The (Un) Secret Shopper

 

Hello shoppers…

I received a phone call yesterday afternoon from Stephen DeShong, Corporate Consumer Relations for American TV and Appliance.

He’s American’s spokesperson.

Before I tell you what Stephen spoke to me, let me speak the obvious, outloud: It can not be easy being the Voice of a Corporation, especially when the voice, in this case, is over 300 miles away from the voices the voice is speaking for.

How do you speak for people you are so far removed from, and probably don’t know?

You don’t.

Instead you speak for the company who hired the people you don’t know. You call or email pencil-heads like me, apologize for what happened, ensure that procedures will be reviewed, reassure that your company is committed to customer satisfaction, cash your “Corporate Spokesperson” check and go home. (Click to read corporate responses to other Secret Shopper reviews.)

But who speaks for the employees?

Certainly not them – not if they value cashing their “employee” checks, and going home.

But there’s the (retail) rub: Stephen had nothing to do with what happened during my Secret Shopping visit to American last week (which you can read by clicking this sentence). He wasn’t there. He doesn’t know. He’s flying blind. He might as well be describing a trip to the moon that he never took.

The people who do know, aren’t talking.

The one who doesn’t but is, told me that “we always take our customer’s complaints seriously,” that “all employees go through customer service training,” and that “we’ll address this internally.”

Except for the spokesperson who wasn’t there; he gets to externalize.

Since I was present during my conversation with Stephen (I’m fairly certain of this) let me share two observations.

First, the tone of Stephen’s voice was surprisingly subdued. Sure, he’d recently read a blog post blasting one of his company’s locations, not just returned from Disneyworld – “subdued” seems reasonable.

Yet at times Stephen sounded fatalistic, almost defeated.

Could I be misinterpreting his state of mind? Sure. What I didn’t miss was the word failure, which Stephen said a whopping three times during a five-minute conversation, including “We engage in programs that expose our failings.”

Wow. Maybe they should have let the employees speak for themselves.

Actually there’s no maybe about it: observation #2…

If companies really want to make amends with customers who their employees have wronged, why not let those same employees make it right? 

Have the store manager accompany the employee to an office. Close the door, dial the offended customer’s phone number and hand the phone to the employee. The employee apologizes to the pleasantly surprised customer who accepts it, thanks the employee for it and spends the next three days telling everybody that the actual employee who screwed up and was there – and not some corporate talking head who wasn’t – called, and apologized.

Doesn’t that speak for itself?

     

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, professional secret shopper, marketing strategist and host of The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show, Saturday mornings 8-9am, on 1350, KRNT.      

   

   

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Phone: 515-480-4190    

 

  

Hello shoppers… 

 

  

The very good news (for a humble (Un) Secret Shopper) this fine Monday morning is that I received an email response from Scheels, to their Secret Shopper review from last week, a review that you can read by clicking here. 

The problem is that the guy who sent it didn’t give his last name, or his title. 

Nice response, very friendly, well written - by some first-name only dude who may or may not actually work for Scheels. 

In a moment, I’ll type it so you can read it. 

First, here are some of the companies that responded quickly, thoroughly and more than adequately to their Secret Shopper review: 

Bass Pro Shops: responded within 9 hours of post – click to read their Secret Shopper review, and their response. 

Home Depot: responded within 24 hours of post – click to read their Secret Shopper review, and their response.  

Verizon Wireless: responded within 24 hours of post – click to read their response.  Click here to read their Secret Shopper review.  

Von Maur: responded within 24 hours of post – click to read their response. Click here to read their Secret Shopper review.  

Auto Repair Shops: many got back to me within 24 hours – read their responses by clicking here. Read the Secret Shopper review by clicking here.  

Kum And Go: responded within 24 hours of post – click to read their response. Click here to read their Secret Shopper review.   

  

Here’s a store that also responded, like Scheels, with a first name only dude, but who did have a title; after that, though, the whole thing turned icky: 

raTget: No last name given by the person in “Guest Relations” who responded via email, which you can read by clicking here. Also, the head of their PR department promised an interview, then backed out 10 minutes before it was scheduled, and informed me by sending an email – you can read about that by clicking here. Read the Secret Shopper review of raTget by clicking here. 

  

Here’s a store that apparently doesn’t have a first or last name dude, because they never responded – the only store to be Secret Shopped that has not, to date: 

Karl Chevrolet – click to read their Secret Shopper review. 

  

That brings us to the response from Scheels: 

  

Hello Jonathan, 

I wanted to thank you for your feedback and the experiences that you have shared in one of our stores. We appreciate your willingness to take the time to make us part of your evaluation and will share a more in-depth perspective of our customer service with you in the future! 

Thanks again, 

Matt L. 

scheels.com 

  

Cool beans – what a great response! 

Matt was polite and appreciative. He expressed his thanks, and promised to respond with something more detailed in the future. He spelled all the words right. He even called me by my expensive name. 

There’s just one itty bitty grainy lump in the otherwise scrumptous cake batter: Who in tarnation is Matt L.? 

 

    Is this Matt L, stocking?       Is Matt L. down there?    Is Matt L. one of these kids? 

