Mystery Shopping By Pragati Agrawal

Mystery Shopping

By @Pragati Agrawal

What is Mystery Shopping?

Mystery Shopping is a method of testing the quality of services. It can be used to test the quality of products, customer service, or employee performance. The company or management selects test customers to 

evaluate their own service quality. The mystery shopper must not be recognized as a shopper and must act like a regular customer in order to get an accurate reading of the situation. The Secret Shopping is done 

to check if the company’s quality standards are met and whether employees are following procedure.

The primary goal of Secret Shopping is customer satisfaction, which leads to growth and retention of business. Satisfied customers will tell their friends about their experience, while unhappy customers are more 

likely to leave negative reviews online or even switch companies altogether. Mystery Shopping helps businesses track these trends and take corrective action where necessary.

Secret Shoppers are usually employed by other companies, but can also be employed by businesses themselves as part of their own marketing strategy. When it comes to hiring Secret Shoppers, most companies

look for individuals who have excellent communication skills, attention to detail, and writing skills.

Evolution of Mystery Shopping :- In the period as early as the 1940s, Mystery Shopping was used for integrity and security evaluations. People were hired to go into stores and steal things! This was to check 

whether the staff is equipped to handle such situations. But now with advanced technology security cameras, such checks are not needed. Mystery Shopping has now adapted itself and grown into a customer 

service oriented programme.

Currently Mystery Shopping is used for a wide variety of situations. Mystery Shopping is applicable, but is not limited to the following situations:

1. Compliance Issues: A mystery shopper is hired to pose as an underage teenager trying to buy alcohol and check whether he or she is caught and stopped at the retail counter. The compliance check can be 

extended to several other situations too such as at movie theatres to check whether a youngster buying tickets for an adult movie is 18 years of age or above.

2. Sales Techniques: Waiters at restaurants are usually trained for suggestive selling techniques and for trying to upsell a dish. Mystery Shopping is used for inspecting the waiters wherein the shopper poses as

a customer to verify whether a waiter is doing what he is supposed to do as per his training.This method is used for practically all types of sales people such as real estate brokers, business development 

managers, etc to check their expertise and hence their worthiness.

3. Competition: Since a store’s manager himself cannot check out his competitor, mystery shoppers are hired to size up the competition’s merchandise, deals and overall feeling of the store.Though mystery 

shopping is more popular for restaurants and retail outlets, it is also done for numerous other services such as banks, apartment buildings, cell phone providers, car dealers, health care providers, movie theatres,

resorts, etc.

Types of Mystery Shopping :- 

1. In-Person Secret Shopping :- In-Person Secret Shopping is common in industries such as retail and restaurant. Mystery shoppers visit a business and interact with employees as if they were customers. This type

is often used to measure how well employees provide service and how well the business is performing from a customer’s perspective.

2. Telephone Mystery Shopping :-  Telephone Mystery Shopping is for call center environments and industries where the telephone is an integral part of the customer experience. 

For example, a telecommunications company might use telephone Mystery Shopping to measure how efficiently its call center agents handle calls from customers.

3. Hybrid Mystery Shopping :- Hybrid Mystery Shopping involves mystery shoppers following an entire customer journey. This type of Mystery Shopping is popular because it delivers a World-Class Customer 

Experience. For example, a hotel might use hybrid Mystery Shopping to measure all aspects of the customer experience, from check-in to checkout.

How to become a secret shopper ?

1. Acquire the necessary skills :

a) Integrity

b) Good communication

c) Convincing acting

d) Resilience

2. Sign up with many companies :- 2. Sign up with many companies

For you to get more money as a secret shopper, you may find it necessary to engage yourself with many companies at once. This allows you a wide variety of jobs and may ensure that you always have work to 

earn your money. You may discover trustworthy companies by researching on the internet and through secret shopper forums, groups, and meetups.

