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Secret Shoppers . . . ugh.
Haven't seen them at the Litter Box, but WD used them when they were still here . . . and usually the things they'd take of points for were inaccurate.
Back at the Lawndale store, we had one filled with so man inaccuracies that our store manager listed each one and gave information (backed up by documentation and logs) of what actually was on the day of the supposed "visit.".
For example, SS claimed that we had a lot of shopping carts outside and trash was almost overflowing in the outside cans. Logs showed that carts were brought in and there were a fewer number recorded in the log during the time frame SS claimed to be in the store. Same with trash level (we had logs which were filled out several times during the workday and initialed by whomever was doing the check during opening, mid morning, early afternoon, late afternoon and closing.)
Also, SS listed that there were no people working in certain departments (time and attendance records on the store computer can tell who was working at any given time in any department) or they were helped by , say "Mary" (when it was actually Jane who was working said department at the time of the visit. We had nobody in our store with the name "Mary.") Or if they were giving a physical description of an employee, it was way off (such as a older caucasian female in Deli when it was actually an African-American middle aged male working the Deli at the time.)
Needless to say, WD did away with those secret shops not long after our manager complained and blew everything out the water off that report (tuned out several stores were getting bad scores and finding numerous inaccuracies in reporting.)
And I've already had my fill of the Dog and Pony shows at my store, but I'll save that for a separate thread so we don't hijack this one.
But I will say this much overall: Corporate believes what they want to see, not how things actually are. When you hire folks for corporate positions right off the street with college degrees instead of promoting from within the ranks, you'll more than likely end up with people who have no clue how an actual store runs or what customers DO expect and want.
Haven't seen them at the Litter Box, but WD used them when they were still here . . . and usually the things they'd take of points for were inaccurate.
Back at the Lawndale store, we had one filled with so man inaccuracies that our store manager listed each one and gave information (backed up by documentation and logs) of what actually was on the day of the supposed "visit.".
For example, SS claimed that we had a lot of shopping carts outside and trash was almost overflowing in the outside cans. Logs showed that carts were brought in and there were a fewer number recorded in the log during the time frame SS claimed to be in the store. Same with trash level (we had logs which were filled out several times during the workday and initialed by whomever was doing the check during opening, mid morning, early afternoon, late afternoon and closing.)
Also, SS listed that there were no people working in certain departments (time and attendance records on the store computer can tell who was working at any given time in any department) or they were helped by , say "Mary" (when it was actually Jane who was working said department at the time of the visit. We had nobody in our store with the name "Mary.") Or if they were giving a physical description of an employee, it was way off (such as a older caucasian female in Deli when it was actually an African-American middle aged male working the Deli at the time.)
Needless to say, WD did away with those secret shops not long after our manager complained and blew everything out the water off that report (tuned out several stores were getting bad scores and finding numerous inaccuracies in reporting.)
And I've already had my fill of the Dog and Pony shows at my store, but I'll save that for a separate thread so we don't hijack this one.
But I will say this much overall: Corporate believes what they want to see, not how things actually are. When you hire folks for corporate positions right off the street with college degrees instead of promoting from within the ranks, you'll more than likely end up with people who have no clue how an actual store runs or what customers DO expect and want.
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