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With the following information we would like to assist you in the participation in our service tests. What is the point of mystery checks? The method of the unidentified mystery customer has several advantages
What
happens with the results?
Do I
have any obligations in a cooperation with
comcheck?
Do I
have to pay for my registration?
Can I
become rich by participating in your service tests?
Why is
my reliability so important?
Where do
I actually do the tests?
How do I
get paid for my accomplished tests?
When do
I get paid for my accomplished tests?
Why does
it make sense to give as much personal information as possible when
registering?
What
happens with my personal data? Questions to the
execution of mystery checks:
How can
I find cells due to a field specification?
Can I
use a call-by-call provider?
How can
I prevent that my telephone number is transmitted with the call?
Which
address shall I indicate?
What do
I do if I do not know an answer to a question?
What do
I have to consider with a written test? Questions to the
questionnaires:
How do I
generally fill out a telephone questionnaire?
How do I
count the waiting period?
What do
I have to fill in the field “waiting period”?
How many
attempts do I have to accomplish for one test at the most?
How do I
compute the discussion time?
When
should I make an additional remark? Questions to the
technical requirements:
Which
programs and/or software do I need?
What
kind of PC knowledge do I have to have?
Why
aren’t the question sheets made available
on-line?
Why is
the further information to the project placed on-line?
How can
I find cells due to a field specification?
Why
can’t I write in my own input in some fields?
Why
should I be addressed with my name?
What is
meant by: “Did the employee accompany your remarks with positive
comments?”
What is
meant by: “How well did the assistant represent the enterprise?”
When
should I send the tests to comcheck?
Why is
it important that I call at different times?
I have a
question and would like to give you suggestions for the extension of your
FAQ! comcheck is a
management consulting firm, which
has specialized internationally in the field ‘consultation of the service
quality’. We advise companies of all kinds regarding their weaknesses in the
customer service. One of our diagnostic instruments to judge the customer
service of our clients is the mystery check. Here we tighten the eyeglasses of
the customer on behalf of the enterprises and simulate a customer, who turns
with a personal request to the service units (i.e. a store) of our clients. The
service tester then documents the experiences he made in the test contact. To
make sure that the test situation is not obvious and we get an objective
evaluation situation, it is necessary to arrange this test as inconspicuously as
possible. I.e. our service testers should be very specific and know what they
should say to evaluate the employee. In other words, we disguise ourselves as
completely normally customer. Such
tests are only feasible with many motivated and reliable free testers, who make
the different contacts inconspicuously as anonymous customers and thereby create
the basis that we can point out the positive and negative events from customer
view to our customers. At this point we would like to take the opportunity to
thank our more than 6000 registered testers
world-wide. We make
tests in all customer channels, i.e. as a test customer in a shop, as a test
customer over phone or also as a customer who contacts the enterprise in written
form. In the
majority of the projects we are assigned by our clients with the organization
and execution of such tests, so that in the meantime we accomplished projects world-wide in 27 different countries for "global players" from the
most diverse industries. Of
course we also try to acquire with own studies information about the service
quality in different industries and to make these available to the public and/or
a specialized clientele. Our
locations are in Further
information can also be obtained on our official homepage
www.comcheck-service.com.