3. Acquire useful gear :- Getting the right gear may allow you to perform your duties while ensuring employees don't recognize you. Correct gear also allows you to gather every necessary detail. Here are 

examples of equipment that can help you perform your tasks well:

a) Correct attire

b) Quality recording equipment

c) Reliable computer and internet access

d) Good transportation

e) Adequate money

4. Organize your work :- Since you may handle many assignments simultaneously, it may be essential to learn how to organize each task to avoid confusion. If you're taking notes, ensure you separate your 

work into different notebooks to avoid mixing crucial details. It can be helpful for you to organize the work requirements for each company to ensure you deliver the right report to each company.

5. Conduct your assignments in a thorough manner

Once you pick a task, it may be crucial to ensure that you perform it according to the client's instructions. If a job requires you to be at a store by a certain time, then it may be imperative that you're there. 

Some jobs may also require you to perform complex tasks, such as purchasing particular items at a specific hour or interacting with specific sales associates. Attention to such minor details may help you 

get excellent reviews from companies.

Benefits of Mystery Shopping :- There are several benefits of Mystery Shopping, including:

1. It can be used for market research and customer satisfaction surveys.

2. Companies can get an understanding of their staff performance with Mystery Shopping.

3. It is a method of gathering customer feedback in order to identify problems and provide solutions.

4. Mystery shoppers allow a company to get an impartial perspective of their customers, who are their primary critics.

5. You can use a mystery shopper to evaluate new products or gauge how well your current ones are selling.

Methods for conducting Mystery Shopping :- While in person / on store check is the most widely used method, the Mystery Shopping exercise is also done through:

1. Telephone

2. Website and social media

3. Hidden audio / video recording

Purpose of Mystery Shopping :- The aim of Mystery Shopping is a self-examination of the company. It is used to learn whether the staff comply with the guidelines and regulations. Therefore, the results of test 

purchases are not shared with the outside world.

These are the criteria that test customers normally examine:

1. Quality of service

2. Appearance

3. Sales quality

4. Quality of advice

5. Honesty

6. Accuracy

Secret Shopper 

What is a Secret Shopper ?

Mystery shoppers, sometimes called Secret Shoppers, are often employed by a third-party company to visit stores and restaurants, banks and apartment complexes with the specific purpose of assessing customer

service. They provide a record of their experience which can be used to improve the business.The person hired is not allowed to give their opinion, but must assess the situation and report any potential issues or 

concerns they discover. Mystery shoppers complete surveys to collect data which may include observations as a casual observer, plus specific questions asked by the mystery shopper.

Mystery shoppers are required to note how cleanliness of the store or facility is and if dress codes are adhered to. The company may pay for some purchases, such as those required by work-related activities; 

they can also get free food or an oil change as part of their deal when they mystery shop certain businesses.

What makes a Secret Shopper a good mystery shopper?

1. The first is having good written communication skills; this way, you can accurately document your findings in the shop report.

2. The second is having a good memory – details are important for a shop report, as they allow the company to see what you saw in your interactions with employees. Remembering certain aspects of the visit 

will help you write an accurate and informative report.

3. The third key skill for mystery shoppers is being discreet – don’t bust your own cover. Be aware of how you’re dressed and behaving while performing the “shopping” process; Mystery Shopping can be easily 

spotted if done incorrectly.

4. Lastly, have good interpersonal skills in order to interact with employees and customers during the shopping process. This will give you an idea of what kind of customer service the company provides. Being 

polite and professional will also leave a good impression on those who you interacted with during your visit.

Conclusion :- Mystery Shopping is definitely an effective tool to gain insight into the customer needs and improve in areas where a company is lacking. It also helps in checking the employees’ morality and 

effectiveness. However, a challenge with this technique is maintaining mystery shopper quality and integrity.

Pragati Agrawal MBA 

Business Analyst

AirCrews Aviation Pvt. Ltd.

www.AircrewsAviation.com

Pragati@Air-Aviator.com 

An American Learning Indian Culture Manisha Rewani

 An American Learning Indian Culture

Manisha Rewani

Bharatanatyam is a form of classical Indian dance, popularly seen in South India. One of the popular schools of Bharatanatyam dance in Arizona is the Ponnambalam Golden Temple of Fine Arts.

