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We help businesses to grow so today's question is a very very interesting one a lot of business owners are trying to get your business on autopilot they want it systematize you know and so they want it to be able to work without them so that they can go for holidays they can go and enjoy their lives after burning at it for so long they want to be building other ventures I want to be doing other exciting stuff and I don't really want to be running the business on a day-to-day basis anymore but a lot of time we find that the minute we leave this nest yeah we're building it daily but the minute we leave and we go do other stuff the question mark we always have is how well is this one how well is this business doing how do we monitor it and the thing is this as business owners we don't want to have to find out that this business has gone past shaped when it has hit our bottom line that's the last thing that we want but what can business owners do to be able to find out before it happens so if you're like a lot of business owners I know especially if you are a fan of investing into retail businesses especially b2c business to customer b2c outlets need to have its feedback mechanism in place and so if you're really really interested to find out how you built this feedback mechanism in place do click on the link below I'd give you something to download but it's a guy to be able to build this mechanism in place so that you have a peace of mind you're going whoa okay I can go build other stuff without having to have sleepless night because you don't know if these companies are doing okay but you want to be able to create that feedback mechanism that tells you if your customers are still happy with your prices with your menu with the Porsche with the team with your gonna be able to find all that out and it's ignite a feedback mechanism buddy you need help with that please do more and download the stuff here but I want to be able to share two very powerful tips with you today and here it goes number one as a business you got to be able to tell the difference between a standard feedback system and a mystery shopper system yeah so there are two very very powerful mechanisms that you can put in place a standard feedback system or is a standard feedback system for you to you know I know very very good restaurants and some of the clients that we coach as well they put feedback forms on the table yeah they put feedback forms on the table and they asked very very general standard questions like did you enjoy the ambience did you enjoy the food did you enjoy the person that served you do you remember his name do you remember her name you know very very standard stuff and that you can put into some new more numerical marking and scoring as well now that's very very standard in most cases when those standard feedback mechanisms work is when your employees are actually asking your customers to do it if you leave it on the table and hope that your customers are gonna be all excited newsflash no one gets excited about that kinda stuff nobody just does that automatically they have to be requested and your server or whoever it's tending to the customer has got to be nice and it's got to ask properly with a good script so that your customers are willing to do that one of the things that we also do is this under the standard feedback mechanism you might want to be able to set some targets and some scores as well you know the number of customers that walk in or a number of customers that call in every every other week or every other month then do set a target because then this makes your team more proactive to be able to get some feedback as well so that might really really help but you got to be able to first tell the difference yeah point one or your standard feedback mechanism put back put that in place and it's a form that is very very simple to fill in it's not gonna be complicated don't go asking like 20 questions you know did you like this did you like that how did you compare the price what about our quality quality of our class quality of our whoo even if your employees begged the customer to do it they're not gonna do it okay that very specific questions kind of come in to the part number two which is the mystery shopper mechanism and I'm gonna tell you that in a little bit point number two our mystery shoppers mystery shoppers are an amazing service amazing platform I know a lot of companies that do that here professionally some of them are based here some of them are many of these companies are also based in Australia based in the UK but they're all helping retail chains to keep check on customer service food quality products services nor do we know so it's actually a professional service if you can find one that's pretty awesome but if you can't find one in the neck of the woods where you're at you can also do it yourself yeah so what's a mystery shopper mystery shopper are customers that get to use your service your service for free okay dying in your restaurant go for a massage in your place or you get to use the services for free in exchange for detailed observation yeah detailed observation so you could be running a hospital you could be running a clinic you could be running a spa a kindergarten whatever that you're running yeah you can always use a mystery shopper but how do you set up a good mystery shopper so here it goes a mystery shopper must be set up now could you do it on you know two three four or five times a day or even a week probably not you're probably gonna be able to do a mystery shopper once a week or once a month depending on how hard-working you are and you might want to get the mystery shoppers to be able to rotate across all your centers as well depending on how many you have but the mystery shopper needs to be up when I say setup there must be an a preliminary meeting between the mystery shopper and management so the mystery shopper of course is briefed on all the SOPs and the ways that the business should be running this is ideal these are the SOPs that we've trained a team over and over again so you should look out for