Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

It happened AGAIN! (AKA The Mystery Shop Blues)

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 2
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 template Next
  • #1

    It happened AGAIN! (AKA The Mystery Shop Blues)

    So I failed a mystery shop last month. Shitty deal. But as one of the management, I get to see the shop reports, and I actually remember this one.


    Here was her inquiry:

    MS: I'm looking for ink for my printer.
    Me: No problem! Do you know which model of ink you needed?
    MS: No.
    Me: No worries, I can look it up. Do you know what model of printer you have?
    MS: No.
    Me: Let's see if I have it on record. Did you buy it from us?
    MS: No.



    So of course I have to tell her I can't really help her.

    And this isn't the first time - one of my staff got EXACTLY the same line of inquiry on a shop. Guess how he scored.

    Bonus points: the store manager says to me that I should just have sold her a new printer instead.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    With that kind of logic, does that mean if somebody goes to Walmart for oil for their vehicle but doesn't know what kind, the employee should sell them a new car?
    The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

    Comment

    • #3
      Methinks its time to ban her and look for a new mystery shopper?

      Comment

      • #4
        How can the company that hired her be paying her? The place I worked at a couples times would have never paid for a sheet filled out with next to no info.

        Comment

        • #5
          I dunno, the cost of printers vs ink these days, the printer is almost always cheaper

          Seriously, why do customers (even mystery shoppers) expect CSRs to know what product they have when not only do they not have any info from it.. but didn't buy it so it can't even be looked up?

          Makes me glad that I am not a mind reader, though. I'd be dead from the event horizon of stupidity that some people create..
          If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

          Comment

          • #6
            Quoth raudf View Post
            I dunno, the cost of printers vs ink these days, the printer is almost always cheaper
            True because people buy the cheap crappy printers and don't do research.

            MS: I'm looking for ink for my printer.
            Me: No problem! Do you know which model of ink you needed?
            MS: No.
            Me: No worries, I can look it up. Do you know what model of printer you have?
            MS: No.
            Me: Let's see if I have it on record. Did you buy it from us?
            MS: No.
            You too huh? alright that's it. this has to stop. Where's my chainsaw?
            Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
            Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

            Comment

            • #7
              Quoth raudf View Post
              I dunno, the cost of printers vs ink these days, the printer is almost always cheaper .
              No. No it's not. The cartridges that come with the printer aren't as full as the cartridges you buy separately.
              The High Priest is an Illusion!

              Comment

              • #8
                Quoth DeltaSierra View Post
                Walmart... employee should sell them a new car?
                Shh! Don't give them any ideas! They already sell just about everything else.
                I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
                - Bill Watterson
                My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
                - IPF

                Comment

                • #9
                  Sounds like she set you up to fail. I don't see any way you could have come out on top in that situation.
                  Sometimes life is altered.
                  Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                  Uneasy with confrontation.
                  Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Quoth MadMike View Post
                    Sounds like she set you up to fail. I don't see any way you could have come out on top in that situation.
                    I was thinking the same thing. How does an imbecilic "test" like that prove anything about the store or its staff?

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Quoth ArcticChicken View Post
                      No. No it's not. The cartridges that come with the printer aren't as full as the cartridges you buy separately.
                      True, but that's not how management will see it. Ink costs more than printer, so push printer using that as selling point. Voila, happy customer and a quick sell!
                      If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Quoth ArcticChicken View Post
                        No. No it's not. The cartridges that come with the printer aren't as full as the cartridges you buy separately.

                        I think it also has to do with the brand of printer as well. I've found that while the ink cartridges for my current printer aren't exactly cheap, they are about $15 dollars cheaper then the last one I had. And it cost about $30 just for the black cartridge alone -- and the last one I only paid about $40 for it.

                        Can't really see the reasoning behind mystery shoppers myself, although when I was working for Taco Hell fifteen-odd years ago I'd get them all the time. I think I only failed two out of the bunch I had.
                        Eh, one day I'll have something useful here. Until then, have a cookie or two.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Corps use Mystery Shops -- supposedly because they reveal how employees REALLY act when they don't know they're being watched -- but mostly because they're a cheap way to establish a paper trail for future use against any store they want to crack down on (even if it's for personal reasons, they can use "sub-par performance" as the excuse). Keep in mind that the "pass/fail" conditions are usually ridiculously strict. They go with the easy assumption, that their Shoppers are, of course, perfect angels, and that the way they are treated by the one or two workers likely to be helping them is the way EVERY custy is treated, all the time, bu everyone.

                          For example: Back at GameStore, passing was above 90%, failure was anything else. The initial "Greeting the customer within X seconds of their arrival" (how busy the store is, is not taken into account at all) is worth 10%. 2 seconds to late on the greeting, therefore, is an automatic FAIL.

                          Metrics like this are much easier to quantify, so that's what they use.
                          "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                          "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                          "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                          "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                          "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                          "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                          Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                          "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            That scenarios reminds me of the algebra problems that couldn’t be solved, due to not having enough information!

                            I did just buy a new printer; I had two older ones; a 3-in-one that was probably close to 10 years old, and a PITA to try and make nice with my laptop, and a photojet printer, again, close to 10 years old. I wasn’t even sure if they worked, and the photo one too FOUR ink cartridges, 3 color, one B&W, so I figured it was cheaper to buy a new one, rather than spend $$ on ink, and find out they didn’t actually work.

                            But someone who HAS a working printer? Sorry, but it behooves you to know what you have, or what type of ink you need. And that wasn’t a fair mystery shop. Not by a longshot.

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              I once passed a mystery shop at Shmesco with flying colours due to my "willingness to go above and beyond for the customer" and my "sunny and uplifting disposition". (I want whatever she was taking that day!)

                              A little over a month later i failed one due to "Leaving register to fetch item for me" (mystery shopper) with a note that i should have called over a manager to do it, even though the item in question was on my register's endcap and it took me literally two seconds. And also due to my "Annoying, insincere and patronising chirpiness".

                              I was shown copies of both, it was the same woman....*sigh*

                              Comment

                              Previous 1 2 template Next
                              Working...