OK, a bit of a rant regarding mystery shops. Our store is small, probably the smallest in the area. As such, we don't have actual staffed departments for some stuff (floral, pharmacy), just displays/aisles. The building is pretty old--from the 70's--and as such has some physical/cosmetic issues that nobody can do anything about because Corp doesn't want to spend the money. Floors are a disaster? The sand the town dictates we must use in the winter tears up the tiles, after a certain point waxing no longer helps. The ceiling in the locker room has a big-ass hole in it.
I was in the other day to work on a project I had proposed, and got a peek at our mystery shop checklist. Scores of 0 on a lot of stuff that is beyond our control at the store level (ultimately, there's a scheduling/staffing problem).
"Associate was available for help in bake shop"...unless the bakery manager is in, we may not even have anyone behind the counter as we don't have enough people trained for bakeshop. All we can do is page someone and hope that whoever responds is trained in cake decorating/using the bread slicer.
"Associate was available for help in florist"...we don't have a florist department. The only thing we can do is page someone to the display.
"Associate was available in the aisles to help customer"...Not our problem if you don't know what our uniform looks like. I've seen mystery shoppers ask vendor reps for help (and then, predictably, give a low score because the poor Goya rep didn't know where the Lean Cuisine flatbread whatever was).
"Associate led customer to the product"...I don't know about anyone else, but personally I'm a bit put off by someone leading me exactly where X is in a grocery store (the way I see it, it wastes the employee's time). Get me within 5 feet and I'll be fine. As we're understaffed in general, at times if I'm asked where something is I can't drop everything (helping another customer or three, on my way to the backroom with hands full of something messy, cleaning up a spill which per policy I cannot leave until the area is dry). If I can do this I will (I always do for disabled customers), but for obvious product like pasta or cereal a general direction should be sufficient for the average customer.
We're supposed to be 'meeting and greeting' every customer that comes within...I think it's 3 feet. So if there are two of us in the same aisle we're both supposed to ask the customer if they need help. I don't think anyone really does this...it seems silly to ask 'do you need help finding something' when the customer is already deciding on pasta sauce.
There was 7 pages of this nonsense, but I only got to glance at the first sheet.
I was in the other day to work on a project I had proposed, and got a peek at our mystery shop checklist. Scores of 0 on a lot of stuff that is beyond our control at the store level (ultimately, there's a scheduling/staffing problem).
"Associate was available for help in bake shop"...unless the bakery manager is in, we may not even have anyone behind the counter as we don't have enough people trained for bakeshop. All we can do is page someone and hope that whoever responds is trained in cake decorating/using the bread slicer.
"Associate was available for help in florist"...we don't have a florist department. The only thing we can do is page someone to the display.
"Associate was available in the aisles to help customer"...Not our problem if you don't know what our uniform looks like. I've seen mystery shoppers ask vendor reps for help (and then, predictably, give a low score because the poor Goya rep didn't know where the Lean Cuisine flatbread whatever was).
"Associate led customer to the product"...I don't know about anyone else, but personally I'm a bit put off by someone leading me exactly where X is in a grocery store (the way I see it, it wastes the employee's time). Get me within 5 feet and I'll be fine. As we're understaffed in general, at times if I'm asked where something is I can't drop everything (helping another customer or three, on my way to the backroom with hands full of something messy, cleaning up a spill which per policy I cannot leave until the area is dry). If I can do this I will (I always do for disabled customers), but for obvious product like pasta or cereal a general direction should be sufficient for the average customer.
We're supposed to be 'meeting and greeting' every customer that comes within...I think it's 3 feet. So if there are two of us in the same aisle we're both supposed to ask the customer if they need help. I don't think anyone really does this...it seems silly to ask 'do you need help finding something' when the customer is already deciding on pasta sauce.
There was 7 pages of this nonsense, but I only got to glance at the first sheet.
Comment