“Ponn” means gold in Tamil and “am Balam” means temple. Both of these create the synonym for “Kanaka Sabha” in Sanskrit, where Lord Natraja, the Hindu God of dance, an avatar of Lord Shiva, performed at the holy place Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu.

The Ponnambalam Golden Temple of Fine Arts, which has centers in Bangalore and Mumbai, is a non-profitable organization formed by artists, art lovers, and art critics with the sole aim of propagating and promoting the Indian classical art forms of music and dance, according to a flyer about the dance school.

Under the guidance of Guru Ranjani Ganesan Ramesh of Kalakshetra, a student of this dance school moved to Arizona and is teaching young girls and adults in the Valley to dance to Bharatanatyam.

Ramya Ranganathan is a popular Bharatanatyam dance teacher in the Valley. She commenced PGTFA’s Arizona chapter in 2014. Since then, she and her students have performed in many Arizona venues and let her branch of the dance school succeed.

Ramya Ranganathan

Ranganathan said she was only a newborn baby when her maternal grandmother saw her and decided that she should be a dancer.

“She said I have the face and feet of a dancer,” Ranganathan said.

Ranganathan started learning dance at the age of eight under Guru Malathi Thothatri. After eight years under Thothadri’s tutelage, she performed her arangetram, which is a debut on-stage performance for an Indian classical dancer, after which she “performed in different dance festivals and sabhas in Chennai." Ranganathan studied for a total of 12 years under Guru Thothadri.

Ramya Ranganathan (center) performing with two other dancers at Pima Hall at the Memorial Union on Arizona State University's Tempe campus on April 8th, 2017

Ranganathan started her advanced training under Guru Ramesh after she got a job at Intel in Bangalore.

“I took advanced training under her and performed in the Bangalore and Bombay crowd because her school is based in Bangalore but her family is from Bombay,” Ranganathan said. “I had to travel quite a bit, shuttling between the two.”

Ranganathan said Guru Ramesh taught her the Kalakshetra style of Bharatanatyam dance and how to take dance to the spiritual level.

“She taught me that dance is for everybody,” Ranganathan said.

When Ranganathan moved to the US, she took a break from dance due to having children and doing her Master's at the University of Southern California majoring in multimedia creative art technologies. However, her teacher Guru Ramesh guided her to start the Ponnambalam Golden Temple of Fine Arts Arizona chapter in 2014.

Every year, Ranganathan hosts the Jagadananda Karaka, which is a “platform to promote the youth talent, encouraging and showcasing the youth talent within Arizona.”

“This was the second year we conducted the Jagadananda Karaka and we plan to continue doing it every year,” Ranganathan said.

Through Jagadananda Karaka, Ranganathan is currently trying to raise funds to build a temple called a Ramashramam for an auspicious idol of Lord Rama in Selaiyur in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India.

This particular idol of Rama is that of his “pattabhishekam” or crowning ceremony after returning to Ayodhya after his 14-year exile.

The key aspects of the idol are shown in the picture of the flier below.

A description of the auspicious features and symbolism of the particular idol of Rama that Ramya Ranganathan is raising funds to build a temple for in Selaiyur, Chennai.

“I want to request all the noble hearts of Arizona and worldwide to provide financial support to be able to consecrate this Sri Ananda Rama in the Ramanasramam,” Ranganathan said.

Ranganathan said that donations can be sent to the Thirunamacharyan Trust, the details of which are included in the flier she provided.

Ranganathan said you can also reach her for donations or ideas for funding via Facebook or email.

 

• Manisha Rewani  [MBA]

• Manager Mktg

• AirCrews Aviation Pvt. Ltd

• www.AircrewsAviation.com

• 
  

Positive Thinking is More Productive, More Resilient, Smarter by Rumana Maner

Positive Thinking is More Productive, More Resilient, Smarter

@Rumana Maner

 

What Is Positive Thinking?

Positive thinking is the practice of focusing on the good in every situation. It means focusing more on the positive side of an event than the negative.

This does not mean ignoring the bad things. It means that you accept the bad but then start working on making the most out of whatever has happened.

