‘Mystery shoppers’ tackle unions

Union head offices generally perform well when contacted by non-members for information about joining, but in some cases there is much room for improvement, according to a study by the independent union discussion group Unions 21.

The study used students as “mystery shoppers” posing as newly qualified professionals contacting union head offices about possible membership. They were given a prepared script and asked to rate the performance of the union in dealing with various aspects of their inquiry.

The mystery shoppers experienced a wide variation in quality of customer service, according to the study, “with a clear pattern of responses showing that on the whole union advisers are performing well”.

In 71% of scenarios, the mystery shopper gave a mark of five or above out of 10 for overall quality. However, the author, Unions 21 director Dan Whittle, said that “in a third of scenarios the union adviser had failed by the end of their greeting to leave the mystery shopper at ease and comfortable to ask questions”. He said that mystery shoppers were in several cases confronted by “rude and unhelpful” responses to their enquiries, or just told to find the information for themselves on the union’s website.

According to Whittle, “there is room for training to improve both the quality of information given and the way it is presented”.