Coyle — Hotels, Restaurants, Spas. Period

Question: Why does Mystery Shopping Improve Customer Service?

Answer: Because the mere perception that they are being watched is sufficient motivation to positively alter people’s actions.

The term ‘mystery shopping‘ has become quite prevalent in today’s society. The principle reason companies use mystery shopping companies is to measure employee behavior, productivity and customer service skills during day-to-day business interactions.

Traditionally, mystery shoppers enter a place of business with the intent of observing and interacting with its employees in order to rate their performance on various factors. Typically, the employees would not be aware that they are being monitored, assuming that the mystery shopper is a regular customer or guest. One strategic purpose behind this endeavor is to ascertain how an employee actually performs and acts when his or her supervisor is not observing.

Why is it important to determine how an employee acts in the absence of supervision? The answer is relatively simple. It has been proven time and again that employees do perform differently under a watchful eye than they do when unattended. Job security, desire to please and succeed, and an internal sense of pride play a role in how a worker responds to being monitored.

A University of Chicago article entitled “What Do Laboratory Experiments Tell Us About the Real World” (Levitt, List, June 2006) affirms that people do behave differently when motivated by a watchful eye, as evidenced by the following excerpt: “The weight that an individual places on ‘doing the right thing’ is likely to increase when a subject is being watched.” This quote validates the perception that employee actions and performance would be more favorable and positive if they knew that they were being monitored, insinuating that observation even alters and reinforces our ethical values.

When you take into consideration the fact that mystery shoppers report exceptional employee behavior, attitude and skills, the concept of a secret shopper should not be threatening to monitored workers. If an employee is aware that any customer they serve is potentially monitoring and recording information about their effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, they have an opportunity to favorably impact the findings. Being the target of this form of evaluation actually places control over the situation and outcome in the employee’s hands.

Most employees who know they are being watched will go out of their way to extend superior customer service skills. These skills are incorporated in a positive attitude, pleasant demeanor, helpfulness, and task performance. While under surveillance, employees do tend to expend a higher level of effort to meet the expectations of their employers.

This philosophy was proven in a study by Melissa Bateson, Daniel Nettle, and Gilbert Roberts (1). Their findings were reported in an article entitled, “Cues of Being Watched Enhance Cooperation in a Real World Setting”. To determine employee behavior, they placed an honesty box in the employee lounge, where it was understood by all employees that they were on their honor to place money in the box for their coffee and other drinks. A sign was posted near the box as a reminder. Participation was monitored daily, and the money was counted and documented. Then, they strategically placed a banner on the sign which depicted a photograph of a pair of human eyes to give the impression that employee contributions to the honesty box were being monitored. Their data showed that significantly more funds were placed in the box when the banner with the eyes was posted than when it was not. The difference was too great to dismiss as chance, with almost three times as much money being placed in the box when the eyes were present than when they were not. The authors state, “Our results support the hypothesis that reputational concerns may be extremely powerful in motivating cooperative behavior.” The article further indicates that subconscious cues of being observed are strong enough to change behavior.

In essence, the article states that it is not just the act of being observed that changes behavior, but that the mere perception or implication that we are being watched is sufficient motivation to alter people’s actions. Because our fundamental beliefs and morals are imbedded in our subconscious, we are psychologically influenced when we believe others are capable of seeing us as we exercise our morals publicly. We become more cognizant of the impression we make upon others as a result.

Would strategic monitoring improve your business’ customer service?

While a business’ motivation for monitoring employees, either secretly or otherwise, can be partly attributed to the desire for financial gain or success, employee responses are usually linked more directly to a sense of altruism, duty or loyalty. These are intangible motivators, which indicate that people place more importance on their desire to please others and their social reputation than on more concrete monetary benefits.

Having control over the impression we make on other people is one of the strongest psychological factors which result in conforming our actions and behaviors to expectations. When employees know they are being monitored or observed, they willingly alter their behavior as reflected in the honesty box experiment. The eyes were a gentle reminder that they were expected to perform in a certain manner, and they were certainly effective. Most people chose to cooperate and be a part of the majority, rather than chance being singled out as noncompliant. Internally, our subconscious is rewarded and our sense of pride is fed when know we have performed to the desired level of expectation.

If the employee is aware that he or she is currently being evaluated, they may feel a need to strive to perform to higher standards than usual. The incentives toward this behavior include a desire to please, reputational concerns, and job security and stability. An effective mystery shopping program, when employed with frequency, will reinforce those desires creating a higher level of consciousness as staff perform their job duties. With positive reinforcement, the increased desire to please becomes a habit, resulting in better employees who continually model behavior for their peers in day-to-day settings.

Does your business need secret shopping companies like Coyle?

Mystery shopper programs are increasingly favored methods of observing employee behavior and performance. One of the strongest reasons is that mystery shoppers are a third-party or objective guest or customer. When coupled with appropriate training and feedback delivery, mystery shopping reports can be received more favorably than traditional monitoring by management or administration. Mystery shoppers are perceived to be peers rather than hierarchy in the chain of command. Their observations, when delivered constructively, give the staff member a slice-of-life approach to viewing their own actions and behaviors.

It should be noted that mystery shoppers and similar methods of observing and monitoring employee performance may give some employees the impression that their work is not satisfactory and, therefore, it is necessary to spy or check up on them. However, if the mystery shopper’s purpose is explained as an evaluation method to reinforce and reward appropriate behavior and the findings are used to coach instead of finding fault, the results will be improved. The trick is to make sure that meaningful recognition and rewards are in place when the monitored behavior reaches or exceeds the standard set forth. In other words, cheer them on when you catch them doing right.

After all, as Bateson, et al, state in “Cues of Being Watched…”(1), most people are cognizant of the factors which affect their reputation and seek to positively impact the same. Being watched can actually be conducive to a cooperative environment, if done properly and with dignity.

Work Cited

1. Cues of Being Watched Enhance Cooperation in a Real World Setting
Melissa Bateson, Daniel Nettle, and Gilbert Roberts.
source

2. Watchdogs Say Boards Will Have to Make the Grade
Jeff May.
Star-Ledger, March, 2002.

3. It’s a Mystery
Brooke Billingsley.
Health Executive, February 2006, Business Best Practices

4. What Do Laboratory Experiments Tell Us About the Real World?
Steven D. Levitt and John A. List.
September 2005, University of Chicago, source