Positive thinking allows you to approach life’s challenges with positivity and optimism.

When bad things happen, you focus on the positive and keep going rather than focusing on the bad. For many people, this is the definition of resilience.

Learning to be more positive is a big step towards learning to be more resilient.

Your thoughts make your actions and your actions define your success.

Developing a positive mindset will make you far more resilient and happier.

The Benefits of Positive Thinking

You cannot change the world outside, but you can change how you react to it.

Changing how you react to the world will change how you feel about yourself and so has a real impact on your well-being.

The benefits of positive thinking go far beyond just feeling good in the moment.

It offers a whole host of benefits, a key one being stress management and building resilience. These benefits have been extensively researched.

The physical benefits include:

• Increased life span

• Better psychological and physical well-being

• Better cardiovascular health

• Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease

• Positive Attitude

• Positive people around

• More pain tolerance

The mental benefits include:

• Increase in creativity

• Greater problem-solving skill

• Clear and realistic thinking

• Better mood

• Lower rates of depression

• More resilience against stress

• Increase in confidence

• Better time management

How Does Positive Thinking Work?

Positive thinking allows you to approach difficulties more productively and to take action.

The ability to keep moving and focus on the positive offers two clear benefits:

• You avoid getting stuck in a negative cycle of doubting yourself and blaming yourself. This only eats away at your self-confidence and makes you less likely to take action.

• Taking action feels good and often makes problems feel more manageable. This makes you more likely to persevere as your problems seem more manageable and so puts you into a virtuous circle.

Can Positive Thinking Change Your Brain?

There is some evidence that positive thinking can change your brain.

Positive thoughts will reduce your cortisol levels and increase your serotonin levels.

These in turn can change which genes are expressed in your brain.

This isn’t well researched so we wouldn’t blame you if you take this with a grain of salt.

However, it is widely accepted that London cab drivers physically change the structure of their brain during their training when they learn their way around London’s roads. So perhaps it wouldn’t be surprising if consistently thinking positively also changed your brain.

How Positive Thinking Can Make You More Productive, More Resilient, and Smarter

Ask yourself the following question, and then listen up – because this is really important. Do you think you’d be happier if you were more successful? If you answered yes, then you, especially, need to read on. Research shows it isn’t quite that simple.

In reality, it’s the other way around: You’d probably be more successful if you were happier.

Future Happiness

“People often project happiness into the future, believing they’d be happy if they could only own a certain thing or have a certain experience,” says one expert and researcher who consults with Fortune 500 companies. “But, when we get the things we said we wanted, the happiness we expected is often elusive. It’s because our brains operate in the opposite order. This science could create a cultural revolution, because it’s showing us that happiness isn’t about getting to point ‘A’ or point ‘B.’ It’s about the attitude you bring to your everyday work.”

This expert helped design a famed happiness course – at one time the most popular course at Harvard University – and then went on to create a study that measured the connection between positivity and production in a group of managers over a four-month period. The study suggested that, to a large degree, happiness is a learned behaviour. Managers who were trained in positive psychology showed significant increases in optimism – one of the greatest indicators of performance and success.

Extensive studies have shown that employees with high levels of life satisfaction are more productive, take fewer sick days, and are more resilient in the face of a challenge.

“Positive-psychology training creates a clear return on investment,” says the expert. “If your employees raise their levels of positivity, their production levels will rise also.”

Think Better

Happiness doesn’t just feel good; it also improves thinking due to the broaden-and-build effect. “When we’re stressed, our brains narrow to the point that we can see only two possible actions: fight or flee,” he says. “But a happy brain can think of more solutions. When a brain is positive, it perceives more possibilities and builds more networks – coming up with innovative and creative strategies to cope with the challenges it faces. In many ways, a happy brain is a smarter brain simply because it uses more of its potential.”

How can managers create a happy-brain environment in the workplace? The answer is simple: Give your employees more recognition and praise.