What is
the point of mystery checks? On a
regular basis we perform tests world-wide and try to figure out how the
solutions for the customers look in everyday business life, in case the customer
has a pre-defined problem with a product. As in
each enterprise there are given ideal solutions theoretically for the different
difficulties. We would like to see in usual customer contacts to what extent the
solutions given to the customer (for example over the phone) differ to those of
the theory and to what extent given processes are converted to the optimum
customer satisfaction. Beside
the technical solutions it is important to us to know the effort the customers
have to get in contact with our client (how long you have to wait, how often to
call, etc.), how friendly you are greeted by a customer service agent (based on
different criteria). Thereby
we pursue together with our client the goal to find optimization potentials for
the customer service in order to improve these in their customer orientation and
process security. Briefly
said: We want to improve the customer satisfaction! The method of the unidentified mystery customer has several advantages The mystery
customers are more neutral than normal customers. As a
customer one is apt to orient the evaluation of a discussion at the enforcement
of his own motives. Since the test buyer does not pursue own motives in the test
contact, he can judge a negative answer more objectively. The mystery
customers are more objective than superiors: The mystery
customers does not know the employee and thereafter he
will also not get to know him. He can judge him without reservations and only
due to the achievement shown. He also has no motive to make something sound
better than it actually is or was. The mystery
customers can judge queried circumstances better than
customers: The mystery
customers knows before the contact, what he has to
judge. Thereby he can pay attention to certain circumstances (behavior) accordingly. Furthermore he knows the correct
behavior of the employee (and/or the correct
processes), so that he can judge with more founded information. The test situation is not obvious, so that the employees
treat the test customer like a usual customer. Thus it is impossible that the
employee reacts due to the test situation particularly well and/or because of
the test situation particularly nervously. What
happens with the results? The
results are analyzed with regards to the optimization potential, resulting
recommendations will be given and the results are presented in the headquarters
of our client. Subsequently, the results are discussed with the responsible
representatives in the individual countries and concrete measures for
improvement are taken. In the
Explorer you can click on print preview to look at the respective format. Here
you see also, which of the pages you want to print. With file / page setup you
can change, if necessary, from high to landscape format or the other way
round.
Do I
have any obligations in a cooperation with
comcheck? Upon
registering with comcheck you don’t have any obligations. If necessary we will
send an invitation to our registered and applicable service testers via e-mail.
This e-mail contains general and necessary information to the upcoming project.
Even if you don’t wish to participate for what ever reason, then you do not need
to send us any reason or a refusal. Should you be interested in participating,
then we look forward to receiving your registration to this specific project. We
ask for your understanding that we assign our tests in the sequence the service
testers register for the concrete test. First come, first serve! If you should
have reacted too late, then you have the chance to replace someone, if someone
of the registered service testers should resign unexpectedly. If you
should belong to the project group, then you will receive proper project
documents shortly. Please note that we then regard your promise to participate
as obligatory and we count on the reliable and proper execution of the tests. If
then the test execution should not function for any reason, then we would like
to ask you to inform us immediately after knowledge so that we have the chance
to react in time. Do I
have to pay for my registration? Unfortunately,
we must answer these questions ever more frequently. Of course your registration
with us is completely FREE. Many job offers try with any advance, registration or other
costs to open additional income sources. We consider these proceedings as
dubious and guarantee you no further fees for your registration in our data
base!
Can I
become rich by participating in your service tests? No,
wealth is impossible at least only with our tests... :-)) The
payment for a test depends on the project and the task posed. Because of the rather
sporadic employments and the small effort the activity is not suitable as a main
or supplementary income, but it is an activity for people, who are interested
themselves in the topics "service", “customer orientation” or “processes” and
hope to have some fun aside from maybe increasing their annual holiday budget.
Why is
my reliability so important? We have
the exact test period, within these tests have to be done. If until the end of
this test period not all tests should be accomplished, then it is not possible
to repeat these. Even
tests which are not accomplished in time represent a problem. On the one hand an
even distribution of the test events during the test period is then missing and
on the other hand the tests must be done in a higher number within another
testing time. Thereby these increase the risk of missing anonymity. This
cannot be said generally because the projects are very different and can be seen
at the different lump sum amount and/or payment. With telephone tests the
average discussion times are usually from Thereby
the number of tests in a project is also different. Here it can happen that you
are to make 1 test or 50 tests within one time period. But you will find this
information concretely in the respective descriptions of the
project.
Where do
I actually do the tests? Since
our service testers are from the entire country and/or world-wide and the
individual tests have to be done only sporadically, we ask that you perform the
tests from your home. Thereby we offer you the possibility to comfortably earn
money with free timing at home and without further efforts. How do I
get paid for my accomplished tests? The
co-operation takes place on the basis of a free lancer. Thereby in the rarest
cases the amounts gained annually with us become relevant for taxation because
of reasons of insignificance. Please inquire in individual cases, if necessary,
with your local authority or a tax accountant. All
demands on your part and/or third parties will be paid off with an overall
amount per test. If costs for you should arise, then we mostly calculated these
generously into the lump sum payment. We
select this way, in order not to have to develop an additional bureaucracy
complex for both sides, since otherwise we would always need the invoices for
the arised costs (e.g. the conversation time and price
on your phone bill). After project end we transfer the according payment to your
bank account. Since
outside of the European Union horrendous fees for international transfers for
both sides will arise, we offer alternatives in these cases. So it is, for
example, possible to be paid via InterNet, e.g. as
e-mail transfer. Thus we often use, for example, the InterNet payment system Paypal
with which the amount is advised via our credit card, and which you can via
e-mail directly pass on to your bank. Advantage of this proceeding is that it is
very economical and extremely professional and safe. Should
this possibility not be wished or not be feasible, then we send the payment in
exceptional cases also in cash via mail.
