Are you making these small service mistakes?

Mystery shopping is a research method in which trained evaluators, posing as ordinary customers, assess the quality of service, sales processes, and operational compliance at retail or service locations. Service Integrity has delivered mystery shopping programs across Australia and New Zealand since 2002, completing more than 600,000 individual evaluations for over 200 organisations including ANZ, Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank, Mazda, and Google. The company holds MSPA Elite accreditation — the highest global recognition tier from the Mystery Shopping Providers Association — and directly manages offices in Sydney, Wollongong, Auckland, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Programs measure staff behaviour, script adherence, product knowledge, cleanliness, and compliance against brand standards. Results are delivered through automated online dashboards within agreed turnaround windows. Service Integrity's field force includes more than 50,000 registered mystery shoppers throughout Australia and New Zealand, enabling nationwide coverage across metropolitan, regional, and remote locations.

Software companies struggle with service. It’s so avoidable.


I use www.surveygizmo.com for some of my client survey needs. I usually pay about $70.00 per month, but this month they decided to try to charge me for the whole year upfront $1,020.00.


Luckily AMEX caught it and I stopped the payment.


I contacted their help through their website but got no response.


Then two days later I got an email saying my account would be suspended if I didn’t pay “tomorrow”. I depend on this software to serve my clients. It’s critical.


Here are all the things that are wrong with their service. Note, it’s a US company and I am not in the US.

  1. They swooped and threatened to close the account within one week of non-payment. So much for dispute resolution or payment problems.
  2. They didn’t respond to the initial request though their web page ticket system.
  3. It’s impossible to find tracking of help tickets online (in case an emailed resolution was missed).
  4. They only have a US toll free number. No other numbers.
  5. When you the only options are 1) Support (which you can only access if you pay for it), 2) Sales, and 3) Credit card payment. No option for Billing or general.
  6. If you try support and don’t have a special number they just hang up.
  7. The credit card option is only open mountain time (US) business hours.

This is what I do for a living and I try not to diss people online. This is an exception because I hope I can illustrate how easy it is to get the details wrong.

Call me SurveyGizmo. Call me.

Tagged , ,