Service Is a Sometime Thing

The busy employees in the store were obviously working?but were they doing their jobs? That was a large part of what Rodney Moll was going to determine as he conducted a mystery shop through a Manhattan supermarket that carried a banner well-known in the New York City area.

Moll knows what to look for. He's CEO of TrendSource, a San Diego firm he and his brother founded in 1989 with the name Mystery Shoppers, Inc. Over the years, TrendSource has developed a client roster that includes the likes of KFC, Blockbuster, Taco Bell, Coca-Cola, and Ralphs Grocery Co. On this sunny summer morning he wasn't on official business. The supermarket wasn't a client, but it offered a convenient place to demonstrate what's involved in a mystery shop and why the results are a useful indicator of what customers think of a business.

The store was bright, clean, well-stocked, and attractive, and at 9 a.m. customer traffic was light and shoppers got prompt attention in the service departments. Elsewhere, things were less certain.

The associate in the produce department flunked the 7x7 test in a big way. That name is shorthand for the requirement that when a customer comes within seven feet of an employee the employee should smile, make eye contact, and greet the customer within seven seconds.

This worker, busy cleaning up some raspberries he had spilled on the floor, seemed unhappy to be interrupted when we asked whether the store carried the flat Chinese peaches that had been featured on a recent television show. No Chinese peaches, he said, avoiding eye contact. Asked where the regular peaches were, he pointed across the display stand rather than escorting us to them. Next to the regular peaches was a collection of Chinese peaches?at a price that suggested a healthy margin.

He didn't ask if he could do anything else for us, he just went back to cleaning up the raspberries.

The woman in the extensive cheese department was another, happier story. She stood up from the case she was stocking, smiled, greeted us, and asked how she could help. She didn't know whether the store carried meat thermometers, and pointed the way to the meat department where help was available. She could have improved her score by escorting us to the meat department and by asking whether she could help with anything else, but the overall experience was positive.

In the meat department, the associate who was filling the cases flunked the 7x7 test, but she went looking for the thermometer when asked.

And the friendly woman at the bakery counter had customer service down from beginning to end. Her only shortcoming was failing to wear a name tag.

The last impression of the store took some of the shine off the bakery experience. The cashier didn't greet us, make eye contact, ask for a frequent shopper card, or say thank you. We had to show her the PLU number on our Chinese peach so she could ring up the order correctly. The bagger acknowledged us by holding out the bag and saying, "There you go."

Outside, Moll figured the mystery shopper's bottom line. "This is a nice, clean store that's really tanking on customer service in some areas," he said. By his lights, good service costs about the same as poor service, and that means any increase in shopping frequency and customer loyalty that flows from making the store a more pleasant place to shop looks a lot like extra profit.