“Research shows that, if a manager praises or recognizes just one person a day, over the course of a month his or her team will experience a 31% rise in productivity,” he says. “We found this to be true even in such industries as coal mining, where people don’t tend to be verbal and the attitude is often, ‘No news is good news.’ But people want to believe that their behaviour matters, and, when their manager recognizes their accomplishments on a regular basis, this teaches them that, yes, what they do has an impact on the team, that their efforts are noticed and acknowledged. It takes maybe 30 seconds a day to do, and it sets up a waterfall of success.”

Of course, not everyone works in a positive environment, but the expert says it’s quite possible to keep your brain happy even when you’re surrounded by gloom. “Only 10% of happiness depends on our external world,” he says. “The other 90% depends on how our brain processes the world. Instead of scanning the world for problems, mistakes, and dangers, positive thinkers focus on things to be grateful for or ways to make the situation better.”

Four Ways to Start Building Happiness

The expert offers four tips for training your brain to be happy.

1.      Each night, write down three things for which you’re grateful. Be specific. Don’t just write, “my children.” Instead, list the funny remark your daughter said at dinner. Gratitude moves your brain into neural tracts that scan the world for things that make you happy.

2.     Maximise your strengths. “We think the best way to get ahead is to focus on our weaknesses and learn how to overcome them,” he explains. “If, instead, we focused on strength every day, we would feel more engaged in routine tasks. As your investment in the day goes up, your creativity rises with it. What are you best at? Re-craft a daily task to use that strength.”

3.     Journaling about recent positive experiences helps you make a connection with the most meaningful parts of your day. “After 21 days,” he says, “our brain starts to connect the dots. It begins to wrap around the things that mean the most – to notice the activities that translate into deeper satisfaction and meaning.”

4.     Meditate, even if just for five minutes a day. “We all think we need to multitask to be more successful,” cautions the expert, “but, if you do two tasks at once, your stress level rises and your productivity level drops for both tasks. Meditation slows our mind down to the present moment.”

 

How Positive Thinking Builds Resilience

If you are resilient, it doesn’t mean that you’re immune to adversity and life’s challenges, but you will bounce back and learn from them. There are a number of things that help us build resilience, and positive thinking is one of them.

Positive thinking is not about denying reality, but when you work on developing an authentic positive mental attitude, it can be a great tool in your arsenal for when adversity does come along.

There are a number of things that help us build resilience in the workplace, and positive thinking is one of them

Why is Resilience Important in the Workplace?

Resilience improves motivation and makes you more capable of dealing with change. It also makes it less likely that you’ll experience burnout. Resilience is also linked to well-being, and better mental and physical health will improve your performance and job satisfaction.  

The Very Real Benefits of Being More Resilient

You probably see throwaway quotes every day about being more resilient. Whatever you think of them, developing your resilience can bring you real benefits at work.

You’ll Handle Challenges Better

Resilience stops those negative emotions from clouding your judgement of a situation and helps you deal with issues calmly and rationally.

You’ll Communicate Better

Resilient people understand themselves and others better, so they can express themselves more clearly and constructively.

You’ll Be Less Likely to Burnout

Burnout is often linked to poor resilience. Resilience helps you pause, stand back, remember why you’re doing what you’re doing, and recognise what you need at that moment.

You’ll Be More Comfortable with Change

Change is the only constant and being resilient means you’re more likely to be able to weather the changes and storms that come along. You’ll also recognise that some changes are necessary if you want your business to grow and you’re okay with that.

You’ll Build Better Relationships

Resilience helps you understand your own needs as well as other people’s which makes for better relationships and stronger teams.

You’ll Be More Inclined to Grow and Develop

Being resilient helps you develop a growth mindset. For the business to grow, you know that you and your team have to grow along with it, and you’re not afraid of the challenge.

You’ll Be More Likely to Seek Support

No business owner is an island. Being resilient means being willing to reach out for support, and give it in equal measure, so you can overcome challenges.

So, What Part Does Positive Thinking Play?

Positive thinking is linked to better resilience. But why are positive people more resilient?

·       They have more faith in themselves and their ability to overcome challenges.

·       They expect things to turn out well and see setbacks as temporary and changeable.

