Not so mysterious

Take a sneak peak at customer service

Mystery shopping—the practice of someone posing as a customer in order to rate a company’s service—has long been employed by retail businesses. As a broker, manager, leader of a team, or agent with an assistant, you can employ a mystery-shopping service to gain insight into how your organization interacts with the public. You can also do some mystery shopping on your own—with the help of friends or relatives—to gauge certain aspects of customer service.

You likely don’t want to take up hours or days of an agent’s time with a "buyer" or "seller" who has no intention of ever sitting at the closing table. But you can gather valuable information about how agents and employees interact with the public in a variety of scenarios.

• Call an agent for information about a listing. Note not only what information the agent gives and asks for, but also how the agent follows up.
• Test agents and employees in situations where they can show they understand and comply with fair-housing laws. Better to find out from your own sources if you have a problem in this area so you can correct it immediately.
• Make an inquiry using your company’s Web site or e-mail to see how electronic communications are handled.
• If you make a list of references available to prospective clients, call the references periodically to find out what they say about you and how they answer difficult questions like, "What did you like least about working with them?"
• Call an unlicensed assistant or employee with a request for an action that requires a license. See how the person handles such a request.

Should you tell people they will be mystery shopped? Some experts say that not informing agents in advance leads to a more accurate assessment of how they interact with the public. Melinda Brody of Melinda Brody and Company (MelindaBrody.com), an Orlando, Florida-based firm that specializes in video mystery shopping for the housing industry, disagrees. "We like to bring mystery shopping ‘out of the closet,’"she says, "and tell agents what’s expected of them." Brody suggests tying an incentive to high scores and sharing the report form with agents ahead of time. "This eliminates the Big Brother feeling and let’s them know we are shopping them for their benefit—not to spy on them." She advises management to privately share results with each person but report overall good news to the entire team.

Photo © Artville.

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