Report for M25 Working Group on Quality, 2004
Mystery shopping project

At the University of Westminster the library service runs an annual user survey, usually in the Spring term. In the 2003 survey there were no specific questions about library staff, yet several user comments about library staff in one of our four libraries were worryingly negative.

Although a small number of criticisms had been seen in previous surveys, this particular year was noticeable for the high number and the fact that they were unsolicited. Believing the number to be too large to ignore, a company was commissioned to carry out a mystery shopping project in the autumn of 2003. The aim of the project was to obtain an objective assessment of the that team’s customer care skills.

The project comprised three visits per member of staff, one overall assessment report and an individual assessment report. The visits took place from late September to the end of November. The company were issued with standard student ID cards for each shopper, a briefing sheet giving examples of realistic and reasonable enquiries and photographs of the staff so that they could be accurately identified. The total cost of the project was £3000 plus travel expenses of about £120. The project covered 15 members of library staff.

In 2004 we have used the LibQual+ survey, in which there are several questions about library staff. This time the user comments about the same group of library staff were much more positive and there were far fewer negative ones, so a considerable improvement has taken place.

From this experience, the following issues have emerged:
1. The reason for running such a project should be explained.
2. Library staff should be told when a mystery shopping project is to take place. Approximate start and end dates should be stated.
3. It is important for all counter staff to be assessed, including senior members of staff who may do a limited number of counter duties. It is not appropriate, initially, to only assess staff who may be thought to have poor customer care skills.
4. I recommend a minimum of three visits per person, for fairness sake. We can all have our off days.
5. Mystery shopping is part of the retail world and therefore companies who carry out this work need to be briefed about particular characteristics of library service, for example, the kind of encouragement we give to students to use databases themselves, rather than doing it for them all the time. It is a good idea to agree criteria for assessment and then inform staff about those criteria.
6. A sensitive approach is important when dealing with staff who receive a poor assessment. Mystery shopping is not a part of our culture and some staff may not realise the full implications of mystery shopping and/or have unrealistic views about their customer care skills. For them, mystery shopping can be a frightening or threatening experience.
7. When staff receive a very good assessment, this should be acknowledged and praised.

Other points to note:

1. If you want individual staff assessments, then the company will need photographs and names of the staff. They will also need copies of counter timetables.
2. If you are assessing customer care skills, rather than the ability to handle complex subject enquiries, then this needs to be specified.
3. Company staff will need to have ID cards and/or library cards which look exactly the same as other users.
4. It may be difficult to give computer accounts to the company staff, as this would be a breach of certain computer software/electronic resources licences. I did not find this a major obstacle, as general reference and circulation-related queries provide plenty of scope.

Since the project was completed I have learnt that a consortium of public library authorities in north and west London have been implementing annual mystery shopping projects since 1999. Senior library staff play the role of mystery shoppers
in the partner library authorities. More recently the British Library are planning to use post-graduate students to assess their services.

Elaine Salter
Library Manager
University of Westminster
2004