Mystery Shoppers: Through the Eyes of a Stranger

Veterinary practice teams consistently strive to deliver quality patient care and excellent client service. Practice teams also have an interest in knowing if they are getting it right and their clients consistently perceive value and excellence.

One program that can be used to gain insight into a client’s experience is mystery shopping.

According to the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, “Mystery Shopping enables managers and executives to measure how closely their customers' experiences reflect what the company expects them to experience.” Sometimes it takes hearing a message through the eyes of stranger or someone outside of the practice, before a team understands how clients truly perceive their experiences with the veterinary healthcare team. Download this Mystery Shopper Checklist for use in your veterinary practice.

Client Service Behavior

Today, clients have increased options as to where they choose to receive pet care and services. Clients are looking to establish a relationship with their veterinary healthcare team and prefer to consistently realize an experience; not just a transaction. They are willing to pay for recommended services as long as the veterinary healthcare team helps them understand the value of the recommended services and how their pet’s quality of life will be impacted.

According to findings released in the American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer Survey in May 2011, “Good service is not just something Americans expect; it is something they are willing to pay for. American Express says seventy percent (70%) indicate they are willing to spend up to 13% more with companies they believe provide excellent customer service, the survey showed.”

Jim Bush, Executive Vice President of American Express World Service, notes, "Getting service right is more than just a nice to do; it's a must do. American consumers are willing to spend more with companies that provide outstanding service, and they will also tell, on average, twice as many people about bad service than they will about good service. Ultimately, great service can drive sales and customer loyalty."

Practice teams have a significant interest in keeping their finger on the pulse of their client’s perception of delivered services and care. Mystery shopping is one way to capture the perception of their experience.

Mystery Shopper Options

According to the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, “The most effective mystery shopping programs are designed to catch employees doing it right. The tool is best used as an objective, honest assessment of the customer experience. That assessment should be followed-up with training, new company standards or other actions to reinforce employee expectations.”

A few veterinary mystery shopping options include:

Veterinary Mystery Shopping in Action

One veterinary practice experience with mystery shopping can be read below.

Manager: Our practice has established client service protocols and training to ensure we provide the service our clients expect. Our clients have increased opportunities to receive pet health care in our community and I can honestly say that quite a few of our clients have left us to try another practice.

Now, sometimes they actually return and tell us how terrific our team is compared to the experience they had with the practice down the street, but we want to avoid our clients leaving in the first place. In order to be sure we are truly providing the care and service we believe we are providing, we decided to use a mystery shopper program. We wanted an outsider’s opinion concerning their perception of the level of service we provide.

Question: Did you inform your team members or was the mystery shopper brought in anonymously?

Manager: That is a good question and we took time to think about it. We knew we could use the mystery shopping service as an anonymous “catch them in the act” sort of surprise or maximize the entire experience and let the staff know they may, at any time, be serving a mystery shopper. We chose to inform the staff of the program and that approach actually resulted in an overall better experience. Client service also seemed to improve as they never knew when they would be serving a mystery shopper; it seemed to keep them on their toes. The staff also wanted to hear how they were doing.

Question: Did you initially plan on sharing the feedback with the team?

Manager: Yes, we realized that in order to really make effective change happen, the staff needs to be on board. We shared the observations with them during a staff meeting. We not only discussed the areas that we needed to improve, we also discussed the areas in which the staff excels. Our original goal in bringing in a mystery shopper was not to find out how bad we were doing. We wanted to see if our clients’ perception of our service was close to what we were trying to deliver and if not, better understand what we needed to do as a team to improve.

Question: Would you utilize mystery shopping services in the future?

Manager: Yes, it’s very helpful to have someone with another pair of eyes come in and report their experience. One great idea our staff came up with as a result of our mystery shopper experience is to have our employees bring their pets in and be treated just as a client would be treated. We now schedule our staff member’s pets for wellness appointments so they can provide feedback of their experience. Although they are not an outsider, their feedback is another way we can ensure we are providing an excellent experience for our clients and patients.

Behind the Mystery

Whether a mystery shopper is a stranger, friend, or team member, the insight they provide can be helpful for our veterinary healthcare teams. In these very interesting times, it’s important to remove the mystery behind how our practice team can better serve our valued clients and patients.

Download the Mystery Shopper Checklist now.

References

1. Mystery Shopping Providers Association, http://www.mysteryshop.org/
2. American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer Survey, http://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2011/csbar.aspx (May 2011)