When do
I get paid for my accomplished tests? The
payment for the accomplished tests will take place after the project concludes.
After the testing time period we will do a quality assurance of the results and
possibly still have some further questions to you. As soon as this phase
(approx. 1-2 weeks after project conclusion) is final, the agreed payments are
made.
Why does
it make sense to give as much personal information as possible when
registering? We
accomplish the most different projects in respect to the contents and in most
diverse regions and have therefore the most different needs of abilities and/or
competencies. The more information we have about you, the greater is the chance
that we invite you to participate in one of our projects. What
happens with my personal data? comcheck is a
management consulting firm which is dependent on the confidence and the
integrity of its registered participants for the execution of the most different
projects. That’s why it is essential that we do not pass on the entrusted data
to nobody and/or use it for no other purposes than for the completion of our
projects. In this we have no interest since this doesn’t belong in any way to
our business fields. However, depending on the project it can be that you had to give your personal data during the test (e.g. letter test, brochure dispatch or similar), so that you are in these cases in a data base of our clients due to the tests. In these cases it cannot be excluded that you will receive advertising documents. Please let us know if this should be the case and if you do not want this to continue. We then will immediately contact our client so that you don’t get mail from them any longer. Which
programs and/or software do I need? In order
to be able to participate in our tests, you need the software Microsoft Excel.
Due to the following analysis routines the test results cannot be processed in
another format. Furthermore, our communication is mostly organized by e-mail
and/or via websites, so that you should have an InterNet connection with at least an e-mail
account. What
kind of PC knowledge do I need to have? You only
need simple user knowledge in the program MS Excel, e.g. the handling of simple
drop down menus. Furthermore you should be able to navigate in the InterNet as well as to send and to receive
e-mails. With a
drop down menu you can take pre-defined information out of a filter. Then it is
not possible to insert other data in this field. Why
can't I make my own input in some fields? By the
pre-allocation of different information the field is in such a way programmed
that only one selection of the different alternatives visible in the drop down
menu is possible. This is a conscious programming, which simplifies a later
evaluation. If it should be important for any reason to document another information then please write this either into the
comments field or into a white field beside it. Why
aren't the question sheets made available
on-line? We make
our service tests all around the globe. So that as much
testers as possible can participate in our tests without further difficulties,
we like to keep the requirements as small as possible. Since the
infrastructure and the on-line connections are country-specific and individually
very different, so far we do without on-line questionnaires. Why is
the further information to the project placed on-line? Placing
all further information on-line has the advantage that we have at any time the
possibility to update important information for every participant. Apart from
current information from the course of the project we will, if necessary,
constantly update the FAQ's. An MS
Excel file can consist of different worksheets. You recognize this, by looking
on the lower scroll bar and looking there with the given arrows for further
worksheets. The individual worksheets are final units. The worksheet, which you
are currently working with is thereby marked white.
Please make sure that you did not mark several worksheets (white) during an
input, since otherwise all inputs are the same in all marked worksheets. If you
should have marked several worksheets on accident, then you simply reverse the
process of the marking by clicking either on a not-marked worksheet or on a
worksheet which is marked white, but the name is not marked FAT. How can
I find cells due to a field specification? In MS
Excel our questionnaires are surrounded by a grey framework. Within this
framework you can see that letters run horizontally and numbers run vertically.
The letters show the position of the column and the numbers the position of the
lines. If you get an explanation, in which a field is described with a
coordinate, then this description has, for example, the following form for
closer positioning: C2 (field for the input of the tester name). Please
take the respective telephone number from the Excel worksheet. Both in the
appropriate questionnaire and in the identical basis worksheet you find the
correct telephone number in cell B2.
