This is why it is so very important to take your customer in, sit them down, make them feel comfortable, and get to know them and what their needs are. Once you have done this, you can then sell them a product based on what their needs are and not what you think they are.

On a personal note . . .

I learned the importance of evaluating your customer the hard way. A few years ago, I was a branch manager working in a bank branch. One particular customer of the bank approached me in my office about opening a savings account for her daughter.

Once I explained to her the process of opening a savings account, I proceeded to tell her all about a current promotion we were having on our home equity loans. She sat there and listened very politely and patiently as I very proudly went down the list of all the benefits, features, and tax breaks that come with a home equity loan.

Once I had finished my rehearsed presentation, she said to me;

That all sounds very nice, and it is something that I will consider in the near to distant  future. She than went on to tell me that she and her husband rented the house they lived in.

So there you have it, I tried to sell a home equity loan to someone without a house.

Needless to say, my face turned a deeper shade of scarlet, and I felt like an idiot.

But hey, I learned from my mistake. Had I asked some simple probing questions before I went straight for the sale, I would have saved myself a lot of embarrassment.

You will be amazed at what you can find out from people just by asking them a few simple questions about themselves. Remember, people love to talk about themselves. Their jobs, their pets, their kids, just about everything.

I once had a friend who owned a shoe store, and his inventory was made up mostly of sneakers. One day a man walked into his store to buy a pair of sneakers. As my friend assisted him with his decision, he struck up a friendly conversation with him. As it turned out, this customer ran a basketball camp during the summer and he loved to talk about it. A few minutes into the conversation, my friend and his customer had come to an agreement. All of the boys and girls that attended the customers basketball camp would receive a 10% discount on their sneakers if they purchased them at my friend’s store.

So, as you can see, my friend increased his sales that summer simply by striking up a conversation with his random customer and asking a few questions.

Imagine going to your doctors office with an ailment and having him prescribe you a medication without asking what your symptoms were. Would you take the medication?

The same principal applies.

It really isn’t rocket science, it’s just friendly conversation, get to know your customer and watch one sale turn into many.

Why service only one of your customers needs when you can service them all.

You can have your cake and eat it too! Enjoy the best of both worlds. Make money and have fun at the same time as a mystery shopper.

What is a Mystery Shopper?

Sometimes known as a secret shopper, a mystery shopper looks like any other customer but is working undercover to perform market research or other tests on business establishments.

For example, a mystery shopper may check on the quality of service and products at a particular fast food outlet.

Were the staff friendly, courteous and helpful? Were the washrooms clean? Was the food hot and tasty? Did the staff attempt to upsell? Was the order filled accurately and quickly?

Why the Need for Mystery Shoppers?

Companies are concerned about the quality of your shopping experience. If there is a problem, they would like to know about it so that they can take corrective action and keep you as a customer.

For this reason, businesses hire mystery shoppers to check on their locations and report the results.

As well, comparison shopping can reveal pricing and service differences of the competition.

Mystery shoppers sometimes uncover safety or security concerns and other helpful information.

How To Make Money as a Mystery Shopper

You can make money as a freelance mystery shopper. Contact market research companies and other businesses to obtain clients.

As an independent contractor, you will invoice clients your fees for services rendered. As well, you will be reimbursed for any direct expenses incurred (such as the cost of store purchases).

It is also possible to run your own market research company and subcontract out the work. You would need to get business clients who are willing to pay for these secret shopping assignments. Then, find suitable people who are willing to perform those assignments for you.

Variety is the Spice of Mystery Shopping

Your assignments as a mystery shopper can be varied and interesting.

One time you may eat in a fast food restaurant. Another time you may be asked to see how long it takes to get service from a company by telephone.

Perhaps you may be asked to shop at a website to check out its user friendliness. Still another assignment may require you to rate the helpfulness of store staff.

So, if you would like to have fun while making money, consider becoming a mystery shopper.

Call monitoring can be live or recorded.  Most call center systems provide for both ways to monitor live calls.  The “barge in” facility means that a supervisor is able to join the call in a conference, while “listen in” means that a supervisor can only listen to the call, and cannot talk with the customer or the representative. In addition to these monitoring options, some systems allow a supervisor to take over and close the call.

