If Webster Agrees With You, Are You Still Wrong?

October 09, 2015 11:17PM

I have a couple of newb questions. First, if you use the spell check feature, and are told the only thing you've misspelled is "online", must you spell it the way their spell check says is correct, even if you don't think so and Webster agrees with you? 'Their spell check said it was correctly spelled "on-line". I refused to change the spelling, and now I'm wondering if the shop will be rejected, or that I might be dinged for it.

Second, during one of the shops I did yesterday, I had an extremely embarrassing incident. I felt faint, and almost went down in a heap as the only two associates in the store were waiting on me. One rushed to get me a chair, and brought me a glass of tap water. The other pretty much just stood there agape. It was her very first day, and she didn't know how to handle it. The guidelines say that the client is picky and wants everything perfect, and that they go over the security tapes with the associates when they receive our reports. I was mortified, but didn't know what else to do, so I collected myself as quickly as possible, and then finished the shop. Will this one be rejected?

I know no one here has a crystal ball. That said, opinions anyone?

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October 09, 2015 11:54PM

First, regardless of what is technically right and technically wrong, remember that "the customer is always right." The MSC is the customer. You are providing a service to your customer. The customer pays you for the service. I try to give my customers what they want. Also - be very careful about relying on spell checker. Many times spell checker has let me down. When you use the word two, spell checker shows that it is correct. However, if you use "too" or "to" instead of "two," spell checker will say it is correct......when it totally isn't. Spell checker will only alert you to a word not spelled correctly, not to a word that spelled correctly but is incorrectly used.

No telling about whether your shop will be rejected. What did you report about your collapse? It sounds as though it may have skewed the results of the shop. I agree - I would have been mortified as well. I would probably have aborted the shop, left the building, and returned to do the shop a few minutes or hours later when I felt better.

October 10, 2015 12:07AM

Thanks, AustinMom. All duly noted. I guess these are the things you learn as you're earning your stripes. Believe me, though, I know not to trust spell checker. That's one of the reasons I ignored it when it said it should be spelled "on-line". I looked it up, and couldn't even find a reference to "on-line". Everything said "online". But you're right. The customer is always right, so I suppose that makes me wrong, even if Webster and everyone else agrees with me. Thanks for pulling me up short on that one.

As far as my embarrassing moment. I did briefly consider aborting the shop. I just wasn't sure what protocol was. I thought if I finished the shop, it might be rejected. But I also thought if I aborted and then came back in again, it might get rejected. So i said to myself, "If I was actually in here as a real customer, what would I do?" Actually, I would have collected myself, paid for my item, and left. So that's what I did. I did mention it briefly in my narrative, and then just like the actual shop, I didn't make a big deal out of it, and finished the rest of the report and submitted it. It will be interesting to see the outcome.

Thanks for your input. I'll think long and hard on it. I appreciate the guidance.

October 10, 2015 12:22AM

Let us know what happens. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

October 10, 2015 12:42AM

Thanks. Will do.

October 10, 2015 12:47AM

I do hope that you mentioned the helpfulness of the associate. Even if it was not what the store was checking on, it was a great piece of customer service and if it is not in their employee training materials already, it should be.

I've got my fingers crossed that your shop gets accepted without issue.

October 10, 2015 02:13AM

@Flash wrote:

I do hope that you mentioned the helpfulness of the associate. Even if it was not what the store was checking on, it was a great piece of customer service and if it is not in their employee training materials already, it should be.

I've got my fingers crossed that your shop gets accepted without issue.

Yes, of course. I actually thought it was a magnificent example for the new associate. You never know when someone will become ill in public. It happens. Believe me... I should know. lol I did devote a couple of lines to giving her credit for her quick thinking, and handling the situation so calmly. Then I moved on, not wanting to make too big a deal of it all.

October 10, 2015 02:37AM

Correct.

I was astonished a few years ago at Red Robin when it was shopped in my area. Their floor plan is to have guests step up into booths as well as having a step up into the dining area from the foyer. Why they do that is a mystery to me, but I guess it makes conversation as they warn guests about the steps. Anyway, we were in there one evening when an older woman with a cane fell.