all these steps and a mystery shoppers going huh how great so when this mystery shopper goes in she will be looking for all these things and she's got a very detailed questionnaire over here to see if this the the employee that serve you mentioned your name they offer you this new loyalty program they up-sell did they try to give you options alternatives if you reject it the first proposal Wow and we've got SOPs in place for that but we're just not sure if our employees are doing that and and that's why a bit of our upsell revenue has gone down so we will really want you to kind of check in on that and you're going whoa so a lot of mystery shoppers need to be prepped the mistake a lot of business people do is they send the mystery shopper in it's a brother or a niece or a cousin whatever just go right in go right in and talk to whoever and and tell us how you feel more often than not if some of you are already doing that what has the feedback been it's been awesome it's been great you have an awesome company a cousin your company's awesome big brother of course they would say that because number one they don't know how hard you've worked at the SOPs to be able to build it up so they're gonna say it's great as usual it's always good you know what's there to complain about but if they knew what the SOPs were what the initiatives were then their goal hmm well these guys didn't do that with me those guys didn't do that but you know there was no upsell no they just kind of let me go away they didn't take my phone number not then ask me for my name my business card nothing and you as the business owner are sitting over there just going wait a minute then why did I build all this SOPs for so a mystery shopper needs to be set up and a good other point that this is also this a Miss you need to find the right kind of mystery shopper don't get a mystery shopper find someone that doesn't shop doesn't like shopping don't like buying things you don't like buying things you're not critical you've got to choose there are a few good qualities here number one you gotta find someone that's critical very very observant they notice everything that's going on they'll pick up any brochure that's on their table they'll do talk to anybody they're just you create scenarios they do sometimes even create a complaint just for fun to see how your team handles it that could also be a very good one if you want if you are dealing with a lot of firefighting cases and you train your team and you want this mystery shopper to make a scene that's also possible you can get your mystery shoppers doing this and really testing at your team so this is very very powerful advice for you in setting up this other pot on the mission wise a bit of work but it definitely gives you a peace of mind business owners when you go build on other ventures and that mystery shopper report yeah it's also inside my guide it will come straight to you as the management and you can see exactly how well your businesses are doing as you go venture out doing other stuff a very good question that somebody else also asked me is this hey do mystery shoppers work for b2b the answer is yes you can do exactly the same thing you can get the mystery shopper to call right in go check up just call up the website developer website development company and designer and just do exactly the same thing again brief your mystery shopper what are a few things the the administrators and the website company is supposed to ask you check with you do you have a corner website you can find out all these things but the short answer to that b2b is also absolutely critical you have a mystery shopper a standard feedback mechanism as well as the mystery shop mechanism so guys get started on the do's and don'ts download my guide it's inside the description at the bottom and those of you who want to be able to get more information like this I offer a lot of tips and strategies do log on to my website www.rinaldin.com up with really really cool stuff and events very near you we're gonna keep you posted because guys remember this it's all about having a great business and a great life because being in business is about more life take care 

mystery shopping is a great way to earn extra cash whilst doing the things you normally do we want to make the world a happier place and believe we can do that one smile at a time secret customer Australia values you as a member of our team which is why we pay some of the best rate in the industry help us make customer service in Australia the best it can be and join the team today 

we answer the very simple question what's a retail shop and here's an email that I got dear wafak do your work at home FAQ what is a retail shop do you have to buy something do you have to spend your money or will they give you some are you supposed to keep the merchandise or do you send it back to the company good questions now last week we talked about whether or not you actually have to buy something when you're doing mystery shopping this week we're just gonna focus specifically on retail shops now retail shops they vary depending on the company depending on the client depending on what they're looking for that month it all just depends so just keep in mind your mileage may vary now generally you're not gonna receive money for any purchases before you head out and do the assignment it used to be that they would send out gift certificates but then the shoppers would take the gift certificates and not really complete the assignment so now if you have to pay money for any type of assignment especially a retail shop that'll be reimbursed to you later reimburse to you later yeah and keep in mind some mystery shopping companies have a really long pay period they may not pay you for another 30 or 60 days so just keep that in mind in terms of your own cash flow if you're spending like 100 or 200 dollars you're not gonna get that back for a little bit so keep that in mind now if a purchase is required they may have something specific for you to buy they may tell you okay go into this pet store and buy this specific product for the specific pet or they may have you go into