A friend of mine in England is occasionally employed as a secret shopper. The company she works for asks her to visit various stores around the region where she lives , to assess all aspects of the way employees interact with customers. Also known as mystery shopping, the aim is to get honest feedback about what's really going on inside the business.

I've heard plenty of stories about her ?stealth' observations over the years ? like the receptionist who was sound asleep for more than one hour while numerous potential customers came, waited, and then left without being served, or the outburst of abuse given by a store manager to a staff member who was serving a bust checkout line ? the employee was then left to carry on serving the customer while still in flood of tears.

My friend used to say that the worrying part of her job was that there was little middle ground. Most of her experiences were either delightful of painful. Which brings me to the key point I want to make to you:

When was the last time YOU secret shopped your own business?

That's right, I'm suggesting that you need to evaluate your own business, even if you don't have any employees. I'll explain. You need to examine every interaction you or someone else has with customers and objectively decide whether it's being done well, or whether improvements can be made.

For example, a common area that's left to chance is the answering of the phone. Have your employees been coached on exactly what to say, or is it a random greeting depending on hoe they happen to be feeling on any particular day? With most businesses that's exactly what happens. To even suggest that there should be a system is a surprise to most business owners. But why would you want to leave it to chance? If you're the one that answers the phone then you should record the calls for a while, listen to the recordings, and honestly seek to improve based on what you say and how you say it.

Luci and I visited the business of a friend of ours in Chicago recently and we had to tell him that his receptionist was sour and unwelcoming. Let's face it, she's probably the lowest paid staff member BUT she's the person t hat the customer's have their first interaction wit, both on the phone and when they visit the clinic. The way she dealt with us set the tone for the entire visit. What an enormous mistake!

By the way, our friend had no idea that the receptionist was lousy, because he's never secret shopped his own business.

The secret shopping should extend to every aspect of customer interaction. For example, have some packages occasionally shipped to another address you have access to so you can see how items looked when they're delivered. What's your impression of the package when you receive it? Were all the items in good condition, well packed? If you usually enclose special offer inserts or coupons, were they on the box? Were they easily visible or could they have been thrown away without realizing?

Again, these test are not exclusive to large businesses with many employees. Apply the principle to your business even if it's just yourself or a small family business. You WILL learn valuable lessons, I guarantee it