Secret Shopper programs have become a popular tool for banks and credit unions to keep a pulse on their customer service standards and performance management incentive triggers. These programs excel at capturing which company standards and beliefs have effectively translated into desired behavior and which have not. The following questions are critical to ensuring that shopper reviews truly capture the beliefs and behaviors that are most important to producing the desired results.
1. Number and type of open questions asked. If any sales are to be made, the MSR/CSR must be trained to exhibit the behavior of curiosity. The employee should ask questions that require customers to respond with an experience or emotion. Answer yes or no questions do not provide how the customer feels about a product or experience with your institution or that of a competitor. Questions that start with “have you ever had the experience of” or “do you know what frustrates me about X” and end with “I guess you’ve never had that” work great. Reaching the goal of having MSRs/CSRs displaying this desired behavior requires extensive belief and behavior training that is constantly reinforced by the company culture.
2. Number and details of attempts to move from inquiry to action. Buyer forms often contain generic language such as “employee attempted to close a sale” or “additional product or service recommended by employee.” Many times forms give credit to employees for simply mentioning a product or describing its features. It is critical that an MSR/CSR suggest next action steps and attempt to move the customer to complete the sale. Measurement questions such as “employee offered to show me an office to complete account opening” or “employee attempted to set up an appointment to discuss options and benefits of opening a new IRA account.”
3. Specific benefits of the product or service presented. Most of the time, a buyer form will capture the MSR/CSR’s explanation of features like “100% money back guarantee,” “no points,” or “no account maintenance fees,” but it doesn’t capture how or whether the employee presented the benefits that the customer would derive from the product or service. The most useful evaluation will capture the “so that” benefit statements. For example, “our home equity and mortgage loans provide the benefit of having no points (so) you don’t have to add additional principal to your balance that you would have to pay interest on for the entire term of the loan.” Another example would be “our IRAs have no maintenance fee (so) any interest you earn stays with you and doesn’t have to be paid back as fees.”
4. Product or service relationship connections/benefits made. Many times, buyer forms contain generic language about cross-selling attempts, such as “MSR/CSR attempted to cross-sell additional products.” The best way to gauge effective cross-selling beliefs and desired behavior is to ask what product relationships or cross-product benefits the employee offered. An example would be for MSR/CSR to explain that by having an auto loan with the bank/credit union along with a debit card checking account, you would receive an additional .25% reduction in the auto loan rate (so you) would have a lower monthly payment, pay less interest, and possibly reduce the total repayment period of the loan. Another example would be “MSR/CSR explained that by opening a checking and savings account I could set up a split direct deposit of my payroll so that some funds could automatically go into savings (so) I could start a high savings reserve.” interest in a I can afford it.
5. Details of how the MSR/CSR applied for the business. Often, the mystery shopper assesses negligence to see if the employee solicited business. It’s nearly impossible to capture business if you put the entire burden on your customers to find and apply for it on their own. I can’t begin to tell you how many very proper and candid sales presentations I have witnessed where the only thing that turned a sure sale into a no call was the salesperson’s failure to simply end the presentation by asking for the sale. It’s as simple as “I heard from your responses that this product gives you all the benefits you’re looking for. Can I set it up for you now?” The buyer’s form must require the exact verbiage of how the business was requested by the MSR/CSR.
In writing the 5 Critical Questions, I did not attempt to cover all of the potential areas that Mystery/Secret Shopper inventories can focus on to measure and illicitly target behavior. For example, overcoming objections would be a whole course in itself. In writing these questions, I wanted to share my experience with developing effective purchase reviews and some of the most common pitfalls. I applaud you for your commitment to your customers if you currently participate in a secret shopper program. If you don’t, I tell you there’s one thing you can take to the bank or credit union and that is if you’re not buying their customer contact employees, I can assure you your competition is. Why would anyone give the competition that kind of advantage?