Greetings,

Secret shopper seems sinister,

The commercial world has for years used shadow shopping as a tool not
for measurement of internal operation but as  a comparison in respect of
the overall customer experience.

If the shadow shopper is being used to measure, assess or otherwise
counter staff, the feedback will not be held in high esteem by the
employees.

The use of shadow shopping, especially if you do it to competitors- and
yes of course there are competitors in the market- is the most
appropriate use here.  Especially if the staff from your organisation
are involved in the shadow shop programme.  This could result in greater
buy in and maybe even solve some of the problems that you started the
secret shop  in your museum.

My apologies for the flow of conscious text
andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Redcliffe State Historic Site
Sent: Wednesday, 11 December 2002 10:51 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "secret shoppers" to evaluate tours

Sure the use of secret shoppers, or the threat thereof, will keep
employees on their toes, but what message does their use send to your
employees? I don't have experience working at a large museum, so my
comments may be off base, but it seems to me that if you want to scare
employees into behaving well and have them resent management, by all
means use secret shoppers. It just seems to be a lazy approach to
ensuring quality customer service.


Fielding Freed
Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site
181 Redcliffe Road
Beech Island, SC 29842
803.827.1473
www.discoversouthcarolina.com

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