Making every expense dollar count is critical to the success of any business in these challenging economic times. Likewise, ensuring customer satisfaction is critical for continued survival. As new business becomes more difficult to come by, the importance of retaining each existing customer becomes even greater.

Train your front line to improve your bottom line…

Ensuring customer satisfaction has never been more important, and an investment in training for front line staff is a wise one - assuming the training saturates the targeted staff levels and effectively increases knowledge or improves service behaviors. Companies often implement training initiatives, whether it be customer service, selling skills, or product knowledge training, without considering the importance of measuring the program’s success.

Inspect what you expect…

But the return on investment for training can be difficult to measure. How do you really know if the training effectively made the transition from the classroom to the sales floor?

Three questions come to mind when analyzing the effectiveness of any training.

• Is the information/behavior understood? (Did the staff learn it?)
• Is the information/behavior applied? (Does the staff know how to use it?)
• Is the information/behavior consistently applied? (Will the staff continue to use it after the initial testing phase of the program?)

Classroom testing (onsite or online) is an effective way to measure understanding, but not the actual application of the training.

Observation (by onsite management) can measure application, but only partially, as behaviors under management scrutiny doesn’t necessarily reflect ongoing behaviors.

It’s only through observation of typical customer interactions that learned behaviors can be effectively measured, the level of training saturation determined, and the cost of the training dollars justified. Mystery shopping is an excellent method to help assess the success and value of front line training programs, by documenting interactions between staff and (perceived) actual customers.

Use mystery shopping to target training results…

Even companies reluctant to commit to a regular mystery shopping program may consider instituting a series of mystery shops specifically designed to evaluate critical training points. And, the costs of a temporary, targeted program can often be included in the overall training program budget.

To be most effective and accurate, the first round of mystery shops should occur soon after the completed rollout of the training program. Several visits per location should be scheduled to check different shifts and determine a trend, in order to bring the overall location picture into focus.

The first-round results provide a road map for further follow-up (or reason to celebrate).

• Locations with a high score indicate training success.
• Locations with an extremely low score require swift action and intense retraining. Another round of mystery shops can be scheduled later after the conclusion of this remedial plan.
• Locations with mid-range scores should be scheduled with another round of mystery shops immediately after allowing a specified, limited time to correct the deficiency.

Continuous improvement…

Training programs represent a large investment of time and other resources. Mystery shopping is an effective way to evaluate the success of front line training. Even disappointing shop scores provide valuable information, initiating a thorough review of the original training program’s content and delivery method, and perhaps prompting improvements for future programs. Excellent shop scores boost confidence and encourage continued investment in training efforts.

The insight gained from mystery shop evaluations not only promotes continuous improvement for critical front line performance, but helps quantify the value of training in general.