·       They treat setbacks as a learning opportunity.

Negative Emotions Exist for a Reason; Just Don’t Let Them Take Over

Thinking positively is not about never having a negative thought. Negative thoughts and emotions do serve a purpose. We feel emotions like fear for a good reason; it protects us from harm. This is an evolutionary instinct that has ensured our survival for millennia.

But often fear and negativity can hold us back and close our minds to creative problem solving and good decision making. We end up having such a narrow view of what’s going on that we only focus on the problem, which causes us to spiral into negativity and helplessness, and this seriously affects our resilience.

Learning the art of positive thinking can help us see things differently and deal with adversity much better when it comes along.

A Positive Brain Equals a Smarter Brain

Feeling happy and positive doesn’t just make us feel good. It can also help us come up with creative solutions to problems. When we’re under stress, our age-old responses kick in and we either;

Fight- get into conflict with others, lose our temper, or make snap, ill-judged decisions, OR

Flight- we decide we can’t handle the issues anymore and bury our heads in the sand, hoping that they’ll resolve.

An Easy Way to a Happy Team

If you want to improve resilience in your team, create a working environment that’s more likely to foster positive thinking. How can you do this?

Well, start with something that many managers forget to do; give your team members more recognition and praise.

Your team members don’t expect a pat on the back for everything they do, but they want to know that their contribution matters.

Each day, make it your aim to give appropriate praise or recognition to someone, either via email or verbally in person. It will make people feel valued and it will have a positive impact on your workplace. Just try it and see.

What If I’m Surrounded by Negativity?

In an ideal world, we’d all work in a harmonious environment, surrounded by positive people. However, in reality, not everyone works in a positive environment. It is possible to maintain your positivity and resilience in the face of negativity because as the saying goes, the primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it.

You can choose to focus on problems, mistakes, or what terrible things could happen, or you can think about things you’re grateful for and focus on ways to make things better.

The Benefits of Seeing the Glass Half Full

Positive Thinking Stops You Feeling Helpless

Because you believe that even the driest situation can improve, you’re more likely to feel able to take positive action to solve the problem.

Positive Thinking Helps You Develop Stronger Relationships

If you’re an optimist, people will look to you in tough situations to guide them and help them feel hopeful. If you have the support of others, this will help you feel even more positive and resilient in turn.

Positive Thinking is Great for Wellbeing

Studies have shown that optimistic people have better mental and physical health than pessimistic people. Better emotional and physical health equals better resilience.

How to Think Positively and Build Resilience

Just like building resilience, positive thinking is something that can be learned and intentionally developed. Here are some good strategies to help you to start thinking more positively;

Challenge Negative Thinking

Realising that you are in a negative spiral is the first step to challenging negative thinking. When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts, try to find evidence to the contrary.

If you’re telling yourself ‘I can’t handle this!’ is this true, and is it useful to think in this way?

Instead, you might say ‘Well I’ve handled something much worse before and it was hard but I got through it.’ This is a more positive and useful way to think, especially if you’re in the middle of a crisis. You’re reminding yourself that you are resilient and that you’re able to deal with the challenges that this situation may bring.

Focus on Your Strengths

Real resilience is not about working out how to overcome your weaknesses, it’s about focusing on your strengths. How can you better use your strengths each day? Once you start realising what your strengths are and building on them, your confidence and resilience will skyrocket.

Surround Yourself with Positive and Supportive People

This can make a world of difference when you’re trying to think more positively. Misery loves company, as they say, so instead, surround yourself with positive people who see the solution not the problem.

Be Grateful

When times are tough, it can be difficult to forget or even outright ignore what’s going well, or those little moments of joy in your day that you don’t always allow yourself to experience. At the end of each day, write down three things you are grateful for and I guarantee, this will shift your perspective to a more positive and resilient one.

 

 By

@Rumana Maner [MBA]

HR Manager

AirCrews Aviation Pvt Ltd

manerrumana@gmail.com

rumana.aircrews@gmail.com

www.AirCrewsAviation.com

Rumana Maner [MBA] HR Manager