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The
concept of "secret shoppers" has uses far beyond the corridors and
cash registers of retail stores. Retailers and wise businesses that are highly
focused on customer service have long employed people to secretly
"shop" as if they were actual customers or clients, and then report
their perceptions to management. If you apply this concept to testing how an
organization performs in multiple categories -- not just customer service -- you
will be able to detect the seeds of budding crises well in advance of serious
damage being caused. Secret
shopping can be done to evaluate vulnerabilities in: ¤
Physical and Information Security.
How
easy is it to just walk in to a facility unchallenged?
To see the contents of files containing what should be confidential
information? Would it have been easy to just pick up a computer floppy disk or
CD-ROM off someone's desk? Are valuable products placed in a manner that would
allow someone to easily pick them up and stick them in a
pocket or purse? Are people talking about company business within
easy earshot of a visitor? ¤ Human Resources. Does the "secret shopper" prospective employee get treated in
a manner consistent with all EEOC requirements and other applicable laws?
Are there signs of discrimination or harassment in the manner people talk
to each other? Are there vulnerabilities indicated in the answer the shopper
receives when asking
any average employee, "what's it like to work here?" ¤
Financial/Business Matters.
Contact
some vendors for the target organization, playing the role of someone who's also
been asked to be a vendor. Find out
how they treat outside vendors (a prime source of potentially damaging gossip),
whether they pay on time, and what the vendor thinks of their business
practices. ¤
Investment Matters. If
the target organization is publicly held, become a potentially large investor
who wants feedback from major brokers and/or analysts. And then ask the same
questions of the organization's CFO. Negative feedback from the former, or
inconsistencies between the answers given by those outside and inside the
company, are possible warning flags. Published in FPG's March 2002 Issue |