Can I
use a call-by-call provider? Of
course you can use call-by-call providers when placing international calls from
How can
I prevent that my telephone number is transmitted with the call? Please
ensure that your telephone number is not transmitted during the call. If you
have an analog phone connection, then you have to
press *31# before each call (at least in
Give
yourself a fictitious name which is usual and common in your respective country.
Please vary with your fictitious name. Which
address shall I indicate? Variation
is the key! It always depends on the project which address you should give the
customer service agent. If we test the efficiency of a dispatch (general letter
inquiry, brochure dispatch or similar) then it is important that the address is
existent and real and we have access to the arriving documents. If this is not
the case, then usually a fictitious, but existent address is sufficient. Please
read this information in the respective project documents. Please
try to put yourself in the shoes of the customer and behave completely
naturally. Try to imagine that it is for you a completely normal customer
contact, which you experience daily in your private life. What do
I do if I do not know an answer to a question? Possibly
the agent places additional questions and/or the questions in another order.
Please remain calm and serene and don’t get upset! If you do not know an answer
to a question, then improvise. Should the information supplied not be
sufficient, then it cannot be an important/correct question. If you should
really not get ahead, then inform the agent that you call again later, because
e.g. something overflows on the stove or the child is running out of the house,
or it is ringing at the door etc.. In a worst case
scenario please hang up the phone. What do
I have to consider with a written test? Should
you participate in service tests which require a written inquiry, then you will
find in the questionnaire header all relevant information - above all the
contact dates, e.g. address, e-mail address or fax number, the time frame within
the tests should take place. Please
create a contact over the defined channel (letter, fax, e-mail) and make the
questions sound like a personal request. Please make up questions and write them
in a way that a personal answer is neccessary. Please
ensure that you ask the questions in all relevant aspects, since you may
otherwise receive other answers. Please
only give yourself a fictitious name if this is possible. This is the case
whenever you do not transfer correct data automatically (e.g. with a fax form
with personal (correct) data or a fax sender identification, e-mail address
which contains a clear name etc.) Please
send us all outgoing and incoming received documents that were relevant with
this inquiry. Please note that in any case we need the time of your test
contact and all points of response time. Above all we are interested in the
time when you receive a response to your inquiry (date and in the case of an
e-mail and fax the respective times of the day as well). In each
case please send us the documents immediately after the test is completed.
Depending on your possibilities you can either send these by e-mail, fax or by
mail. If you should not receive an answer within 15 working-days (including
Saturdays), then please regard the test as completed. Please note that there are
possibly deviating proceedings in the respective project
descriptions. How do I
generally fill out a telephone questionnaire? Before
performing the first tests please look carefully at the structure of the
questionnaires. You are informed here about the criteria which
is to be evaluated after the test. Our questionnaires always have a
column called tester support. In this column the individual points of evaluation
are explained again in detail. If you should have questions to the individual
points of the evaluation, then please contact us under the well-known
contact
data
mentioned below. The
questionnaires are colour coded developed in such a way that the green fields
give you information and the yellow fields are these ones you have to fill in.
Please read all information attentively, because you have only then all
necessary information, which is important in the test. With the
additional information you should now be in the position to imagine the
situation. Please ask questions in a way you would as a normal customer with the
relevant request. You also have all relevant answers to the
questions. Of
course it can always happen that the question of the employee could not be
foreseen. However, you as a customer need not always to have all information! If
you do not have the information asked for, then the employee must get along
without this information. Surely then this information was not so
important! Should
the agent offer to call you back, please reject. In each
case in the column A you see the respective question
and next to it (not represented) a scale, which contains a few explaining
remarks in the column B. Please keep in mind the fact that in each case the
highest line is always the best evaluation and the lowest line is always the
worst evaluation (example: 10 points are “very good” and 1 point is “very
bad”). Please
note that for the facilitation of work we inserted in many fields drop down
menus where you can select the relevant information
from a list. Since in these fields it is not possible to insert own entries,
please enter the information which you do not find in
the list next to it. Apart
from the individual evaluation criteria which is coded
with an “x” you have always the possibility to enter further comments to the
individual points. Please use this possibility intensively, since you can offer
with your comments important starting points for the improvement of the
services. Of course you cannot only give hints for the optimization potential
but also remark positive experiences. How do I
count the waiting period? So that
the waiting period is as exact as possible, please use a stop watch or a phone
with a stop watch function. Please start the timing as soon as you have dialled
the last digit. What do
I have to fill in the field “waiting period”? If the
indication of the waiting period should be desired, then you will find an
according scale in the respective project worksheet. Please select within the
scale a “x” from the drop down menu, in order to sort
the stopped value into the scale. Since we
also evaluate and compare the number of futile attempts, it is important that
these are comparable. This is only ensured if we specify obligatory rules.
