In our final exclusive excerpt from The Secret Diary of a Mystery Shopper by Claire Boscq-Scott, secret shopping takes a criminal turn.
In part three of our exclusive excerpts from Amazon’s hottest new release The Secret Diary of a Mystery Shopper by Claire Boscq-Scott, the author describes how a peculiar request from a client left her shaking with nerves.
Ok, so that was a first, I just received an email from my clients, a large jewellers, who had just finished a big safety and theft training with their staff and wanted us to go and try to steal something from one of their shops.
Wow, ok, this was taking Mystery Shopping into a whole new dimension as this could have secondary implications we had to think about before the visit:
What happens if I get caught? What happens if the alarm is raised and the employee calls the police?
What happens if I get filmed on CCTV?
Ok, you see where I am coming from, but after a good conversation with the client and arranging all the possibilities, I agreed to perform the visit.
We had been running this programme for several months, so the questionnaire for the client hadn’t changed; it was the briefing which was making the whole visit much more interesting.
The day arrived and I walked into the shop. There was only one couple discussing with the assistant a pair of earrings, so I went and had a little browse. When Shirley, the assistant, finished with the couple, she approached me in a very friendly manner. She was wearing a branded uniform with her name badge and a particularly nice necklace and she asked if I needed any help.
I had noticed the cabinet at the back of the shop. This would be the easiest for me to try to get my hands on one of the items.
Anything would have done… so I asked Shirley if I could see a necklace on the second shelf. As I said, I really loved her necklace and she was happy to say it was one of the perks of the job as she was getting a very good discount.
As she opened the cabinet, the phone rang, and I thought wow, this is my chance. She had walked away from the cabinet without closing it and I thought I would have only seconds to get it, my heart was beating very fast and I felt as if everyone was staring at me; my hands were shaking…
I quickly went towards the door to open it, when I felt her body moving me to the side as she raced to close the cabinet. My face was so red from embarrassment. I said I was just going to take a look at the necklace and she said she was sorry she was going to take the call and then come back to me so I could try it with her.
OK, at that point, I was a little annoyed that she decided to take the call before serving me, but I knew that she had done a very god job in securing the cabinet before doing something else. A few seconds later, Shirley came back and apologised for the wait and said she had been expecting that call all morning; it was personal but really important and she seemed genuinely sorry.
She went back to the cabinet, got the necklace out, closed the cabinet behind her and there was no chance for me whatsoever to steal anything with this assistant on duty.
The Secret Diary of a Mystery Shopper by Claire Boscq-Scott is available to purchase and download from amazon.co.uk.