  

Does Matt L. officially represent Scheels? Is Matt L. paid by Scheels Corporate to do so? If Matt L. can’t give out his last name or title, should Scheels be as suspicious as I am? 

If someone working in a company’s marketing/PR department as a spokesperson is going to take the time to respond to someone about something that someone wrote or said about the company they’re paid to spokes about, it seems reasonable to expect that person to properly identify themself by their complete name, complete company title and complete way to avoid having another blog post written about them. 

If someone called me and said, “I’m Betty X from The Udder Ointment Hut and I’m calling to respond to your blog post about how our Udderettes treated you during your visit,” I’d first ask, “What do you do for UOH, why are you using an initial for your last name instead of the whole thing, and what’s a number I can reach you at, Miss X?” 

In email (and old school letter-writing) parlance, this is known as providing a “signature.”  

Matt didn’t give one. That means his company isn’t taking ownership of what he says, and neither is he, which gives whatever he says, no real credibility. 

So there we are, still left with the mystery of just who this Matt L. fella is. 

Instead of just calling Scheels Corporate and asking, “Is Matt L. around? It’s his buddy, Jonnie Dub,” I decided to use the internet, which won’t laugh at me. 

Google-searching (Does anybody even use Yahoo?) “Matt L. Scheels,” I found this disturbing series of “Matt L.” hits: 

“Thanks for participating in the Fargo 5K!” – Matt L. scheels.com (in response to a blog post written by a runner, at http://26two.blogspot.com/2010/08/fargo-scheels-5k.html, who competed in a 5k race in Fargo, North Dakota, sponsored by Scheels) 

“Love the Panther! Thanks for sharing.” - Matt L. scheels.com (in response to a blog post written by ”Darkice,” at http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1337552 which said, “Just picked this up at Scheels. Zombies Watch Out! Its a dpms panther 308 with a 24 inch barrel.”) 

“Thanks for stopping by the store. Those John Deere flights are pretty popular!” – Matt L. scheels.com (in response to a blog post at http://talesfromclarkstreet.blogspot.com/2010/04/blondie-does-darts.html from a woman who purchased darts at a Scheels) 

 
Okay, now I know who Matt L. is. NOT.

Yet fear not, (un)concerned blog readers; your (Un)Secret Shopper is on it, baby.

After examining all the evidence, plus 10 years of Today Show transcripts (for similar speech/writing patterns) I’ve determined that “Matt L.” is actually NBC’s Matt Lauer. 

Moonlighting to make end’s meet is nothing to be ashamed of, Matt. We’ve all been there, brutha.

So there ya go: Mystery solved. Case closed. Enjoy the rest of your Monday.

And don’t forget to watch Matt L. tomorrow morning.  

  

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, professional secret shopper, marketing strategist and host of The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show, Saturday mornings 8-9am, on 1350, KRNT.   

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Phone: 515-480-4190 

 

 

 

Hello shoppers…

I received a very nice phone call on last week’s very nice Friday afternoon from a very nice Sara Whitlock, who had some very nice things to say about the very nice secret shopper review of the very nice Von Maur, the very nice store she manages, very nicely.

Before you barf, let me tell you about Sara, who is uber-cool, and what she said, which was uber-cooler.

Sara, who hails from Cedar Falls, traveled across the river to manage two different Von Maur locations in Illinois, then came back home to Iowa (as we all seem to do) three years ago, when she took over the reigns of the Valley West Mall location.

Last week’s Secret Shopper review of Von Maur, apparently brought her some information that her previous 160 weeks working there, had not.

“I think the secret shops we do,” said Sara, “while I think they’re very good and helpful, I found yours actually a little bit eye-opening to me.”

It takes a tremendous amount of courage for anyone in a management (or any) position to admit, as Sara did, that they’re human, and that they sometimes don’t have all the answers, sometimes miss things, sometimes make mistakes – which is where the best part of any of us, exists, anyhoo. Weston Agor, professor and author of the amazing Intuitive Management: Integrating Left And Right Brain Management Skills, said it beautifully: “Making mistakes simply means you are learning faster.”

Sara also thoughtfully said that “there were some things you were able to find that we didn’t, in other secret shops that we did, and I’m very appreciative of that.”

That is always soo nice to hear.

According to Sara, her store “get(s) secret shopped a couple of times a year,” and the evaluations are done internally.

“We look at similar things to what you look at,” she said. “We look at how long it takes for somebody to be greeted. Were they asking questions, like what you were looking for. We look for their overall friendliness, their helpfulness, and then we do have kind of a grading scale for it.“

Sara also told me their secret shoppers keep an ear out for those great questions from store employees that can really help add to a shopper’s satisfaction, and a store’s bottom line.

“We look at, are they offering additional items? Are they offering our services, like our free gift-wrap and our free shipping?”

I didn’t have the heart to mention to Sara that employees at Von Maur hadn’t mentioned these two wonderful services, even though I’d told every associate who engaged me, that I was looking for a gift for my girlfriend/daughter/mother/grandmother, depending on the department.

Now Sara knows, for Von Maur training, and now you know, for Von Maur shopping.

I also asked Sara if Von Maur values open-ended questions, as much as I, the dufus-King of OEQ, do.

“That was something that was interesting to me when I read your secret shopper review,” she said, with a smile I could hear all the way down the phone line. “It sounded like you had a lot of closed-ended questions asked.”

