Well, it was bound to happen. I go into the restaurant, begin my normal perusal of the place, take mental notes of cleanliness, engagement levels by workers and their overall demeanor. I place my order, open my phone to carefully jot down some of my observations (under the guise of texting a friend) when I hear the restaurant employee say, “Your total is $13.86”. I slowly raised my head and said, “Why would I pay for my meal before I’m even served?”. As my tone slowly faded towards the end of my curious question and I looked around, I realized my foolish mistake . . .
. . . I had forgotten how to return to being a quintessential shopper and failed to turn off my ‘secret shopper’ mentality.
Oops! :)
It's easy to get stuck in a certain mentality. Years ago I worked on a software development team and we were on a tough project, working 18 hour days and at the testing phase - where you try every possible combination to "break the software". Leaving late at night with a colleague in my car, he turned on the radio, but then absently starting pushing ALL the buttons in random patterns. He was unconsciously TESTING every possible sequence.
I find I can't turn my "mystery shopping eyes" off even if I am not doing a shop. I find myself quickly glancing at the cashier/salespersons name tag, asking for a receipt, noticing things, etc and then I realize I am not doing a shop! You become so well trained with your eyes and ears, it just becomes something you normally do. Not a bad thing though!
MY toxic traits are restaurants (food places), fixing peoples problems, and body language. Let me explain why though;
On my last assisted living shop, I caught myself checking the fire alarms and door tops for dust...