Mystery Shopping and Ethics Review Are B2B Must-Do Items
Mystery shopping articles—once a popular focus by retail editors—could now provide an important response to sagging customer service practices. Also deserving a renewed focus are B2B ethics practices that may have been stretched to the limit.
Retail shopper articles, of course, have traditionally presented an assessment of the treatment customers are getting from floor personnel. But as time has passed, it has become apparent that customer treatment in other industries—user help lines for tech companies being a leading example—could be the focus of well-conceived mystery technician phone confrontations.
As for B2B ethics evaluation, church and state reviews are nothing new. But the traditional uphill battle that finds salespeople seeking favorable editorial treatment for advertisers has reached a new high. There is something to be said for teamwork between editorial and sales folk, but less so if quality standards deteriorate.
Several tweets in the accompanying monthly report offer well-deserved food for thought. Other tweets serve as reminders of editing basics concerns. If you like what you see here, check out my regular Twitter page for more high-value content.
Customer exasperation has become common at tech support sites that dramatically reduced number of customer service personnel. Hour or longer waits to connect seem to be the rule rather than the exception.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 26, 2021
One of my clients sponsors an annual competition devoted totally to covers. In many cases, standard size magazines should offer at least four to give cover lines — all with story-telling punch as opposed to 2- or 3-word labels.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 26, 2021
Enterprise Reporting and Basic Editorial Skills Need Upgrades https://t.co/FtkPsDZ7Fl
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 26, 2021
Many readers of B2B industries we cover could benefit from a no-holds-barred mystery shopper article Seems like many cases exist — in tech support fields for instance — where service quality requires a wake-up call.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 22, 2021
While printing out articles for analysis during my current e-news study, I found an unusual number of awkward articles. Missing lines at beginning and end of sentences where a better fit was needed. Don’t we care about lapses like this??
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 15, 2021
When teaching brevity to editorial newcomers, offer at least one sentence flow analysis table. SFA provides article sentence length analysis based on word counts of 20 or fewer, 20-25, 26-29, 30-40, 40-50, 50-plus. Very helpful!!!
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 15, 2021
B2B editors may be having more problems preserving integrity due to increased sales departments requests for advertiser exposure. See my latest LinkedIn blog for details: https://t.co/l5vnmy17C6
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 9, 2021
Editorial ethics concerns are always worth discussion if interested. My background includes term as chairman of ASBPE ethics committee. There are at least 17 ethical challenges B2B editors may confront … especially now.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 5, 2021
B2B editors who maintain an in-house editorial ethics code may find ideas expressed by CalMatters of interest. Firm is described as non profit, nonpartisan newsroom.https://t.co/PUKMpiaMrs
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) February 5, 2021