How do you use your mystery shopping reports?
16th December 2018, by Angela Bartlett
16th December 2018, by Angela Bartlett
We asked some of our customers and colleagues what they do with their mystery shopping reports from Hidden Beauty UK and found that our reports have been used for a whole host of different purposes.
Unsurprisingly, the top use was for maintaining consistency in both customer service and service delivery procedures.
One of our customers said, “It’s incredibly important for us that each client experiences the same customer experience”. He added, “from the telephone booking to the treatment to the aftercare; the experience needs to be consistent in order for our clients to have a complete customer journey”.
Most successful salon and spa owners understand that the future of their business relies on delivering a quality and consistent service to their clients, no matter which day they visit or which member of staff they have. The experience should be the same on Monday as it is on Saturday, and the same with Jemma as with Georgia. If a client calls your business all the receptionists should be giving the same information. The environment should have the same feel each day of the week, no matter how busy it becomes and the staff members need to be delivering the same quality services.
We found that some of our customers use our mystery shopping services to evaluate how their self-employed or ‘rent a chair’ practitioners are performing within the business. Do you have self-employed practitioners and are they demonstrating the same levels of customer care as the rest of your resident team? Mystery shopping can be useful for establishing a seamless team effort. “Our business has several self-employed practitioners who rent a room at the back of our hair salon. We used mystery shopping to see if they were working to the same standards as the rest of our business. We felt it was important that our clients had the same experience with them as with the rest of our employed team.” Said one of our hair salon customers.
Another use for our reports has been in formulating staff training programmes to facilitate Therapists, Managers and Receptionists to maintain and improve standards. “We find it very beneficial to have a third party (like Hidden Beauty UK) to come into the business with fresh eyes and see things from a different perspective. We use the reports to build staff training programmes and incentives” said one of our long-long-standing customers.
Finding out which areas your staff are performing well in, and areas where they may need a little more training or support is very beneficial for your business. The reports can be used to help you place your precious staff development budget where you will get the most value. “We have regular one-to-one mentoring sessions with our staff members and our mystery shopping reports have been helpful in pinpointing which areas they need additional training in, be it customer care, technical expertise or retailing” said one of our spa owner clients.
Mystery shopping reports can also be used for staff motivation. On several occasions, business owners have used our services because they feel that their staff need a motivating factor in order for them to perform at their highest level. When staff know that mystery shopping is used on a regular basis it motivates them to work at their highest level as they never know when the next mystery shop may take place. However, it’s important that your staff do not see this important business tool as ‘spying’ but as someone who is visiting the business to ‘catch them at their best’!
Are you using mystery shopping in your business and if so how do you use your reports?
Book your next mystery shopping visit here.For more beauty related articles, review our latest beauty news - or perhaps take a look at this earlier article (from 4th December 2018): " Our top 5 tips on becoming one of our mystery shoppers "
About Angela Bartlett:
Angela Bartlett is an expert in the health, beauty and skincare industry with over 35 years' experience. As a high profile individual, she is passionate about the high-quality treatments, procedures and products in the beauty industry and is linked with leading industry bodies whose aim is to advance standards in beauty and holistic therapies. Based in Cheshire, Angela operates Hidden Beauty nationwide across the UK to support beauty industry businesses in their business development. To learn more about Angela and her accreditations, don't hesitate to get in touch.
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