Mystery Shopping
On July 14 2007, there was the following report in the Gulf News:
“His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has announced the setting up of a special team of "mystery clients" and an integrated system of performance management to monitor ministries' achievements and ensure proper implementation of the federal government strategy. The announcement was made at a Cabinet meeting, held in an informal setting in Dadna in Fujairah yesterday, and was attended by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister. The two-day Cabinet meeting reflects Shaikh Mohammad's keenness to adopt a flexible approach in government administration and follow up the progress of work on the government strategy that was approved by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in April. The Cabinet reviewed the strategic action plans for 2008-2010 along with creative initiatives and key programmes adopted by ministries to achieve the strategy's goals. Shaikh Mohammad expressed satisfaction at the team spirit demonstrated by the ministerial working groups and termed it one of the most significant achievements of the strategy. He also stressed the need to implement programmes and initiatives according to the specified timeframes and keep updating them to achieve better results and keep pace with the UAE's rapid economic growth in the last few years. During the meeting, Shaikh Mohammad announced that an integrated system is being developed to keep track of the performance of all ministries and ensure that the strategy's recommendations are being implemented. The Prime Minister's Office was tasked with preparing the performance reports which will be submitted to Shaikh Mohammad. As part of the system, a special team of "mystery clients" - government officials whose identity will not be disclosed - will be formed to monitor performance of ministries, and will directly report to Shaikh Mohammad. He also called for widening the e-government programme and bringing 50 per cent of public services into e-services by the end of 2008 and 90 per cent by the end of 2010. He urged ministries to work towards achieving at least 70 per cent customer satisfaction.
Key decisions: What the Cabinet decided to implement:
- Establish an integrated system for performance management
- Set up a special team of mystery clients
- Implement action plans of government strategy within specified timetables
- Widen e-government programmes and converting 50 per cent of public services into online services by 2008
- Achieve 70 per cent of customer satisfaction for all ministries.”
Mystery Shopping is an evaluation of customer services by a trained professional who poses as a real customer.
The method of contact may either be a personal visit, telephone, email or via the website. As these evaluations are usually much more expensive to arrange, sample sizes tend to be much smaller than conventional customer satisfaction surveys.
Upon completion of the interaction, the Shopper is asked to fill up a detailed evaluation form which records each and every aspect of the interaction from beginning to end.
“His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has announced the setting up of a special team of "mystery clients" and an integrated system of performance management to monitor ministries' achievements and ensure proper implementation of the federal government strategy. The announcement was made at a Cabinet meeting, held in an informal setting in Dadna in Fujairah yesterday, and was attended by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister. The two-day Cabinet meeting reflects Shaikh Mohammad's keenness to adopt a flexible approach in government administration and follow up the progress of work on the government strategy that was approved by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in April. The Cabinet reviewed the strategic action plans for 2008-2010 along with creative initiatives and key programmes adopted by ministries to achieve the strategy's goals. Shaikh Mohammad expressed satisfaction at the team spirit demonstrated by the ministerial working groups and termed it one of the most significant achievements of the strategy. He also stressed the need to implement programmes and initiatives according to the specified timeframes and keep updating them to achieve better results and keep pace with the UAE's rapid economic growth in the last few years. During the meeting, Shaikh Mohammad announced that an integrated system is being developed to keep track of the performance of all ministries and ensure that the strategy's recommendations are being implemented. The Prime Minister's Office was tasked with preparing the performance reports which will be submitted to Shaikh Mohammad. As part of the system, a special team of "mystery clients" - government officials whose identity will not be disclosed - will be formed to monitor performance of ministries, and will directly report to Shaikh Mohammad. He also called for widening the e-government programme and bringing 50 per cent of public services into e-services by the end of 2008 and 90 per cent by the end of 2010. He urged ministries to work towards achieving at least 70 per cent customer satisfaction.
Key decisions: What the Cabinet decided to implement:
- Establish an integrated system for performance management
- Set up a special team of mystery clients
- Implement action plans of government strategy within specified timetables
- Widen e-government programmes and converting 50 per cent of public services into online services by 2008
- Achieve 70 per cent of customer satisfaction for all ministries.”
Mystery Shopping is an evaluation of customer services by a trained professional who poses as a real customer.
The method of contact may either be a personal visit, telephone, email or via the website. As these evaluations are usually much more expensive to arrange, sample sizes tend to be much smaller than conventional customer satisfaction surveys.
Upon completion of the interaction, the Shopper is asked to fill up a detailed evaluation form which records each and every aspect of the interaction from beginning to end.
The Key to Good Mystery Shopping
The evaluation form usually asks the Shopper to rate aspects from 'Very Poor' to 'Excellent' using conventional research scales. The problem is that it is usually left up to the discretion of the interviewer whether something deserves a 7 or an 8 and ratings naturally vary from one Shopper to another.
At Quest, we believe that this approach allows too much variation in the ratings. So we have developed ratings based on a series of yes or no factual questions which eliminates the scope for subjective ratings.
The Value of Mystery Shopping
In our experience, these studies are useful in demonstrating the variation and range of personal approaches which frontline employees have in dealing with customers. Take a simple email response for example. Some employees close the email with a hope that the customer will not hesitate to contact them for further assistance and show their full signature with their full name, job title, contact information and corporate logo. Others may respond simply as Thanks, Ahmed, for example. The impression of professionalism or the lack of it becomes immediately obvious.
What we do then is to work with our clients to develop a Customer Service Manual which all frontline employees are trained in, which forces the weaker employees to adopt the customs and practices of the best employees.
The following waves of Mystery Shopping are used to check compliance with the new standards. In this way, we can eliminate poor attitudes and behaviour and standarize the level of service being offered at an excellent standard.
Contact us if you wish to upgrade your level of Customer Service using Mystery Shopping.
The evaluation form usually asks the Shopper to rate aspects from 'Very Poor' to 'Excellent' using conventional research scales. The problem is that it is usually left up to the discretion of the interviewer whether something deserves a 7 or an 8 and ratings naturally vary from one Shopper to another.
At Quest, we believe that this approach allows too much variation in the ratings. So we have developed ratings based on a series of yes or no factual questions which eliminates the scope for subjective ratings.
The Value of Mystery Shopping
In our experience, these studies are useful in demonstrating the variation and range of personal approaches which frontline employees have in dealing with customers. Take a simple email response for example. Some employees close the email with a hope that the customer will not hesitate to contact them for further assistance and show their full signature with their full name, job title, contact information and corporate logo. Others may respond simply as Thanks, Ahmed, for example. The impression of professionalism or the lack of it becomes immediately obvious.
What we do then is to work with our clients to develop a Customer Service Manual which all frontline employees are trained in, which forces the weaker employees to adopt the customs and practices of the best employees.
The following waves of Mystery Shopping are used to check compliance with the new standards. In this way, we can eliminate poor attitudes and behaviour and standarize the level of service being offered at an excellent standard.
Contact us if you wish to upgrade your level of Customer Service using Mystery Shopping.
