In short mystery shopping works by delivering feedback to the front lines, covering all learning styles and motivating change.
Well, it does when it’s delivered by Silent Customer because it’s our values that underpin the success of our mystery shopping services.
As a child, my mother always told me I had the ‘attention span of a gnat’. My maths teachers said I ‘just needed to apply myself ‘ and my grandfather threatened me with the ‘Wrath of God’ because I couldn’t learn my times tables. My English teachers couldn’t understand why I could apply myself to literature but not literacy. I couldn’t catch or throw and was always last at running and last to be picked for teams at school.
It took several driving instructors to find the one with the patience to teach me to drive and I will never forget my group skiing instructor throwing his hands in the air in exasperation and exclaiming ‘I just don’t know why you can’t get it Janet!’ I was in my 30s and it reduced me to tears, just like all the other times people expressed their disappointment and frustrations with my apparent ‘refusal’ to learn.
I guess, these days I would be diagnosed as having ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia. The only actual thing I was diagnosed for, when I was 40, was a hole in my heart… I guess that explains the inability to run efficiently at least.
What’s my point? Well, nobody goes out to be terrible at stuff. It makes you excluded, marginalised and written off. Nobody goes out to not fit in. If you tell someone, they need to try harder…. don’t you think they would if they could? Usually, it’s not a conscious choice.
For me, it meant I went overboard to please people by serving them what I had left available to me. I was a grafter, hardworking, capable, efficient and I was creative and perceptive of people. I found my calling in hospitality.
I can’t ‘do maths’ but I can balance a profit and loss sheet. I can’t read or write with accuracy, but I can convey sentiment.
I don’t force ‘potential’ in people. I see their talents and help them and their colleagues to accept their ‘can’t dos’ and cheerlead their ‘can dos’. My mantra has always been if your employees can’t do something you need them to do, then you shouldn’t have employed them. The fault is with you, not the employee. Redress your recruitment processes, it will make it less painful for everyone.
Do I think labelling people as ‘neurodiverse’ is unhelpful? Yes. I do. Do I think our current education system is archaic and exclusive only for those with one learning style. Yes. I do. I think we should stop giving people labels to enable the ‘poor me’ disability excuse and just embrace that we are all different and have something to offer.
I started Silent Customer for two reasons.
- I simply couldn’t work for cruel managers anymore. Don’t get me wrong. I had some amazing managers without whom I wouldn’t have conquered my fear of maths, but equally, I had some terrible ones whose overly critical and chastising management styles all but destroyed me.
- As a restaurant manager myself I realised there is a better way to treat the people you work with. Words of encouragement and giving feedback in a way that was palatable, fair and kind was a better way to drive business. These values are the veins of our business and run through every mystery shopping report that is delivered to our clients’ teams.
We can help you understand how mystery shopping can work for your business. If you care about your teams and want them to be the driving force of your business, then get in touch.
