When Was the Last Time You Secret-Shopped Your Own Business?

Years ago, the secret shopper was a familiar management tool. Someone called the business, walked through the front door, asked a few questions, looked around, and quietly reported what happened.

Were they greeted? How long did they wait? Was the employee friendly? Did someone ask the right questions? Did anyone ask for the sale? Did the experience match what management thought was happening?

Today, formal secret-shopping programs may not receive as much attention as they once did. But perhaps they should. Because while the traditional secret shopper may have faded from view, something much more powerful has taken its place: the Internet.

Google reviews. Facebook comments. Online surveys. Social media. Customer videos. Community groups. One poor experience can become public before the manager even knows there was a problem.

So perhaps the better question is: when was the last time you checked your business from the other side of the counter?

You already know what your business is supposed to sound like

Managers hear their employees every day. You walk through the service department. You pass the reception desk. You hear phones ringing. You hear advisors talking with customers. You see employees working the counter. And because you're around it every day, everything can begin to sound normal.

That's where complacency can creep in. You know what the greeting should sound like. But what does it actually sound like when nobody knows management is listening? There can be a very big difference.

Start with the telephone

Call your own business. Not from your office. Not using a number everyone recognizes. Have someone else call. Then listen carefully to the experience.

• How many times did the phone ring?
• How was it answered?
• Did the person identify the business and themselves?
• Did they sound rushed — or interested?
• Did they listen before transferring the call?
• Could they answer a basic question? If not, did they know who could?
• Was the caller immediately placed on hold? Was permission requested first?

And perhaps most importantly: did the employee sound like they were happy the customer called?

There's an old customer-service lesson that still holds true: you can hear a smile over the telephone. You really can. Tone travels. Enthusiasm travels. Frustration travels too.

The hold button can change everything

One of the fastest ways to damage a telephone experience is to make the customer feel like an interruption.

The call begins: "Good morning, ABC Service." The customer barely begins speaking. "Can you hold?" Click.

That may save the employee thirty seconds. But what did it tell the customer? Possibly: "Whatever is happening here is more important than you."

Sometimes putting someone on hold is unavoidable. But there's a big difference between "Hold please." and "Absolutely. I want to get the right person for you. May I place you on a brief hold while I locate them?"

Same operational result. Completely different customer experience. That first thirty seconds begins establishing what the customer expects from everything that follows.

Then test the handoff

One of the most revealing secret-shopping exercises is simply trying to reach another department. Call the main number and ask for Service, Parts, Sales, Collision, Accounting, or Management. What happens?

• Does the employee know where to send the call?
• Does the customer have to explain the entire story again after the transfer?
• Does someone provide the name of the person receiving the call?
• Does the call disappear into voicemail?
• Does the customer get bounced from employee to employee?

Every transfer is a small test of how well the organization communicates internally. From inside the business, those may feel like routine transfers. From the customer's side of the phone, they can feel like: "Nobody here knows what is going on."

Did anyone actually ask for the business?

A customer calls Service and asks about an oil change. They receive the price. Then the employee says: "Okay. Anything else?" Conversation over.

Information was provided. But was the opportunity handled? Compare that with: "We can take care of that. Would you like me to look at the schedule and find a time that works for you?"

That's not aggressive selling. That's helping the customer take the next step. The same applies in Parts. The same applies in Sales. The same applies in Collision. The same applies when someone walks through the front door.

Businesses spend enormous amounts of money trying to make the telephone ring or bring someone to the website. Once that person actually contacts the business, somebody should know what the next question is.

Now secret-shop the front door

The telephone tells you one story. Walking through the door tells you another. Have someone unfamiliar to the staff enter the business, then observe.

• How long before someone makes eye contact? Does anyone smile? Does someone say hello?
• Does anyone ask why they're there?
• If the responsible employee is busy, does someone else acknowledge them?
• Is the customer pointed across the building — or escorted?
• Does the reception area look cared for? Is the counter organized?
• Are employees having conversations customers probably shouldn't hear?
• Are phones ringing unanswered? Are customers standing around looking uncertain about where to go?

