Would you welcome this caller?

Written by Ray Sawyer-James

Best Practice Article Published in Property People 5th June 2003 (p7)

Tenant or a ‘Mystery Shopper’?

They’re used in the retail sector, they’re used in commercial settings, and even in some public sector services – so why not use ‘Mystery Shoppers’ to test out the service that sheltered housing provides? This method of obtaining feedback gives a totally different view and compliments other traditional methods such as consultation and user surveys. It provides organisations with a real opportunity to find out how they are performing and can be used as evidence of un-biased evaluation of the service. It also demonstrates that the organisation is genuinely seeking to test out and improve its service rather than going through a ‘paper exercise’. However, a word of warning to those reaching for the phone to book a mystery shoppers service after reading this article… be prepared for an honest, open and no-holds barred feedback. Needless to say, an organisation needs to be forward thinking, progressive and open to challenge to benefit from this service.

One such Organisation is the Housing Management Service Unit at Poole Borough Council who used mystery shoppers as part of their evaluation process. Bill Shaw the Best Value and Performance Manager stated, “We wanted to really test the service that we provide using a method that would challenge our views and perceptions. Satisfaction surveys were used to obtain feedback from our tenants and lessees but we also wanted to obtain effective insight into what experiences those enquiring about our service receive when they contact us. It was really enlightening and helped us to shape and ‘fine tune’ procedures to ensure enquirers receive a quality service. We will certainly be using mystery shoppers again – it was an invaluable part of our overall evaluation of sheltered housing”.

SHN mystery shoppers visited and phoned sheltered schemes and the Civic Centres offices. SHN then provided Poole Borough Council with feedback in the form of a presentation of findings, which was linked to a ‘challenge the service’ workshop. This was attended by tenant & leaseholder representatives, scheme managers, service managers, board members, councillors and other stakeholders. The overall view was that this was a useful tool and a valuable aid in future planning of service delivery. It is no secret that the success of this process was also due to the progressive attitude of staff and management who impressed us with their appetite for information that would give them further opportunities to deliver a quality service.

The process that Poole Borough Council followed clearly demonstrated their commitment and intention to conduct a ‘no-holds barred’ review of the service and is an effective demonstration of good practice. In addition to the methods described above, they also set up a ‘scrutiny panel’ consisting of a number of ‘experts’ from outside their own organisation to question and challenge the findings and recommendations that they put forward in light of their review of the sheltered housing service.

SHN can provide your organisation with the unique opportunity to evaluate the efficiency of your service by arranging for our 'Mystery Shoppers' to periodically request information about sheltered housing and provide feedback of their findings.

By using SHN mystery shoppers you will be able to:

Obtain unbiased feedback
Evaluate services objectively
Receive constructive recommendation

You can obtain further information about how to set up a mystery shoppers service and other effective methods of evaluating your service, by visiting the SHN Web Site www.shn.org.uk or e-mailing info@shn.org.uk or by phoning us on 0870 467 0656