Oh, just a few. 16 out of a possible 19. Sorry, Sara! 

“We do spend a lot of time in our orientation training, which is a week-long training session, discussing open-ended questions, and how important they are – that’s really the kinds of questions you want to focus on,” Sara explained. “And so I was a little saddened to hear that there were a lot of closed-ended questions going on – it’s definitely something we try to focus on.”

Our local Von Maur store is very lucky to have Sara looking over it. She is, to quote my mother’s favorite saving, a very sharp cookie.

A few extra chocolate chips that could be added by Corporate to sweeten Sara’s management recipe, would be more secret shoppers.

Von Maur is secret shopped, according to Sara, twice a year. In my view, that’s like holding Weight Watchers meetings bi-yearly, and expecting people to shed pounds.

The staff of a retail business, regardless of store or staff size, should be pounded with secret shopped at least twice a month, if the store managers and owners want to truly create a customer service culture inside their four walls. Those secret shopper results should also be incorporated into an equally rigorous training program. 

How rigorous? My business clients are secret shopped three times per week, and their staffs go through weekly training, which is steered in large part by their secret shopper results. 

Those results, by the way, are not given as ratings on a piece of paper, but shared, in group training sessions, as the actual audio testimony from secret shoppers, relating their shopping experience.

In spite of Von Maur’s secret shopper program, two store employees told me they didn’t think Von Maur had one.

If I was Sara – and I’d never pretend that I was, because she manages a store, and I manage a blog - that would be the first thing I’d mention to employees, during the next store meeting. By telling those that don’t know, and reminding those that do, that secret shoppers can, are and will be sent into the store to evaluate staff, it’ll raise everybody’s game.

Then remind them that every shopper is a secret shopper. They just keep score with their wallets. 

Another great teaching tool is to have employees secret shop the competition. Follow the same criteria used by Von Maur’s secret shoppers. Then have employees bring the results to a group meeting, and share them. They’ll invariably find great ideas to steal and make their own, plus it will validate the customer service they’re offering in their own store.

I asked Sara if any of her employees had read Von Maur’s Secret Shopper review.

“Not yet,” she said, “but we will be sharing it with associates that you spoke with, trying to get some feedback from there.” Sara told me she’s “developing a plan on how to utilize [the secret shopper review], and will do some new training programs to try to address some of the things you came across.”

Thank you so much, Sara. That’s the goal of these Secret Shopper reviews, and this Unsecret Shopper blog - to improve the dynamic between shoppers and employees, employees and managers, managers and owners, and owners and the stores they build for shoppers. By creating a stronger bond between them, we can create a better world, retail and otherwise, for the greater good of us all.

Meantime, we’ll keep coming to Von Maur, where we already shop happy, from employees who already serve happy. Perhaps we can all be just a little happier, in the not-too-distant future.

Good luck, Sara.

 

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, professional secret shopper, marketing strategist and host of The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show, Saturday mornings 8-9am, on 1350, KRNT. Email Jonnie at jonniewright@thebuyosphere.com

 

 

Hello shoppers…

As you’ve been following the weekly Secret Shopper reviews of local businesses, presented every Thursday by your friendly neighborhood Unsecret Shopper, you know that, as the reviews are posted, someone – store manager, owner, corporate spokesperson – normally responds. There are abnormal exceptions, but for the most part, we always get a little somethin somethin from someone someone.

For reaction from the largest national companies, the corporate talking heads are specifically paid a six-figure salary to talk dispassionately in corporate-speak, regurgitating mission statements and entire verbatim passages from the company manual. They can’t, won’t and don’t take criticism personally because they can, will and do personally live a gazillion miles from the store that some dumb blogging schmuck is critiquing, parking their company Lexus every weekday in a VIP stall 50 feet from the corporate building’s front doors.

The same cannot be said for local owners, and store managers.

They eat, breathe and live most of their waking hours inside the stores they manage and own. They know every name and face and quirk and personal crisis of the employees in their hire. They inject their time and sweat and money and love into their staff, the shoppers and the stuff, obliterating the line between who they are and what they do. The store is them, and they are it.

That is what makes the response you’re about to read, from Larry Boehm, all the more extraordinary.

Larry is the General Manager of the Best Buy at 4100 University Avenue in West Des Moines, a store for which a detailed secret shopper review was presented last Thursday, on these same blogging pages. (The Unsecret Shopper Goes Shopping: Best Buy)

It was not, for the most part, a positive review.

I knew, as I wrote it, that it would not be easy for staff, friends of staff and long time patrons to read, that it would hurt some very good people, none more so than Larry.

I didn’t have to know Larry, who I don’t know and have never met, to know how true this was.

Yet after you read Larry’s inspiring response, I hope you will feel, as I do, that you’ve just had the great privilege of meeting an extraordinary man, who deserves our admiration, and certainly has mine.

Thank you so much for your kind, generous, thoughtful words, Larry. You’re an inspiration to the managers and business owners reading your response – one of the Best Buy far.