These small observations matter because customers don't see the business through an organizational chart. They see one business. If the person at the first counter doesn't know whose responsibility something is, the customer usually doesn't care which department is at fault. They simply know their experience wasn't very good.

What does the other side of your counter look like?

Managers naturally see operations from the inside. You know who called off today, which technician is backed up, which advisor is overloaded, which part didn't arrive, which computer isn't working, which customer is already upset.

The customer knows none of that. They simply walk in and experience the result.

That's why periodically looking at the operation from their side of the counter is so valuable. It removes the excuses. It doesn't ask "Why did this happen?" first. The first question becomes "What did the customer experience?" — then management can work backward and determine why.

Process → Procedure → Reference

Secret shopping fits naturally into the CBS/CDOS approach.

Process — Measure the real customer experience. Determine what the customer actually experiences when contacting or visiting the business. Not what the policy says should happen. Not what management assumes is happening. What actually happens.

Procedure — Test the important customer touchpoints. For the telephone: Greeting → Discovery → Hold/Transfer → Answer → Recommendation → Ask for Business → Follow-Up. For a walk-in: Arrival → Recognition → Greeting → Discovery → Direction/Handoff → Service → Closing → Follow-Up. The purpose is not to "catch" employees doing something wrong — it's to discover where the customer experience is breaking down before customers discover it for you.

Reference — Document what was observed. A simple Customer Experience Secret-Shop Evaluation could score: answer time, greeting, employee identification, tone, courtesy, listening, questions asked, hold procedure, transfer quality, product/service knowledge, accuracy of information, appointment or sale attempt, closing statement, walk-in acknowledgment, facility appearance, and overall customer impression. Then management has something objective to coach from.

Don't turn it into a "gotcha" program

If employees believe secret shopping exists only to catch mistakes and discipline people, they'll resist it. That's not the best use of the information. Use it for coaching.

Maybe the receptionist needs a better transfer process. Maybe the service advisors need three stronger opening questions. Maybe Parts needs a better procedure for calls when the counter is busy. Maybe Sales needs a better handoff when a salesperson isn't available. Maybe everybody has simply fallen into the habit of saying "Can you hold?" The evaluation creates the opportunity to improve the system.

Let managers experience it too

General managers, department managers, directors, and regional leaders should periodically listen to these evaluations. Because customer-service problems are not always employee problems. Sometimes they are process problems.

Perhaps phones are routed poorly. Perhaps staffing is wrong during peak hours. Perhaps nobody has defined who answers an overflow call. Perhaps the greeting hasn't been reviewed in ten years. Perhaps employees were never trained on what questions to ask. Perhaps "the way we've always done it" simply doesn't fit today's customer anymore. That is exactly why the checkup matters.

One call can uncover a lot

Imagine making one anonymous telephone call this afternoon. You might discover that everything is excellent. That's valuable. Or you might discover: the phone rang eight times, the greeting was rushed, you were placed on hold immediately, you were transferred twice, nobody asked your name, nobody asked for your contact information, nobody offered an appointment, nobody asked for the sale, and nobody gave you a reason to call back.

That's also valuable. Because now you know.

The Internet is already secret-shopping you

Customers are evaluating the experience whether management formally measures it or not. The difference is: you can discover the problem privately — or the customer can discover it publicly.

You don't necessarily need an expensive outside service. Start small. Have a trusted person call. Have someone unfamiliar walk in. Change the question. Change the department. Change the time of day. Then listen to what they experienced — not defensively, but curiously.

Ask: What worked? What felt awkward? Where did the experience slow down? Where did the customer feel valued? Where did we lose the opportunity? And finally: what should we change?

Because being satisfied with "that's just how we've always done it" isn't much of a customer-experience strategy. Sometimes the best way to improve the view from behind the counter is to spend a little time standing on the other side of it.

The CBS/CDOS management takeaway

Don't wait for a one-star review to secret-shop your business. Periodically test the customer journey yourself: Call it. Walk it. Listen to it. Measure it. Coach it. Improve it.

Because the customer experience you believe you're providing and the one the customer is actually receiving may be two very different things.

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Process → Procedure → Reference — Centennial Business Systems | Centennial Dealership Operating System