I worked retail in college, and the constant "threat" of secret shoppers was
enough to keep me awake during those long nights. Plus, when the boss is
near, you act different than if s/he is away.

Your front-line interpreters can make or break a visitor's experience, and
consequently their impressions of your institution. Furthermore, as an
employer I may be biased by other factors, including if I helped develop the
program in question, if I hired the employee, or my relationship with that
employee. (There are people out there who completely change personalities
when the "boss" is around.) An outside, independent, unannounced secret
visitor may be a useful method to help establish a trend of good or poor
behaviors. It should be used as one method in conjunction with visitor
comments and your observations. If all methods show a continued trend of
poor work, you are more justified in terminating the employee.

Best,
George


National Speedskating Museum and Hall of Fame
George Garner, Director and Curator
P.O. Box 3120, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
(518) 587-2609


|-----Original Message-----
|From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
|Behalf Of Adrienne DeAngelis
|Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 2:31 PM
|To: [log in to unmask]
|Subject: Re: "secret shoppers" to evaluate tours
|
|
|Hello--
|        The problem with "secret shoppers" is that they are frequently
|tempted to exaggerate their experiences. I don't see why a supervisor
|cannot simply pay better attention to what happens in the shop
|or in other
|parts of the museum in order to judge how the workers are
|working. Why are
|strangers to be trusted with providing information that could affect
|someone's job?
|
|        Adrienne DeAngelis
|        Resources in Art History for Graduate Students
|        (http://www.efn.org/~acd/resources.html)
|        [log in to unmask]
|
|

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