 

Dear Jonnie,

 

I would like to thank you for your candid and detailed appraisal of our stores

customer service on the day of your visit.  We spend considerable time and effort

training our employees to provide a great customer experience to all of our

customers.  The shop has been shared with every employee and manager in our store to

help them experience the frustration that a customer may go through if we do not ask

the right questions and pay sincere attention to their individual needs.  Reading

your appraisal of our store was humbling, embarrassing and is being used as a

catalyst for change. I would also like to offer you an open invitation to speak with

my leadership team about improving our store from a customer’s perspective.

 

Thank you and we hope to have another chance to show or improvements on your next

visit with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Larry Boehm

General Manager

Best Buy

4100 University Ave.

West Des Moines, Iowa

 

 

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, professional secret shopper, marketing strategist and host of The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show, Saturday mornings 8-9am on 1350 KRNT. Email Jonnie at jonniewright@thebuyosphere.com.

 

Hello shoppers…

 

Julian Robinson (aaardvaark on flickr)

In this post, you’re going to read an email sent to me by Sonja Pothen, Target Spokesperson, in response to questions I never asked her. You’re also going to be able to hear a voice mail message left by Sonja to me, not apologizing for something she did that deserved one.

For the past two weeks I’ve been working with members of Target Corporate, specifically Sonja,  to set up an interview in which she and I would discuss the results of the secret shopper review of the 1111 East Army Post Road Target, posted on Thursday May 6th.  (Click here to read review.)

Sonja and I played phone tag for several days, then finally connected on Monday of this week.

We scheduled Wednesday at 11am to conduct the interview, over the phone, which would be recorded and then aired during Saturday morning’s (tomorrow’s) Unsecret Shopper Radio Show, on 1350 KRNT.

During our conversation on Monday, Sonja asked, reasonably enough,  if I could send her a list of the specific questions I would be asking during the interview.

I declined, however (un) reasonable that was – my 20 plus years of radio interviews suggests that Corporate spokespeople give answers to pre-submitted questions that sound and smell like someone else wrote them.

All of us deserve something more organic, more real, from the companies we buy from. They give us The Wizard of Oz – we want the curtain pulled back. I wanted information, insight and depth, something interesting for me and the people who read this blog, and listen to the radio show, to digest - both of you deserve more than just pap.

I understand the corporate position  – large companies pay large amounts of money to ensure their corporate brand and message remain strong and positive – no chinks in the armour.

But of course those chinks exist. The machine breaks down. Mistakes are made. As consumers, we see, hear and feel those mistakes, as we shop. No company is perfect, we get that. Yet to what extent those missteps affect our buying decisions, is a debate that’s been going on since cavepeople formed the first LLC. 

From the secret shopper analysis of Target, I think I’ve found a mistake – the lack of music in their stores.

I’ve written about this at great length over the past weeks – why music is important in retail, and specifically why Target should be playing it. I’ll give you the reasons now that I gave then, in the secret shopper review.

1. Any sound travels – which means customers can hear every employee to employee conversation, and that’s bad, especially when you’re dealing with a generally low wage-earning workforce, predominantly in their 20′s and early 30′s.   

2. Any sound travels – which means customers can hear every customer to customer conversation, and that’s bad, especially when you’re dealing with patrons who have varying ideas of what’s appropriate to say in public, and what’s not.   

3. Any sound travels – which means customers can hear every employee’s tossed hanger,  slammed down box and moving of displays, which might sound normal when surrounded by other sounds, but sounds like grenades going off inside a gymnasium full of matching separates, Fergie CD’s and health and beauty aids.   

4. Any sound travels – which means customers can hear every radio call that comes over every employee’s two-way in-store walkie-talkie (used in Target) and some of those conversations are like #2 – the number above, and what you thought I meant.   

And #5 – music is just too fun and cool and breathtaking and soul-soothing and important, to make people go without it while they shop for cheap socks. It’s unfair.

The questions for Sonja, then, would be:

1. Why has Target chosen to go without music?

2. What’s the research they’re seeing that no other major retailer has available to them?

3. What are the advantages to music free and what is the downside, in Target’s eye?

4. Will it ever change? What would it take to change their policy?

In our conversation on Monday, I spit up a little of this to Sonja – me and my big Scorpio Italian only child mouth.

Yet she seemed okay, and not surprised – after all, she’s a pro, she’d read the blog, she knew my view and, I assumed, would be ready, willing and able to engage me about it, on Tuesday.

She’s a spokesperson, for crying out loud.

Comes that day, and 20 minutes before the scheduled interview time, I happen to notice a new email on my Blackberry.

I popped it open – and here’s what it said.

  

Hi Jonnie,

Sorry to contact you last minute, but I’ve had another meeting come up today that I need to attend so I’m not going to be able to meet with you at 11 a.m. Instead, here are my responses based on your initial questions, which I hope help address the conversation we would have had. This is what I can share with you at this time so I hope it helps.

 

• All of our team members go through an introductory Guest Service training during their first day on the job. Training of the guest experience and “Can I Help You Find Something?” initiative is reinforced on an ongoing basis.
• We apologize if you didn’t receive the appropriate level of service during your recent shopping experience.
• If at any point during your shopping experience you are concerned about a team member’s behavior, we encourage you to speak with a store manager who will appropriately address the situation. Additionally, if a store manager witnesses a situation involving a team member’s interactions with a guest and is concerned, they will address the situation at that time.
• The reason we don’t play music overhead is because we strive to deliver a distraction-free shopping environment for our guests.

o   Signs are intended to inform our guests about the excellent value of merchandise and to educate guests on the intended use of an item.

