Group lesson evaluation question

[Isk8NYC]

I thought of this thread today when I saw this link to a secret shopper program for movies:

http://www.stonetheatres.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi

I think it would be a more valuable appraisal of a skating facility.  The lesson program would be tricky, though.  You could have someone take or observe the group lesson program and the freestyles based on given criteria.  That needs more thought, but there's no reason why a rink can't be rated on its cleanliness, attentiveness of staff, available food/drinks, etc.

This could be a business opportunity for someone to set up for skating rinks/programs. 

[Query]

If this is done to evaluate coaches, I hope it is done in the open, using evaluation forms, not by spying on and evaluating coach/student interactions without permission. We all do it a little when selecting our own coaches,  but affecting pay scales by watching one day's interaction with a few students - ouch.

I bet those of you who are coaches would prefer an open system, in which you know what is going on, and can see the results and the comments people make.

--just my opinion.

[Isk8NYC]

No, I don't agree. 

I think you missed the point of my post: Mystery Shopper programs are done under contract with the rink, it's not random people.  Look at the site I linked - the theater chain is having the moviegoers visit their own theaters, not others'.  The surveys are returned to the parent company and they may/may not associate them with the shopper themselves, but the people at the theater don't know who surveyed them.  (In Retail, that's the norm.)

I don't think anyone would agree to be a mystery shopper if you were going to tell the operators WHO gave them a bad grade.  I think they'd be afraid of a confrontation or some sort of retaliation and it would discourage all but "Excellent!" scores, which defeats the purpose of an honest review.

[Query]

A government FTC site  says that in the U.S., most of the legit side of the secret shopper business (I don't mean the email scammers who send you fake job info about mystery shopping programs to get you to buy something or steal your identity) is handled through members of the MSPA.

For a sample of the jobs they do, see http://mspa.jobslinger.com/

They cover a huge range of goods and services, and would no doubt be happy to work for a rink.

They don't pay the secret shoppers more than a few dollars - maybe not even gas money. Between that and the pseudo-sleaziness of spying on people, I decided against doing it long ago. The coach may figure out you are spying on them, cuz the above website publishes a lot of what is being tested, and how. Businesses often spy on the spy (oops, I mean secret shopper), to verify they are honest - the secret shopper has to have a good memory for what to say and do, and for what happened. However, the secret shopper might get a free lesson out the deal.

[sk8tegirl06]

The coach may figure out you are spying on them, cuz the above website publishes a lot of what is being tested, and how. Businesses often spy on the spy (oops, I mean secret shopper), to verify they are honest - the secret shopper has to have a good memory for what to say and do, and for what happened. However, the secret shopper might get a free lesson out the deal.

The grocery store I worked at for 4 years had secret shoppers. The coach may figure it out if you are being obnoxious about it, but then you don't make a very good secret shopper. I had one guy who came in and as I was checking his groceries he was busy writing down my name and the bagger's name next to the list of the other department employees. He proceeded to come through my check out again because he screwed up the first order. He is the only one I definitely knew was a secret shopper. 

This type of evaluation would only work in a situation where the coaches were employed by the rink and the rink could set certain guidelines that could be tracked/tested. We had a checklist of certain things we were trained on and presumably this is what the secret shopper was also trained to look for. If we missed something on the checklist, we were docked points.