Therefore please wait exactly 2 minutes! If you should not have been connected
within 2 minutes with an employee, then please hang up the phone and try approx.
5 minutes later again. How many
attempts do I have to accomplish for one test at the most? In order
to ensure a comparability, it is important that
obligatory rules were specified. Please wait exactly 2 minutes for each attempt
to reach a customer service agent! In case you are not connected within this
time, please hang up the phone and try it again approx. 5 minutes later. For
each test we specified 3 attempts. Should you not have been able to speak with
an employee after 3 attempts with a waiting period of 2 minutes each, then this test should be ended with the status “not
reached”. How do I
compute the discussion time? Please
stop the time after dialling and the end of the conversation and select the
according discussion time in seconds. Please
insert your name into the field C 2. Only then a clear identification for a
problem-free accounting is possible. When
should I make an additional remark? You find
some comment fields in the questionnaire. Please make a remark within the
interaction range, if the employee gave a pre-given answer and you like to give
an important comment in addition. Please give a comment to the discussion
process / soft skills, if you like to give a comment to your evaluation. Your
comments will give important indications for the search of optimization
potential. Thus please make much use of this possibility. Why
should I be addressed with my name? Our
clients want to act customer-oriented. Therefore importance is attached to a
good discussion technology. An important characteristic of a good discussion
technique is that one treats the customer as an important individual and to give
him the feeling of an individual contact. Therefore the employee should call its
interlocutor (telephone partner) occasionally by his name. Please pay attention
whether the employee uses this technique or not. What is
meant by: “Did the employee accompany your remarks with positive
comments?”? Our
clients want to act customer-oriented. Therefore, great importance lies in a
good discussion technique. An important characteristic of a good discussion
technique is that the employee treats the customer as an equivalent
interlocutor (telephone partner) and gives him a positive discussion
feeling. Therefore the agent should occasionally positively strengthen the
interlocutor and/or praise him. This is possible without difficulties even with
smaller, more unimportant circumstances. Apart from a general positive
discussion climate the agent can use terms like great, ok, beautiful.
Additionally, the customer can be given a positive signal e.g. after the
indication of personal data (address, IMEI, etc.), after the indication of
certain diagnostic information as well as after reconstructing any (more
technically) procedures. Please pay attention whether the employee uses this
technique. What is
meant by: “Did you always know throughout the whole conversation what was going
on at that moment on the other side?”? Our
clients want to act customer-oriented. Therefore, great importance lies in a
good discussion technique. An important characteristic of a good discussion
technique is that the employee gives the customer the feeling that he cares
about him throughout the duration of the conversation. Over the phone we are
unable to see what the opposite party is doing. Therefore the agent should
inform the customer about his doings throughout the entire conversation. This
applies not only if the agent possibly puts the customer on hold when acquiring
additional information (i.e. to answer a question), but also the agent notices
that he has created a “gap” in the conversation. The question does not pertain
to the background noise that can usually be heard when talking to an agent in a
call center. What is
meant by: “How well did the assistant represent the company?”? Of
course, our clients want to show perfection in the eyes of the customer. The
employee who represents our client in the conversation with you symbolizes for
the customer the face (voice) of the enterprise. Therefore we would like to know
whether he represented the enterprise well. A good representative should be
friendly and customer-oriented, work competently and appear professional. At the
end of the day he represents a world company! When
should I send the tests to comcheck? Please
send us the accomplished tests immediately. Thereafter you will get new test
sheets for the next test date. The immediate forwarding is important for us,
since we must have accomplished all tests reliably and duly within the testing
time period. Why is
it important that I call at different times? Our
goal are meaningful results. Therefore it is important
to have tested on all days and at most diverse times of the day. |