Mystery shoppers run into license problem

Erin Neff

Wednesday, July 12, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

They may be spies like us, but the mystery shoppers set to test city departments and services in Las Vegas aren't private eyes.

And that distinction has landed the just-approved customer service survey in trouble with state licensing.

Carol Hanna, director of the state's Private Investigator Licensing Board, received several complaints after local private eyes saw a report in the Sun about the city's program.

The city's mystery shopping program would allow six "spies" to infiltrate a variety of departments and services. Mystery shoppers, for example, would apply for building permits and call the mayor's office to determine the level of quality city staff gives to customers.

But these average Joes with questions about pool hours and zoning votes must be licensed as private investigators, Hanna said.

"We have received complaints, and we have to go through the channels," Hanna said. "I have been in touch with the city of Las Vegas, and I talked to them about the licensing requirements."

Betsy Fretwell, assistant city manager, said the licensing concerns have delayed deployment of the moles from Customer Services Accountability Inc. into a variety of city departments and politician's offices.

CSA, a program of the University of Georgia's Institute of Government, was to run for six months starting at the beginning of July.

"They were supposed to start in July, but we weren't aware we had to get the license," Fretwell said. "We want to follow the regulations and get them the licenses they need."

The city is paying $7,800 for the CSA study, but now will have to determine the added cost of licensing the mystery shoppers.

Mystery shopping is commonly used by corporate America to test customer service practices in grocery and department stores.

City Councilman Michael Mack championed the program when Fretwell gave the board a report last week, saying his pawn shops learned valuable lessons from participating in a similar program.

CSA offers similar programs for governments in Charlotte, N.C., and West Palm Beach and Sarasota, Fla. Representatives of the program could not be reached.

Although local private investigators simply asked for the shoppers to be credentialed, it remains unclear whether such licenses will blow their cover.