How Mystery Shopping Protects Both Process and People in a Business?

Process and People of Business

What makes a business successful? Whether it’s process or people? Actually, both are important as both are interdependent. Read on to understand the connection between process and people and how can you protect both using mystery shopping solutions.

Picture this – there are two businesses, A & B. A is a consistent performer, whereas B is an occasional one. Can you figure out what’s different between these two? The main difference between A and B is well-defined, well-executed and constantly upgraded ‘Business Processes’.

How can you define process?

It can be described as a set of pre-defined tasks or duties that are needed to be performed in a given business setup. It includes the people who are responsible for doing a certain task at a definite time and stage and how they do the same. Simply put, it is the way in which a business runs systematically and its importance cannot be overlooked in any case. So, what benefits do business processes offer? 

• It helps a business grow.

• It helps business drive profitability.

• It helps a business evaluate its shortcomings and work on its betterment

• It helps a business stay ahead in a cut-throat competitive market. 

What more benefits do you need?

What supports business processes? 

Think about a business house with well-executed and latest processes, but without good and efficient people. Is this possible to run a business just on the basis of processes? No. It isn’t. You always need a strong workforce to implement the processes in the way they are supposed to be. Just like business processes, having a good workforce also has its benefits, like - 

• Good workforce means high productivity.

• Efficient staff members mean reduced absenteeism.

• When your employees are motivated, a positive work environment prevails.

• Productive employees connote better collaboration and execution of plans.

Due to all these reasons, an ideal business setup is where both process and people go hand-in-hand.  

No wonder why Prof. Jeffrey Pfeffer said, “Successful organizations understand the importance of implementation, not just strategy, and, moreover, recognize the crucial role of their people in this process." 

Are your people and process actually going hand-in-hand?

How can you make sure that both process and people of your business are well-coordinated? Well, it’s a bit hard to answer. Some CCTV footages of your office or retail store are not enough to evaluate, if or not your plans are being implemented properly. You need an invisible tool to find it out. Invisible because, if you tell your employees that they are being watched, they will naturally become alert. It is a common human tendency. So, ultimately, you will fail to understand how actually they behave when not under scrutiny. Team up with a mystery shopping company like HS Brands and get to-the-point feedback. 

For example –

•  Whether or not your store associates greet the customers as soon as the latter enters your shop?

•  Do your staff members pick up the phone within 3 rings?

•  Do they regard each and every customer of yours, whether new or existing?

Mystery shoppers act as if they are real customers and gather all relevant information on your behalf without making your staff members feel that they are being watched, thus protecting both process and people of your business.  Once you get to know the lacunas of your business processes, you can train your people to get things done in a way that helps you get best possible ROI.