Mystery shopper FAQs

You can do your mystery shopper visit any time between now and the 30th September 2022.

Be aware that some scenarios may involve visiting places which are only open on certain days or during office hours so please take this into account when planning your visit.

There are two ways you can record your mystery shopper feedback:

1. Complete the online form on your smartphone or tablet
2. Request a paper copy of the feedback form

If you need to submit your feedback another way please call us on 01429 284172 to discuss this before you carry out your mystery shop.

Once you have recorded your feedback you will have until 5pm on Friday 30th September to return your feedback to us.

Online feedback will be submitted instantly when you click the "submit" button. You will receive an auto-email confirmation that we have received it.

Paper forms should be sealed in an envelope marked "Accessibility consultation FAO Joan Stevens" and returned to the Civic Centre, Victoria Road before closing on the 30th September.

We would like you to register an account on the Your Say site but this is not compulsory. However, by registering an account you will be able to:

• Access the online feedback form
• Save the form and come back to it later
• Easily receive updates on the project

All registered participants will also receive a regular (approx monthly) newsletter with information about other consultations you might be interested in taking part in and updates on finished projects.

Don't worry we will only use your details to contact you about consultations and will not share your details. You can see our privacy policy at the bottom of this page.

If you are logged into the Your Say site you can save your feedback from by clicking the "save and continue" button on the page you are on (you need to complete the questions on that page first as when you reopen the survey it will go to the next page). You can complete the rest of the form by logging back into the Your Say site.

If you have not created an account or are not logged in when you start your form if you navigate away from the form all your responses will be lost and you will have to start again - even after clicking "save and continue".

Absolutely not. The aim of the mystery shopping exercise is to help us learn and improve as an organisation. If something is not right we want to know about it so we can make improvements so, while we hope you will have a positive experience during your visit, we are also open to hearing about what did not go so well.

You can also be confident that all feedback will be shared in an anonymous (nameless) or pseudonymised (false name) format so no one will know who submitted it. Any personal details you provide us with to run the mystery shopper tests will be held securely and will not be shared.

In the unlikely event that something goes wrong with the mystery shop or you need to leave the scenario early (e.g. if you don't feel well) don't feel that you need to plough on to the end. You won't be letting anyone down by not completing the visit.

If your scenario involves visiting a location or using a service that doesn't require interaction with staff members you can leave at any time.

If your scenario involves interaction with staff members e.g. making an enquiry or undertaking an assessment simply tell the member of staff politely that you need to leave. If they offer you an alternative appointment and you are happy to go back then it is fine to rearrange for another day. If they don't offer you an alternative appointment but you want to carry on with the scenario it is ok to ask to come back another time.

If you want to continue the scenario on another day before the 30th September that is fine. Conversely, if you do not wish to continue this is also ok but please let us know as we may be able to ask another volunteer to take over your scenario.

If you want to do more than one mystery shop that's brilliant! Depending on the number of volunteers we get we may be able to match you with more than one scenario. Ask us for more details.

We will try to give you a choice of which scenario you would like to do so we can match you to one that suits your interests. There are, however, a few things we need to take into account when matching volunteers to scenarios:

• Has the volunteer used the service before? Some of the scenarios will involve you making an enquiry or application to a service. If they already know who you are then it won't be a "mystery"! Ideally we want to get the experience of someone who is totally unfamiliar with the service
• Is it an appropriate service for the volunteer to test? For example if you are 65 we won't ask you to mystery shop a youth centre

You are very welcome to take someone with you when you do your mystery shop visit.

The only exception to this would be in the unlikely event that Covid restrictions were reintroduced during the mystery shopping period which limit the number of people who can attend the service. Even then it is likely you would be able to take a carer, interpreter or advocate or would be offered an alternative way to access the service.

If you experience any problems in taking someone with you on your mystery shop please record these on your feedback form as we would like to hear about them.

If you do invite someone to join you on your mystery shop remember they are accompanying you and that "you" will be the mystery shopper. They cannot do the mystery shop on your behalf or do their own independent mystery shop at the same time. If you have a friend or family member who wants to do a mystery shop please ask them to contact Health Watch so we can give them the training and match them with a suitable scenario. We cannot accept feedback from someone who is not an official mystery shopper as part of this exercise.

We will make service managers aware beforehand that a mystery shop will be taking place in their service area, but they won't know exactly when it will happen or who will be the mystery shopper.

It is important that you do not identify yourself to staff as a mystery shopper because they may act differently if they know they are being assessed.

You should be able to carry out your mystery shop scenario easily without worrying about being identified as a mystery shopper but if you have any worries or concerns please let us know. Some of the scenarios do not involve speaking to any staff members so if this is a particular concern let us know and we can make sure you are allocated one of these scenarios.

What we will do

We will look very closely at all the feedback from our mystery shop volunteers to see where things went well and where there are things which need to be improved. We will look for common themes emerging from the feedback and any issues that are recurring to identify some recommendations.

We will then prioritise these recommendations to ensure they will have a clear benefit for service users.

We will share the feedback with:

• The Audit and Governance Committee (who commissioned this investigation)
• Senior management (where there are things that can be applied across the whole Council, or the whole organisation can learn from something that one of the services is doing really well)
• Individual service areas (where things are specific to a service area we will share this with them, whether that is praise for something they did well or to highlight areas that need working on)

We will also have a "de-brief" session with the volunteers to discuss your experiences of the mystery shopping exercise.

What we will not do

• We will not identify you or any other volunteer in any of the feedback we share. It will all be anonymous
• We will not feedback information about individual members of staff to the wider Council. If any issue with an individual member of staff is identified we will pick this up with the person and their manager individually and in line with the Council's disciplinary policies (if the issue is sufficiently concerning). This exercise is intended to help us learn as an organisation, not to humiliate or embarrass individual staff members, nor to exercise grievances against individual staff members

No. Do not share your feedback anywhere else other than directly to us.

The purpose of the mystery shopping exercise is for us to learn and make improvements based on your experience. It is not to expose services or individual staff members to public criticism.

Also, doing this will identify you as a mystery shopper and means we will not be able to use your feedback as it will no longer be confidential.

Some of the services we want to test involve a small fee or charge. We don't want you to be out of pocket so if this is the case we will let you know when you are allocated the scenario and tell you how you can claim this back afterwards (we can't ask the service to waive the fee in advance without telling them about the mystery shop).

If your shop involves paying a fee make sure you keep any receipt or booking confirmation you receive as we won't be able to refund you without it.

If you have any other questions or concerns please let us know by telephoning the consultation team on 01429 284172 or raise it with Health Watch Hartlepool who will pass it on to us.