Thanks!

Sonja

 

Sonja Pothen | Communications | ¤Target | 1000 Nicollet Mall | TPN-1145 | Minneapolis, MN 55403 | 612.761.6731 (ph) | 952.261.7947 (cell)

My jaw dropped – and I had gum in it, fresh gum.

For a person like Sonja - who works in the media department of the second largest retailer in the world and is paid to do interviews everyday with TV, radio and print outlets in the markets served by their 1,800 stores  -  to send a radio show host an email, instead of calling him on the phone to cancel an interview that was scheduled over the phone, 20 minutes before that interview was to take place, is not the sort of professional courtesy one would expect from someone who never signs her name without adding, “, Target Spokesperson.”

Her email – the timing of it and the content of it  -  was professionally discourteous and personally made me want to throw up into a cheap bucket I’d go purchase with the Sam’s Club card I’d buy first.

It got worse with her voice mail.

First, I called Sonja almost immediately – her voice mail took it and I let her have it.

I told her that a phone call takes less time than writing an email, that she’d decided to cancel as soon as she knew the topic of the questioning, that she’d been rude to me and I didn’t appreciate it, that an email is print and radio is sound and she, in media relations,  knew the difference.

On Tuesday, she left me a voice mail message – you can listen to it, below.

(Sonja’s Voice Mail Message)

The nearly first thing out of Sonja’s mouth was, ”I sincerely apologize if you felt that my email to you this morning was inadequate…”

Does Sonja really work for Target, or did she just stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night?

It’s not an apology when someone says they’re sorry if you feel bad about something they did. That’s not taking ownership of what you did – there’s no acknowledgement of, yeah, ya know what, it was stupid and short-sighted of me to email you instead of just picking up the phone and calling you, which would have taken less time. I’m really sorry.

I’m having to write the apology for someone who writes them for her company.

We talked one more time, in a conversation that I can only describe as surreal.

Excerpts: 

  

Jonnie: “Wouldn’t it have been quicker to just call me, rather than email me?”

Sonja: “I wanted to get the information to you as soon as possible.”

Huhwha?

 

Jonnie: “Will you do a phone interview?”

Sonja: “I’ll answer your questions with the exact wording I wrote in the email.”

If I can guess if you’re reading the response from a paper copy of the email or just reciting it from memory, do I get a bonus question?

 

Jonnie: ”Do you personally prefer shopping at stores that don’t play music?”

Sonja: “I don’t think that’s important to this subject.”

In other words, she thinks it’s as stupid as I do – if she didn’t, wouldn’t Sonja, or any of us in that position,  have said, “I prefer stores that don’t have music distractions.”

 

Jonnie: “What research does Target have that shows that consumers think that music is a distraction to shopping?”

Sonja: “I’m not the one who can answer that.”

Jonnie: “Who can answer it?”

Sonja: “I’ve told you Target’s position on this.”

Jonnie: “Who is above you, that I can talk to, who can answer this?”

Sonja: “I’m at the top. There is no one else.”

It must be lonely up there.

You can hear much more about this, this Saturday during The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show, 8-9am on 1350 KRNT.

During the show, you’ll hear Sonja’s full voice mail message and my view on her responses.

You will also hear a fascinating interview with Eric Feigenbaum, editor of Visual Merchandising and Store Design Magazine in New York City, and the Chair of Visual Merchandising for LIM College.

He’s forgotten more than Sonja or I will ever know about the subject of retail store design, including music.

And we’ll see who is right – me, or Tarsonjaget.

 

 

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, professional secret shopper, marketing strategist and host of The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show, Saturday mornings 8-9am on 1350 KRNT. Email Jonnie at jonniewright@thebuyosphere.com.

 

Hello shoppers…

Yesterday I received a very nice email from Ryan Roberts, store director of the Hy-Vee on S.E. 14th and Park – the focus of Thursday’s Secret Shopper review.

Ryan’s email was thoughtful and balanced – I’ll get to it in a minute.

I’ve also received a lot of reader feedback - 0n the Hy-Vee review, on that specific store, on Hy-Vee in general – which we’ll get to in 4,300 minutes, which is when Monday morning rolls around (sorry) along with The Unsecret Shopper’s “Monday Morning Reaction” post. (sorry)

Before I share Ryan’s smart, savvy words with you, I think it’s a great time to share a stupid, un-savvy story with you.

When I was 16 years old, my mother said 25 words that collectively had never been written or uttered throughout the 100,000 year history of human communication. 

  

She said:

“You probably could smell the pot roast cooking but couldn’t hear me calling for you because you have small ears and a big nose.”

 

I had no idea that history was being made in that moment – I was too busy tripping down the hallway, racing to the bathroom, looking for a mirror.

Through the first 16 historical moment-free years of my life, I had never once looked at my nose or ears without bringing along my mouth, eyes, chin, forehead and hair for the visual ride.

