A council is asking its own social housing tenants to act as mystery shoppers to assess how well it is performing as a landlord. 

Chesterfield council is compiling a panel of tenants who would volunteer to be mystery shoppers.

It has told its tenants: “If you become a mystery shopper, we’ll work with you to identify areas where you think our services need to improve. 

“We will then ask you to undertake a series of agreed tasks, which will monitor the quality of customer service; be yourself and use a real scenario, like reporting a repair; report back in a detailed and objective way using the agreed formats (digital/paper).

The council says that by reporting back on their experiences of contacting council teams and using our services, they will directly help improve the quality of services that the authority offers.

Full training will be provided, and travel expenses will be covered. 

The council continues: “Your involvement on the panel can be fully flexible and will be based on the time you are able to offer and at a time that suits your circumstances. Please be assured that you will not be asked to do anything that you aren’t comfortable with.”