It was like a well orchestrated ballet went into place. A server notified the manager who immediately came over to the prone woman, went down on one knee and started quietly talking with her. You could hear as the older woman's tone went from frightened to conversational to finally laughing. After a reasonable period of time the woman was helped to a sitting position on the floor and soon after, two of the male servers came over to help her to her feet. The manager then took the woman's arm and walked her to a table, with the two still chatting and laughing.

I was extremely impressed with the manager's calm and comforting manner and definitely mentioned it in the report. I feel sure that at some point an accident report was filled out, but the priorities were pretty clear: make sure the woman was uninjured except for her pride, rebuild the pride with caring, get her safely to her seat.

October 10, 2015 02:50AM

Bravo to that manager! Very well handled, and I'm sure the woman appreciated his "floor-side" manner. The associate on my shop was definitely a pro. She told me that unlike the new associate who she was training that day, she new nothing about the product line in that store when she started. She said she had a very extensive background in retail management. She was calm, professional, and managed to make me feel like not too much of an idiot for passing out in her store. Gotta love these pros, and they should be commended.

October 10, 2015 03:11AM

I just found the following email regarding the shop in question with both my Webster's dilemma, and my fainting spell. I was really wondering if it would be rejected, or I'd get dinged or even terminated. It reads as follows:

Your visit of XXX XXXXXX for North Fork Research has been reviewed.

Comments: Thank you for conducting this shop. Your report has been submitted to the client. We appreciate that you completed this mystery shop!

Best Regards,
Quality Assurance Team
North Fork Research

I know someone on the forum was just asking about North Fork in the last day or so. I would normally shy away from identifying any specific entities, but they were so great about this, I had to crow about them for it. What a class act they are! I'm assuming they don't rate their shoppers, as I didn't see a place on the shop log for a rating anywhere. Doesn't matter. I couldn't be happier.

October 10, 2015 03:17AM

Glad it turned out that way. North Fork is a really nice company.

October 10, 2015 03:24AM

There really was no reason for it to be rejected. Yes, you had an unusual incident (at least I HOPE it was unusual) and evidently they were satisfied with how you handled it.

The thing is that stuff happens. I was doing a shop and got snagged on a sharp corner of a shelf. I started bleeding like crazy as a section of skin had just been shorn off. Customer Service was between me and the restroom so I stopped to ask if they had a band aid. They had neither a band aid nor a tissue so I kept on going to the restroom where I got tissue on the scrape to help it stop bleeding and then cleaned myself up with wet paper towels. I still had blood on my shirt and pants, but not much I could do about it. When I left the restroom I had to walk by Customer Service and the gal called, "All better now?" Grrrr. What store doesn't have a first aid kit at Customer Service? I reported the incident in third person in my report because I do shops there often enough I didn't want to be outed. I now carry band aids.

October 10, 2015 03:29AM

Oh my goodness! That's awful. Glad it wasn't worse, but you're right. Every customer service department should have a first aid kit. That's just common sense. I'm surprised they didn't. Well, I guess that's what mystery shopping is for--to help staff iron out the kinks in their system. That's a big kink, though. Yikes!

October 12, 2015 02:04PM

Just because some companies don't give shoppers ratings for their reports, don't assume they don't rate their shoppers. They know how many shops have been completed, how many have been flaked on, and what internal rating was given to the reports. Some just don't share.

@touchshopper wrote:

I just found the following email regarding the shop in question with both my Webster's dilemma, and my fainting spell. I was really wondering if it would be rejected, or I'd get dinged or even terminated. It reads as follows:

Your visit of XXX XXXXXX for North Fork Research has been reviewed.

Comments: Thank you for conducting this shop. Your report has been submitted to the client. We appreciate that you completed this mystery shop!

Best Regards,
Quality Assurance Team
North Fork Research

I know someone on the forum was just asking about North Fork in the last day or so. I would normally shy away from identifying any specific entities, but they were so great about this, I had to crow about them for it. What a class act they are! I'm assuming they don't rate their shoppers, as I didn't see a place on the shop log for a rating anywhere. Doesn't matter. I couldn't be happier.

Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut

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