a grocery store and say hey I want you to buy these canna beans you know they'll tell you exactly what they want you to buy if a purchase is required other times they may say you know what just go spend some money we don't really care just let us know what you bought send us a receipt but you know there's no specifications you don't have to get something actually specific it all just depends now if a purchase is required you may have to return the merchandise as part of the assignment we call this a PNR shop a purchase and return assignment so for example you'd go into like a shoe store and you'd buy some shoes and then you'd leave maybe for a couple hours maybe go do some other mystery shops and then you come back either later that day or the next day and you return the merchandise and then you return you evaluate the return procedure you know how long did it take did they ask you specific information when you're trying to do the return that type of thing so again it all just kind of depends now your compensation will either be pure compensation for the merchandise that you bought so they may say ok we'll reimburse you up to $50.00 go have fun and that's all that they're gonna pay you back for just $50 that's it up to $50 so if you spend more than that that's not going to be reimbursable only up to a certain amount or they'll do a partial compensation for what you buy and a partial compensation for actually doing the shop for filling out the form so with that they may say ok you're shopping allowance is $15 go have fun spend up to $15 or we'll reimburse you up to that amount and we'll give you another 10 or 15 for filling out the form ok that's another way that they'll they'll pay you for the shop or there's no compensation whatsoever for the merchandise in which case the merchandise may not be required you may not have to buy it because they're not reimbursing you for it and they'll just give you a flat fee for your time in which case if they're only paying you a flat fee for your time and they're not reimbursing you and you for any merchandise and if you have to buy it I'd say just return it later a couple days later you know not right away because you don't want to tip yourself off that you're a shopper but if they're not paying you for the merchandise they're only paying you a flat fee and you have to buy something that you don't want or return it later I've done that before okay now generally keep in mind you won't be sending the merchandise back to the mystery shopping companies now there are things that are called product intercepts that's different than a read shop that's where you get products you kind of evaluate them and then you send them to the company but that's different that's an intercept now of course if you do have to mail something back rarely but if you do your postage would then either be reimbursable or tax-deductible now if like I mentioned before if a purchase is required but not the return you can always return the merchandise on your own time and get your money back for the shop that way too of course if you're buying stuff like candy gum whatever at a gas station probably doesn't matter as much but if you're spending 20 30 40 bucks you probably want that money back if it's not something you actually need now what they're looking for on retail assignments you're gonna go in and you're gonna evaluate everything a lot of times you're evaluating the parking lots making sure they're nice and clean the entranceways make sure they're not overflowing with trash anything like that you look at the sales racks the lighting the music make sure it isn't too loud make sure it's appropriate music you check out the washrooms changing rooms if there are any generally you do have to interact with an employee they want to see how the interaction is how long it takes for someone to greet you and you know sometimes in the those big-box stores you're like walking around like does anyone work here anyone um so it may take Ohio so they're looking for some kind of interaction with an employee usually you ask them for a question or a suggestion whether or not they take you to the aisle where the product is or if they have suggestions for you if you're looking for a gift or something like that um also timing timing is important how long it takes for someone to greet you how long it takes for you to get through the checkout line how many checkout lines are open how many people are in each checkout line like is there only one line with 20 people or are there four lines with about three to four people each it all just kind of depends and again they may or may not be evaluating the return procedure as well so that's what they're looking for in a retail shop now they use this information oh wait first let me say what they're not looking for they're not looking for you to be a PITA that is a pain in the arse okay you're not go in there and just be obnoxious and try and trick people and you know that's not what you're there for you're there to tell them what they're doing right and how they can improve okay so you don't get to be a PITA not allowed now what they're going to do with this information they're gonna evaluate their sales programs so for example in a store if they have this huge sale on dining room furniture they want to make sure that the sales associate is hitting all the bullet points that the company wants them to hit when they're interacting with an employee sorry when they're interacting with a customer so you as the mystery shopper are gonna go in and see okay did they did they mention this to me and this to me and you know our warranty and I don't know the refund or the zero interest loans that we have you know they're gonna see if the employee hits all of those points and that's your job to make sure that they do they may decide to reconfigure merchandise arrangements if they have you go into a large store and you're looking for specific items they're gonna see how much of a scavenger hunt it is like how long does it take for you to find this one in this one in this one and you know how do these sales racks look and what is the overall appearance so they may reconfigure