It is often said that 'we never see ourselves as others see us' and this is never truer than when applied to the field of customer service. The exercise described below works best when undertaken as a whole team and may be a useful follow-on to an initial staff meeting to launch a customer service programme. It is simple to conduct and only requires some pre-thought and planning of the logistics.

The principle is very simple and involves having a careful look at your business, your competitors' businesses and other retailers in your locality. The exercise is best conducted by asking individual members of your team to visit a competitor or other retailers as a customer. Ensure that you cover a good spread and that you plan visits that will enable you to see them at a convenient time to your business and when they are likely to be serving a representative number of customers.

• They visit the premises as a real customer, take notice how things are being done and experience the quality of service they see. Once they have left, ask them to jot down:
• What is the overall customer service like?
• What is really good that you could learn from?
• What isn't so good that you could also learn from?
• How are customers greeted and dealt with?
• What is the environment, presentation of products and store signposting like?
• What message does the store give before you even walk in? Is it welcoming and customer friendly?
• What about staff attitudes and their product knowledge?

Don't just pick other pharmacies to visit, visit local supermarkets, specialist retailers and coffee and sandwich shops. Get a good cross section and involve your whole team in the research exercise. Ensure they are prepared to give feedback on their findings.

The next stage is very important. You need to look dispassionately at your own pharmacy as well. Pick one of your staff to spend time posing as a customer. Ask them to stand back during one of your busy periods and observe through a customer's eyes what is going on. Ask them to reflect on the questions above.

Organise a staff meeting and feedback session to share all your findings and observations. Agree what actions you need to take as a result of what you and your team have found and use this to inform your customer service improvement plan.