Some clients require full monitoring and recording of calls.  This typically happens in highly regulated industries like telephone service sales where third party verification (TPV) systems are in place to guard against fraud.  Another area requiring complete call monitoring is market research where response is evaluated based on both content and inflection.

In addition to call monitoring systems, the centers themselves use monitoring technology to ensure performance and security.  Many call centers handle sensitive client data like credit card numbers and client identity information.  In order to safeguard this information as required by law, call centers use access controls for both people and data.

Managers and supervisors help create quality-monitoring programs and typically integrate new monitoring systems with hiring and training.   There are many benefits to monitoring beyond security concerns.  Monitoring systems can be used to help in training and with the delivery of quality services.  In many cases such systems also provide the basis on which call centers can document and bill their work to customers.

Enterprises are demanding highly integrated, proactive applications that provide the ability to identify and diagnose problems even before end users experience them. Today’s systems managers need powerful and easy-to-use tools that can monitor all of the interactions between the diverse software, networks, databases, and infrastructure components that can affect the performance of their enterprises’ core online applications.

We all think we know how to listen, yes?  The fact is that very few people know how to truly listen.  In our earnestness to serve, we get pulled out of a conversation by preparing for the answer while the other person is still talking.  We wait for a pause and when the person takes a breath, we jump in to improve or remedy the situation.  

Or, we worry about the question that we may be asked that we might not be able to answer intelligently.  Will we know the answer?  Will we be able to respond appropriately?  What if I am asked a question I don’t know the answer to?  What if I don’t understand the question?  What if they find out that I’m new on the job/on the equipment/at this company?  What if they get angry at me?  What if I frustrate them?  What if, what if, you fill in the blank.  We are anywhere but listening to the other person.

Our intentions are good.  We want to give the best response we can, hopefully the right answer.  However, if we are not present to the conversation, the other person feels not heard, unimportant, ripped off, and the like.  If there was no upset on their side to begin with, it now exists big time.  Fact:   if you are not listening to the customer, there is no way you can answer the question.  The truth is you probably haven’t even heard it.

Listening is our least used and weakest communication skill.  None the less, great customer service professionals are first and foremost great listeners.  Active listening forces us to tune in to what the customer is saying, instead of trying to think of what our responses will be.

Hearing and listening are not the same, though many people use the words interchangeably.
Hearing is a physiological process whereby auditory impressions are received by your ears and transmitted to your brain.
Listening involves interpreting and understanding the significance of the sensory experience.

The derivative of listen is ‘list,’ which means to lean toward one side.  Have you ever noticed how you lean in when someone is talking to you, or vice versa?  Even on the phone?

When you listen, you win and the other person wins.  But it is not enough to just listen, you have to communicate to people that you’re listening.  Sometimes people don’t think you’re listening when you are because you’re not communicating that you’re listening.

It takes much more effort to win a new customer than to maintain a relationship with an existing customer. But maintaining current customer relationships is just as critical and I’d even dare to say, more important than gaining new customers. What can we do to keep our established customers feel appreciated? You need to follow up with your customers.

Following up may be as simple as writing an email or giving a phone call to a customer a few weeks after a sale. At Screaming Bee, I make it a personal goal to contact every customer that buys our voice-changing software, MorphVOX, within 2-3 weeks after a sale.

Does this take time? It sure does. Is it worth it? Absolutely! Not only does this allow us to get good feedback from customers in order to improve our software, but also it establishes a more solid, long-lasting relationship that goes beyond the point-of-sale.

Most people were surprised that I would be willing spend the time to talk with them and were touched by the personal attention they received. And I was also surprised at how uncommon it was for online businesses to follow up on their customers.  Some of the typical comments that I have received as the result of my efforts include:

”I really appreciate the personal touch, vs. the usual automated ‘we have received your email’ garbage, followed by… well, nothing usually…”

”Huh, never had customer support quite like this I appreciate it…”

People don’t like being ignored and definitely like being heard. There are many businesses that are ignoring their customers and, as a result, losing them.

Your current customers are the heart and core of your business. These customers provide return business and also provide the essential word-of-mouth promotion that no clever advertisement or marketing scheme will ever out-perform. Treat your customers like your own family. Go out of your way to communicate with them. If you neglect them, they will go elsewhere.