They were all together in the whole, not items “sold separately,” like batteries that weren’t purchased along with the new Operation board game you got for Christmas when you were a kid. Okay no batteries so we’ll play with the honor system – if you have to “remove funny bone” and you touch the side, just make a “buzzz” sound.

Pretty stupid, but actually quite savvy…

…sort of like how I saw my face in the mirror at that 16-year-old moment of dawning - and how I would see myself every time I saw my reflection from that moment forward, 29 years later to this moment right now, as I’m typing this, as I now look at myself by turning off this monitor I’m looking into as I’m typing, and see my reflection in the darjenrd mobitwr.

Sorry – darkened monitor.  It’s back on….yep, big nose, small ears, and the rest of my face.

 

The point is that business owners who look upon their customer service as just part of the big ole’ whole that includes the issues in accounting and lawn maintenance and shipping and the employee summer outing and in-store signage and company vehicles – are often caught off-guard when detailed, specific evaluations of less than stellar customer service in their store, is handed to them.

Are there business owners like this? Yep. They’re often the ones I never hear back from after a secret shopping evaluation – they simply can’t reconcile the poor customer service report with the idea in their heads of what their company is – because they believe their company is them.

Ugly baby = ugly company = ugly owner. That’s me you’re talkin about, ya secret shoppin bum!

This is especially true with owners that name companies after themselves.

The cold hard reality for business owners is that their company does not belong to them, or to their managers. All jokes about President Obama and socialism aside, it belongs to all the people who work there and shop there. The owner lost ownership the moment he/she pounded their first nail and made their first hire.

For owners and managers who get this, who know they’ve got a big nose and small ears, they’ll take it to heart but won’t take it personally cause it ain’t about them and they know it - and knowing that, makes it easier for them to start spending a lot more time looking in the mirror.

That is a very good thing.

That drive and desire to look intently at the faces and policies and procedures of their customer service template, forces every employee and manager and owner to focus – to look directly at specific customer service issues and begin to address them.

That’s called managing a company’s public face. 

Ryan, who is smart and savvy, and the smart, savvy employees at Hy-Vee at S.E. 14th and Park - as you’ll see in Ryan’s email – are working on their big nose and small ears and other public face blemishes, and were working on them before I came stumbling in, and not just recently but for longer than Ryan and I have been alive, as they will also continue to work on them long after I’m cryogenically frozen and brought back to life in 2837, to Secret Shop the intergalactic Hy-Vee at S.E. 14th and Park, on Neptune.

We all want to have a pretty face - but no matter how hard we try, it’s never perfect. We’ll still see the blemishes.

Here’s Ryan’s email, about how Hy-Vee is working on theirs.

Have a great weekend – you, Ryan, and you, reader

  

Dear Jonnie,

 

My name is Ryan Roberts and I am the store director at the Hy-Vee on SE 14^th and Park Avenue store you recently visited and wrote about in your blog.

 

I want to begin by saying WOW and a very big Thank You!  My store subscribes to a number of secret shopper programs that grade us regularly.  I can say that I have learned more about the employees of my store and the training that we need to undertake from your recent blog than I have from many of my recent shopping reports.  I must say that I really admire the lengths you go to in this endeavor and the manner in which you approach it.

 

Hy-Vee prides itself on exactly what our jingle says “A helpful smile in every aisle.”  Reading your blog, I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed and embarrassed I am in my efforts to properly train my staff to translate that to every customer no matter where they are in the store.  I plan on using your blog to be the basis of my efforts to retrain every single employee in the store so that each of them understand how important it is to live up to the standard that our customers have come to expect.  You said it best yourself that “You can’t help but smile, as you think about what your grocery shopping experience could look like if they would.” 

 

I can’t begin to thank you enough for this.  Your comments have shown that we all have work to do in meeting the expectations of our customers.  I want to assure you that this blog will be shared with each and every one of my employees so that if and when we are lucky enough to participate again, we live up to “Where there’s a helpful smile, in every aisle”

 

 Ryan Roberts | Store Director

3221 SE 14th ST |  Des Moines, IA 50320

 “Making Lives Easier, Healthier and Happier”

 

 

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, professional secret shopper, marketing strategist and host of “The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show,” which airs Saturdays 8-9am on 1350 KRNT. Email Jonnie at jonniewright@thebuyosphere.com.

 

Hello shoppers…

I received a suspicious call yesterday – from someone pretending to be Joe Becker, manager of the 73rd street Wal-Mart in Des Moines.

Ah-HA! Try to fool me, will ya?

I was immediately onto this imposter’s dangerous little cat and mouse game of Shenanigans and Tomfoolery (Both board games are available at Wal-Mart) as my specially designed secret shopper caller ID blew his “I’m the Wal-Mart manager” story right out of the water. 

“5-1-5″ said the prefix – EVERYBODY knows that any legitimate call from someone who works for Wal-Mart, will come from a phone with a number prefix of 9-2-5…W-A-L! Ha! GOT cha!

But then it turns out that the imposter was, indeed, Joe Becker, and I needed to stop drinking so early. I established this through some very clever interrogation techniques:

 

“Are you Joe?”

“Yes.”

“Say something Joe would say.”

“I’m Joe.”

Well played, Mr. Becker. Well played.

Joe was nice enough to call me yesterday and I admit, I was surprised to hear from him.

