Expo detectives ensure visitors have a good time

A mystery man checks out the rubbish bins swissinfo.ch

Undercover agents have been prowling the four sites of Switzerland's national exhibition. Their mission: quality control.

Dubbed the “Mystery Men of Expo.02”, these detectives ensure that rubbish bins are emptied, the lavatories are clean, and employees are helpful.

Their job is to ensure that everything is in place for the exhibition to run smoothly so that visitors can enjoy themselves.

Working in clean and orderly Switzerland makes the Mystery Men’s job of supervising the sites at Neuchâtel, Murten, Biel and Yverdon all the more easy.

But glitches like bathrooms running out of paper do occur and need to be reported.

Bathroom check

It’s 4pm and “detective” Michael Widmer steps into the men’s bathroom at the Neuchâtel site to give it a quick check.

“And the verdict is ‘alright, so-so’. The toilets were very clean although the smell was a bit funny,” Widmer told swissinfo who joined him on his secret mission.

“There was enough paper and the hand-dryer was working. So, no problem for me – just the smell.”

Widmer puts a big tick under the “good” column on his specially-designed questionnaire which rates facilities and services at the exhibition.

The baby changing-room next door to the men’s bathroom also gets the thumbs up. Now it is up to one of the 12 Mystery Women to quality control the ladies’ bathroom.

Satisfied, Widmer moves on to the big rubbish bins serving the grounds. Again, very good.

The “detective” concedes his job is made easier by the cleanliness-conscious Swiss, who even place their plastic and glass items in separate containers so they can be recycled.

Random controls

There are a total of 25 Mystery Men (and women) who conduct random checks on restaurants, shops, food stalls, exhibitions and employees themselves.

“We ask normal questions that visitors would ask, like where to find something, when the next event will be, where to find something to eat… we check that stores have everything in stock and that prices are reasonable.

“Our job is not a repressive job, we want to be as constructive as possible and to help Expo to improve its facilities and services,” said Widmer.

And so far so good. “We were surprised… by Expo’s high quality although it does have several points to improve on,” he added.

Friendly and helpful

Next stop on Widmer’s checklist is the site’s information desk.

“The helper was kind and offered information on events happening today in Neuchâtel and other Expo sites… I was positively surprised.”

The welcome and information-point people are also rated on how well they can answer typical visitor or tourist questions, like how to get to train stations and airports.

Valuable information

Expo site director Frédéric Hohl has received some 200 reports from Mystery Men. The information they provide is valuable since they are not Expo employees, he explained.

“Whenever I receive five identical complaints, the site director intervenes,” Hohl explained.

Only on a few occasions has this happened, most notably when customers complained about high food and beverage prices.

On one of his patrols, Widmer learned that some food stalls had hiked prices of soft drinks to earn more profit.

But set at SFr4.50 ($3) for half a litre of cold drink, he believes that the price is “competitive”.

Perhaps even more serious for Widmer, he once found a bathroom with no paper.

swissinfo, Samantha Tonkin

Key facts

25 undercover agents quality control at Expo sites.
The sites covered are Neuchâtel, Murten, Biel and Yverdon.
They check if rubbish bins are emptied, lavatories are clean and employees are helpful.
The Expo site director has received 200 reports from the “Mystery Men”.