Secret Shopper

I wish I could have been a secret shopper this afternoon (Sunday, June 20).

I stopped at a favorite fast-food place for a sandwich. A man and his son, maybe 10 or 11, were ahead of me. The father held up a small electronic item - maybe a DVD player - and asked if there might be some place they could recharge the battery. He said he had looked in the dining room and couldn't see any outlets.

The young clerk looked at him rather blankly and said she didn't think there were any outlets in the dining room (remember, the father had just said there were not).

The father took it a step further. He nodded toward an outlet on the wall behind the clerk. There wouldn't be any place like that where we could plug this in, he asked.

Obviously what he was trying to do was give this teenager the hint that she could plug the item into that unused outlet.

She looked at the outlet as though seeing it for the first time. No, she repeated to the father, there are no outlets like that in the dining room.

The father looked at his son and said, "Sorry, Son, I guess we won't be able to charge this here."

Same restaurant maybe 2 minutes later, another man is talking to the cashier about what items came with the meals.

"Is there anything else you want on this?" another clerk asked the customer in what I would describe as a rather soft voice. He did not hear her as he was engrossed in his conversation with the cashier.

"Is there anything else you want on this?" the clerk asked him again. The man still had not heard her.

The clerk just shoved the order over to the cashier.

In less than five minutes, two clerks had failed to provide good service to customers. I'm quite certain the one who wanted to charge the battery on his son's electronic item was a tourist. The other customer probably was also as there were mostly out-of-state vehicles in the parking lot.

What do you think these customers will say about the service in this food establishment?

In connection with my job at the tourism caboose, I was required to complete the "Red Carpet Service."

This is an educational program that helps people who are on the front line - often service staff in restaurants, motels and hotels, and clerks in stores - learn how to promote tourism, identify and respond to traveler needs, and promote their community in a positive way.

The best way to drive tourists (and their dollars) away is to respond to their question of what there is to do in your town by saying in a monotone voice, "There's nothing to do around this place."

Let's go back to the first clerk. When the father asked if there was an outlet to charge his son's electronic toy while they ate their lunch, the clerk could have said, "I'd be glad to plug it in back here for you. We aren't using the outlet at the moment."

My guess is the father and son would have left the place with a charged battery and smiles on their faces and only kind words for the people they found in North Platte.

With the second customer, the clerk rudely tried to interrupt his conversation with the cashier. Not only that, but she did not speak up in a slightly more assertive voice when there was a break in the conversation.

She could have just as easily taken two steps to the left so she was directly in front of the customer and spoken louder and more clearly, "Would you like anything else on this?"

Employers, who have employees dealing with the public, should make sure their employees understand how the dollars tourists spend contribute to the local economy - including THEIR wages.