This is not a mystery visit. Staff know we are there. The point is to hear, with permission, how an application actually opens: the greeting, the check for the right window, the moment a form is slid under the glass, the hand-off when the answer lives at another desk.
Who asks for it
Duty managers who have rewritten the script on the wall and still hear something else at 9:15. Enrolment weeks. Permit lodgement after a rule change. Clinic intake after a new privacy sheet is added.
Method
We sit within earshot of the public side only. We note patterns, not names. If a conversation turns confidential, we look at the floor until it ends. The write-up lists recurring opening lines, missing pieces of paper, and the points where a visitor is sent walking.
Pairing
Counter reviews sit well after usage observation days, when the report has already named the path and you want the first twenty seconds examined with more care. They are a poor substitute for silent visits if you need the unperformed greeting.