the merchandise just based on your own opinion and experience or they could use this information to train employees to help them get better at their own sales techniques or even give them bonuses if they hit all of the check marks that they were supposed to hit they may get a little bonus at the end of the month because they did it right so that's kind of the overall view on retail shops of course if you want more information on mystery shopping working from home and avoiding scams come on over to a work at home  if you have any questions feel free to submit it to me there so I can answer them for you I do have books available the mystery shopper training program and the work at home training program if the expense is too much for you right now of course you can always get those at the library see if they can order them for you otherwise they're on Amazon and in bookstores nationwide they're on Kindle if I'm teaching any in-person classes at the moment they'll be on my events page of course I have online classes and a ton the free information out on my website social media and newsletter and you can find links to all of this at work at home FAQ calm a / learn again my name is Bethany find me at work at home FAQ calm I'm on the Twitter the YouTube the Facebook the LinkedIn the Instagram the Pinterest and whatever will come next thanks for stopping by we'll see you next time I don't know I kinda have the 80s hair goin on sh o PP ing for shopping 

mystery shopping related terms mystery consumer secret shopper is a tool used externally by market research companies watchdog organizations or internally by companies themselves to measure quality of service or compliance with regulation or to gather specific information about products and services the mystery consumers specific identity and purpose are generally not known by the establishment being evaluated mystery shoppers perform specific tasks such as purchasing a product asking questions registering complaints or behaving in a certain way and then provide detailed reports or feedback about their experiences mystery shopping was standard practice by the early 1940s as a way to measure employee integrity tools used for mystery shopping assessments range from simple questionnaires to complete audio and video recordings mystery shopping can be used in any industry with the most common venues being retail stores hotels movie theaters restaurants fast food chains banks gas stations car dealerships apartments health clubs and health care facilities since 2010 mystery shopping has become abundant in the medical tourism industry with health care providers and medical facilities using the tool to assess and improve the customer service experience in the UK mystery shopping is increasingly used to provide feedback on customer services provided by local authorities and other nonprofit organizations such as housing associations and churches the mystery shopping industry had an estimated value of nearly 600 million dollars in the United States in 2004 according to a 2005 report commissioned by the mystery shopping providers Association & Spell companies that participated in the report experienced an average growth of 11.1% from 2003 to 2004 compared to an average growth of 12.2% the report estimates more than eight point 1 million mystery shops were conducted in 2004 the report represents the first industry association attempt to quantify the size of the mystery shopping industry the independent mystery shoppers coalition reports there are 1.5 million mystery shoppers in the United States alone similar surveys are available for European regions where mystery shopping is becoming more embedded into company procedures as a measure of its importance customer patient satisfaction is being incorporated more frequently into executive pay a study by a US firm found more than 55 percent of hospital chief executive officers surveyed in 2005 had some compensation at risk based on patient satisfaction up from only 8 percent to 20 percent a dozen years ago in the United Kingdom a mystery shoppers practitioners group has been established under the auspices of the market research society a 2011 survey by the American Express company found a clear correlation between a company's attention to customer service and customers willingness to pay more for good service cbc television's news magazine programme marketplace ran a segment on this topic during a January 2001 episode mystery shopping organizations advised that their research should only be used for employee incentive programs and that punishment or firing is an inappropriate use of mystery shopper data however stories of employees being fired as a direct result of negative mystery feedback are not uncommon the trade organization for mystery shopping providers M Spa has defined a code of Professional Standards and ethics agreement for mystery shopping providers and for mystery shoppers other organizations that have defined standards for mystery shopping re somar mrs and mr a the most widely used set of professional guidelines and ethics standards for the market research industry is iso in the state of nevada mystery shoppers must be licensed by the peel board and work under a company that has a private investigators license in order to perform mystery shopping jobs unlicensed mystery shoppers may face fines in June 2008 the American Medical Association's counsel unethical and judicial affairs released a recommendation on the use of secret shopper patients the recommendation physicians have an ethical responsibility to engage in activities that contribute to continual improvements in patient care one method for promoting such quality improvement is through the use of secret shopper patients who have been appropriately trained to provide feedback about physician performance in the clinical setting however in 2009 the council decided to withdraw the report in light of further testimony heard at the 2008 interim meeting the UK government's crown commercial surface operates a mystery shopper scheme whose remit is to provide a route for suppliers to raise concerns about public procurement practice in England you