I have been doing mystery shopping part time for awhile now and will be going full time soon. In my transition I took on a shop for a motorcycle retailer. When I got there, it was an all men staff. There were 5 employees on the floor. Two of the employees were with older gentleman talking about quads. There was a family - wife, husband, 2 kids (boy 6ish, girl 9ish) looking around for assistance. There were another 2 employees shooting the breeze together over by some motorcycles. The fifth employee was just drifting around the store.
The family walked out after 5 minutes of no service. I walked past the drifting employee who scowled at me. I then walked past the duo once and then came closer to them on a second pass while I appeared to be looking at the motorcycles they were close to. I finally gave up and asked out right for some assistance and was met with a stink face that would make your grandmother blush.
My question is this: Every other comment from this employee was, "...a female..." For example, "that doesn't fit a female." "a female wouldn't like the weight" "That's a great color for a female". So how do you handle this situation. I simply ignored it the best I could, though I wanted to take my steel-toed boot to him (sorry). I reported it in the survey but is there anything you can or should do?
I am not expecting this to happen again. I am just curious if this has happened to others and how they handled it.
Thanks

What could there be to do? You reported your experience as it happened. That's all there is to it. Your job is to experience and report. Don't get caught up in it and either get personally involved or think you should be changing things. It's a job, do it, be done with it.

Those sexist comments would have just outraged me. I'm a rider and have done motorcycle shops before too. There is nothing you can do. You just report it. I imagine when the company reads those comments they will be outraged too.

Ages ago. I went to buy a bike, cash, in pocket. I was ignored by everyone in the dealership ( Don and Roy's Honda, Brookfield, WI.) I was in the showroom for 45 minutes, standing next to the bike I wanted to buy. As I was leaving, I walked past the service desk and thanked them for sending me to someone who wanted my money. I went to a small, independent dealer that could not have been more helpful! Laid the bike down so I could see if I could get it back up unassisted, let me test ride, couldn't have been more accommodating if he was my father. Guess who got a sale that day. ( v45 Magna. It was eons ago!)
Present day. In this area, the Harley dealers are very accommodating, maybe too much so. No such thing as browsing alone there, you have a shadow all the time. But then, this is where Harley was invented, so women on them or buying one isn't a big deal. I have 2 in the garage ( Shovel head & Softtail)
You did your job, you reported. You may get their rear in a sling about this. That is why you, as a female, were sent there in the first place. If things were going just great, they wouldn't have sent a female mystery shopper in. Hope you got them good.

I wonder if men are ever treated the way at, say, cosmetics stores/counters?

I am SO happy you encountered that on a shop and got to report it!! That must have been a VERY satisfying 'submit'!!

LA

DrSquash Wrote:
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> I wonder if men are ever treated the way at, say,
> cosmetics stores/counters?


The ones I've seen at the counters were being attended to like they were royalty.

I never enjoy submitting reports that will reflect negatively on the employees. However, our job is to report what we observe and let the client decide how to deal with it. And I think I am damn good at this job and like to think that my reports will contribute to a better customer experience. That's how I handle it.

Long before mystery shopping I went to buy a new vehicle. I didn't like the pushy salesman who told me what a great deal I was getting and if I left to think abòut it, there's no way he'd save the offer.
Someone else got my money.
DH has a bike, so I've been thinking of doing a new rider mystery shop so I appreciated this thread.

DrSquash Wrote:
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> I wonder if men are ever treated the way at, say,
> cosmetics stores/counters?


I wouldn't think it would raise to much of eyebrow. Men buy items for their women all the time!

The only counter I visit is for Clinique and they have a line of skincare specifically for men.