As a customer service evaluator, that’s what I want, of course – a response from someone in authority. But when I get it, I’m always pleasantly surprised, and very thankful. It is not easy to admit – for me, you, Joe or any of us – that we have things we need to work on, especially when it comes to how customers are treated. It’s an extremely humbling position to be in – ask any manager or owner. 

Joe was thoughtful, apologetic and honest about the issues at Wal-Mart.

“We’re not where we want to be yet – we’re not where I want us to be,” he said. “Obviously our number one goal is to meet and greet every customer that comes through the door, which is so important because it’s easier to keep the customers we have, than to go find new ones.” 

That’s a bumper sticker – for a very long bumper, but a bumper sticker, nonetheless.

We talked about his history with Wal-Mart.

Joe – who is originally from Minnesota and so I passed along all of our collective smart-aleck condolences – managed Wal-Mart stores in the Minneapolis and Lacrosse, Wisconsin areas before being summoned across the border by Wal-Mart Corporate two years ago to take over the helm of the 73rd street store, a location he calls “a challenge.”

“We’re going through a ten week remodeling program, and that poses extra challenges,” he said, “and with that, some of the associates focus on what needs to be accomplished for the day, rather than step up and make the customer and our customer service, number one.”

There were also some gold stars performances that deserved recognition, and Joe was happy to give it.

 

 “I also appreciated the associates that received some of the best feedback,” he said. “Jeff (in vacuums) - I could tell he was extremely excited when I brought him up in front of everybody. And I also talked about Randy and Sheila. (in the Garden Center) The positives were great.”

As for the less than stellar parts of the review, he made his store’s mission clear. “The key is to use this feedback, to get better.”

Wal-Mart Corporate does not use secret shoppers for training. “They used to do different things in specific areas, but I don’t see it being used as a whole,” he said.

There is, however, a customer feedback program.

“On the back of about one in every three receipts there is a customer survey that can be filled out online,” he said. Joe then gets those results from his store, called a customer experience track. “It’s a tool we certainly use.”

We should not envy Joe one bit – it can’t be easy overseeing and reviewing the interactions between consumers and 450 employees, spread out over 204,000 square feet.

 

Yet he knows, as well as every manager and owner of every retail store, big or small, that when it comes to consumers, there’s no excuses.

“We know we have things to work on, to improve,” he said. “We’ll continue to work on getting better.”

As Joe graciously asked me to stop in and meet him in person the next time I was in the store, we thanked each other and hung up.

Then I remembered – I’d forgotten to ask Joe how big the 73rd street location is.

I dialed back at the number he’d called from, got a pleasant woman who answered the Wal-Mart phone and told her I was looking for Joe, the store manager.

Five minutes later (I’m timing this call, of course) she picked back up.

“Have you been helped?”

I was holding for Joe, I said, gently.

Three minutes later, another voice said, “This is Sean, can I help you?”

Unless you’re Joe, no…unless you happen to know how big the store is??

“I’ll find out.”

Two minutes later, the original woman: “Were you looking for a tool belt?” 

Sure – I’m looking for a tool belt that could fit around the entire perimeter of the store…which would be approximately how long?

“Let me get a manager.”

Okie dokey, pokey smokey.

7 minutes and two phone pick-ups later, I was talking to Nick, a manager, who proudly shared the size of the building with me.

Yeah they still have some wrinkles to iron out at Wal-Mart. And with a workforce the size of Truro in a retail space that could fit 10 average sized houses inside it, those wrinkles will always be there.

But if anyone can do some serious ironing, I know it’s Joe.  And he’ll do with the the help of employees like Jeff and Sheila and Randy and other dedicated people on their staff, who were rightfully recognized in front of their peers yesterday, as the shining stars they are. 

Well played, Mr. Becker. Well played, indeed.

 

 

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, professional secret shopper, marketing strategist and host of “The Unsecret Shopper Radio Show,” which airs Saturday mornings from 8-9am, on 1350 KRNT. Email him at jonniewright@thebuyosphere.com.

  

Hello shoppers… 

Most of us dislike criticism. Unless we’re doing the criticizing - and then, only from a distance. Over the phone. Anonymously. Using caller ID block. Lowering our voice. With a mouthful of pennies. While hiding under a bed. In Argentina.

Let’s face it, whether dishing it out or taking it, we generally avoid “your baby’s ugly” conversations like a flatulent kid in a school lunch room. 

   

 

Yet criticism can be gold – to people and groups and businesses who are savvy enough to open themselves up to critical evaluation. Smart people and organizations that “get it,” know that the more they embrace what those voices of judgement have to say, the more they can learn, the more they can grow and the greater their potential reward can be – personal, professional, financial and spiritual. 

I’m generally not one of those types who can take criticism. If somebody tells me I screwed up, I’ll go hide under a bed in Argentina, and weep. Which is why I got into customer service training – “those that cry, evaluate.” 

Each Thursday I post a segment called ”The Unsecret Shopper Goes Shopping.” It’s a secret shopping evaluation of a randomly selected Central Iowa business – like The Des Moines Register’s Datebook Diner, except I don’t hide behind a plate. (No offense to the great W. E. Moranville – he’s better looking, I should take his lead.)   

