Unions 21 today publishes results of a Mystery Shopper study conducted with help from the National Union of Students to provide an insight into the experience non-members can expect when contacting a trade union head office for the first time.
The Mystery Shoppers experienced a wide variation in quality of customer service, with a clear pattern of responses showing that on the whole union advisers are performing well. In 70.8% of scenarios the Mystery Shopper gave a mark out of 10 of 5 or above for overall quality.
However, 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. 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.
These less usual poor experiences undermined the general trend. In 60% of scenarios Mystery Shoppers said they were given too little information and this leads the author to conclude that there is room for training to improve both the quality of information given and the way it is presented.
Particular unions are identified in the research as best practice examples, where they consistently scored highly, but none are ‘named and shamed’ for poor marks – individual unions are welcome to contact the author for information on their performance.
This study can be easily replicated on a larger scale or by individual unions for increased validity, and the script, survey and scenarios have been included at the end of the report.
Dan Whittle, Director
