled out an online application that asked for demographic information. These personal questions were used to match her to an appropriate assignment. She knew she wanted to evaluate service businesses so those are the ones she applied for. She applied with several mystery shopper sites.

She never paid a fee to apply to any company. Any legitimate company does not charge a fee to apply.

Before beginning any assignment she inquired about out of pocket expenses and if any special training was needed. She checked instructions that the company provided carefully prior to any job. She followed them to get the information exactly as the company wanted. Once she finished a job, she immediately filled out the report with precise answers, proofreading for grammatical and spelling errors. She gave opinions only when asked for and reported the real facts that she observe

Sometimes she visited the banks during rush hour to get a good idea of how the staff really performs when they have many customers to deal with. Other times she visited during a slow time when she knew staff would have time to be polite. She always left her mood and personality at home when she did a shop.

She has found great satisfaction visiting banks as a mystery shopper . She is providing a valuable service to not only the bank but its customers as well.

Related Tags: home based business, management, mystery shopping, mystery shopper, customer service, secret shopping, secret shopper, quality assurance, stay home mom

Source Secret Shopping

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