Last Thursday I posted a secret shopping evaluation of the beautiful new Homemakers Furniture store in Urbandale. The critique wasn’t terribly flattering - you can read the review by clicking here. I also sent an email to Homemakers corporate, informing them of the review. 

Today I received an email from Gary Strawn, Director Of Sales for Homemakers. When I saw it pop up on my Blackberry, I was a bit pensive. Homemakers is a huge company with hundreds of employees and a lot of reach – I saw the newspaper headline: “Missing customer service evaluator found crushed under sleek, stylish four piece bedroom suite from Broyhill. Police baffled.” Maybe I should get a plate. 

I needn’t have worried. Here’s the text from the email: 

Hi Jonnie, 

Thank you for the interesting and detailed report of your shopping trip to Homemakers. We really appreciated the feedback . We strive to provide a great experience to our guests, but as you can see we still have some work to do. Our goal is for our service levels to match the beauty and cleanliness of our facility. Homemakers management is dedicated to providing the best service possible . I will be using the information that you have provided to help our team. I believe that it will be good for them to see how we look through the eyes of our customers. 

Again thank you for taking the time to share the feedback with us.  

  

Gary Strawn 

Director of Sales, Homemakers Furniture 

Urbandale, Iowa 

  

 Some companies just get it. 

  

  

Jonnie Wright is a customer service evaluator and trainer, marketing strategist and radio show host. Email him at jonniewright@thebuyosphere.com.

 

Hello shoppers…

I suppose it was inevitable - I received a call today from a very upset Mark Rogers.

Before I get to our conversation, a quick review of the story you’ve probably heard ad nauseum.

Mark is owner of Legends American Grill in Des Moines, where a group of teachers were dining a week ago when one of them found a hair in her salad.

What actually transpired next is known only by the people who were there.

What is agreed on by all parties is that a series of poor customer service decisions by staff members led to an altercation between Mark and the teacher. Another teacher, Marsha Richards, documented the entire event in an email which became a viral sensation. Mark later apologized, both on TV and in print, and offered to make amends.

I came forward in an interview with Des Moines Register columnist Marc Hansen to explain that I’d consulted Mark nearly a year ago about poor customer service in his restaurants, based upon reports from secret shoppers that work for my company, The Buyosphere. Mark agreed but didn’t act. We haven’t talked since – until today.

In our brief phone conversation Mark told me that I should have tried to contact him first before I did the Hansen story. I told him I had, that I’d sent several emails to Troy Lebeck, director of operations for Legends. Mark said I should have tried to call him. 

I replied that I had, a year ago, multiple times, but that he’d stopped returning my calls. Mark said he stopped communicating with me because he “didn’t trust me” back then and didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I replied that if he didn’t trust me then, why in the world would calling him have mattered now.

He then told me to “just keep [my] mouth shut” – twice. And hung up.

I’m sure Mark has taken a lot of heat. He’s also had a lot of support, particularly from people in the business community, many of whom share a belief that teachers can be notoriously demanding.

So we have an angry owner, an angry teacher and, for about ten minutes this afternoon, an angry customer service trainer. I ate a Reese’s cup. I’m fine now.

But most important is that we’re now having the conversation – thousands of employers and employees and shoppers (which pretty much covers everybody) talking about customer service, in blog posts and web site comments and chat rooms and Facebook and Twitter and even, occasionally, in actual face to face conversations. We’re all talking about who was right, who was wrong, what makes great customer service, what’s the worst we’ve ever had and how in the world one hair in one salad created such an uproar.

I’m thrilled about the conversation.

Customer service is my passion and my livelihood. I’ve dedicated myself to creating a better retail experience for shoppers and staff alike – not only because I like to help people but also, frankly, because I just got tired of bad customer service and decided to do something about it. I’m selfish – I want a helpful smile in every aisle and every table and every check-out counter of every store on every street in Des Moines.

I’m working on it.    

Meantime, the best way to get revenge with your detractors is success. Mark, if you feel maligned and want to get even, then I say to you what I say to every business owner in Des Moines and Central Iowa – wake up tomorrow, look in the mirror and make a commitment to yourself, your employees and your customers to create a customer service culture inside your four walls.

And here’s how you do it.

1. Teach, train, hound and challenge yourself and everyone whose checks you sign, to smile, greet, engage, help and nurture every customer, every time, every day, no exceptions. 

2. Insist that your employees learn your customer’s names and use them.

3. Get rid of unhappy employees, and those who refuse to elevate their game, because they are holding your company hostage – even one of them can crush the spirits of co-workers and literally bring down what you’ve built.

4. Empower employees to take ownership of customer issues and solve them.

5. Kill customers with kindness.

6. Teach employees how to find their empathy, to walk in the customer’s shoes.

7. Adopt a “do whatever it takes to make the customer happy” philosophy.

8. Hire staff that are clones of you, not faded copies.

9. If you’re not happy, get out of the building and don’t come back until you are.

 

That’s the revenge – in this case, a dish best served warm, with a smile. And no hair.

 

Agree? Disagree? Don’t care? Have a bad or great customer service experience you want to share? Email it to me at jonniewright@thebuyosphere.com.

 

 

Jonnie Wright is a customer service trainer, marketing specialist and ad writer living in Des Moines.