Has anyone used a mystery shopping company to find out how well your staff is perceived by others?  I have 5 administrative staff members in my property management firm, and I trying my best to improve their customer service skills.

My main interest would be to have telephone mystery shops done as I would think that in person shops might be expensive.  I just emailed a few mystery shop companies, so I'll find out how much it all costs next week, but I'd like to hear if anyone has had any experience in dealing with mystery shopping companies or has any tips for me so that I don't make any mistakes.

Enrique,

In my past life I managed an office of sales reps. As you can imagine, some were excellent, some were average and a couple were asleep at the wheel. I would on occasion, call in a customer lead using my own address and the home phone. Several times these leads were never addressed. I then knew who was actually involved and working.

Just have some friends call and go through the motions. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised!

PS I am trying to set up a new PM business. Called my future competitors and found the same results! No follow up!

Thanks for your thoughts Tom, and good luck with setting up a new property management business.  Follow up is so important, and so easy to not do when it gets busy.

I just hired a company that will do mystery shop telephone calls once a month for $35.  They will provide a recording and a written report.