Undercover Boss type Business?

[WestCountryDesign]

Quick question... a friend of mine told me he was looking to hire an 'undercover employee' to go into his telesales business and basically survey how things ran when he wasn't there. After doing searches he didn't find much luck and said he is now tempted to start the business himself.

I told him straight that I am sure that there are businesses that do this kind of thing but I doubt it is very much in demand? However he things it is an idea that will sell... what do you guys think?

 

[solopreneur]

Quick question... a friend of mine told me he was looking to hire an 'undercover employee' to go into his telesales business and basically survey how things ran when he wasn't there. After doing searches he didn't find much luck and said he is now tempted to start the business himself.

I told him straight that I am sure that there are businesses that do this kind of thing but I doubt it is very much in demand? However he things it is an idea that will sell... what do you guys think?

I think that it may have some potential. Quite how widespread, it is difficult to say. It would add more value to be able to add solutions to the observations, ie "I have seen xyz and to resolve the problem, would suggest abc". It then turns into management consultancy, in a slightly different format to the normal way that it is delivered. It begs the question, is it a more or less effective way of delivering management consultancy?

Alternatively, it could be viewed as an alternative take on mystery shopping.

In any case, the demand needs further investigation before taking it further. As a service, there may be some interest, but I suspect only as a part of something else. I doubt that it would generate enough business to stand alone.

 

[Psl]

I think it is a very good idea.

 

[I Love Spreadsheets]

Wouldnt this be a logical leap for a mystery shopper type company to make?

 

[Kernowman]

I have done this a fair number of times as the first phase of consultancy work I do. My nickname for this process is called "The Thermometer" because I effectively take the company's 'business temperature'

Easy to find fault and criticise, any fool can do that, the real skill comes from putting things on track

 

[Graemem]

Undercover boss is the boss going in though, who knows how the business should run and can see whats going wrong. How would a random person off the street be able to do that as well?

It's a good idea I guess, but I don't think it'd work as well as someone from a head office or something going in and seeing whats wrong - it's more just asking a stranger to spy on your staff and hope they know what they're doing :|

 

[Billmccallum]

I've done a similar thing in the past, like the previous poster, as part of a consultancy job.

I went on site with a team of scaffolders for six weeks to see how jobs were managed, turned up huge problems and set up systems to resolve them.

 

[gemd89]

Isnt this the same thing as a mystery shop?

I have been on one before and went to gala bingo

Gemma