Secret Shopping

No, I'm not referring to going to the mall without telling your husband, I'm talking about the market research tool used to measure the quality of service or to gain other "insider" information that can only be obtained by pretending to be a customer. In my case I was a secret shopper for Chevron's Delo Oil. My job was to, along with another guy, call 105 different O.E (Original Equipment, I believe) Truck Dealers and pose as an owner of a fleet of trucks. This in and of itself seemed funny to me, not that I am completely incompitant when it comes to trucks and all that, but I certainly don't know enough to make someone believe that I am an OWNER of a small fleet of 25 trucks. (25 trucks sounds like a pretty large fleet if you ask me, but I digress...) I was glad these were done over the phone, lets just say that. My goal was to call these places and ask them to recommend an engine oil and hope that they recommend Delo L.E or Delo 400. If they did they would be rewarded with a 25 dollar gift card to Chevron/Texaco gas stations, and if they did not I would send them an consolation prize of a Delo hat. (these are truckers after all.) I was given seven scripts, each specific to the certain kind of truck that that particular company was selling and that was where the fun began...
Here is a sample of a script that I was to repeat... almost 50 times.

Hi, can I speak to a service manager or service writer please? ... I'm looking for a recommendation on engine oil for my fleet. I have a small fleet of 25 international trucks with 15 catapillar 3406 engines and 10 Cummins ISX engines. I am planning to order 5 new trucks with the new MX engine. Is there a single dessil motor oil that will work in my entire fleet and is good to use with Ultra Low Sulfur dissel?

That was mouthfull to say the least, after a while I was beginning to believe this myself. I was on a roll and having fun. But there were a few times when they would ask me a question and I would have to say I was just the the front desk person to explain my incompitance on the subject of which I was supposed to be a pro, this seemed to work, for the most part. One time someone asked me who I was with before they would transfer me to and I stuttered for a while and then answered "Hernandez Trucking" A simple white lie, but it turned out for the best because that company recommended Delo 400 to me and were rewarded.

I really enjoyed calling all over the country and got a laugh when I called Massachusetts. "Fowr suyvice press fowr" It was funny to hear all the different accents all in one day. All in all it was a really interesting job.

*For the record, this is NOT a full time thing, I'm just lucky enough to be able to get a few random temp jobs in order to help out the family. I'll keep you posted on my job situation as well as Jorge's in the next few weeks.

'till next time...