Mystery Shopper's Manual

Why Do Some Restaurants Not Take Reservations?

by

restaurant-reservationsFine dining restaurants typically accept reservations, and a mystery shop of a fine dining restaurant will include questions about the reservation process. But why is it that so many other restaurants do not accept reservations? If you have ever tried to get a table at a popular casual dining restaurant on a Saturday night, you know that the wait can be looooonnnnng. So why do they not take reservations? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if they eliminated the wait?

Although fine dining restaurants can often accommodate walk-ins outside of peak times, taking reservations allows them to better plan. Meals at fine dining restaurants often last longer than a typical casual dining experience. At a casual dining restaurant, we may be in and out in 45 minutes to an hour, while a fine dining meal could easily be twice that long. Reservations help to ensure that tables are available when required and makes it easier for staff to properly serve customers.Continue Reading

When Customer Service Attacks

by

customer service attacksThis is a humorous work of fiction that was inspired by an actual experience of overly-attentive staff. I am sharing it here with the writer’s permission. No mystery shoppers were harmed in the making of this story.

Everything was normal at Zmart until someone heard a rumor that the corporate office was going to check in on them soon and that a mystery shopper was coming any day.  Of course the point of mystery shoppers is that they are supposed to be anonymous and thus treated like a normal customer, but rumors had a way of spreading.  And it didn’t matter if those rumors turned out to be false, if they happened to be true, the store needed to be ready.

Greg knew nothing of the secret shopper rumors when he walked into Zmart.  It wasn’t like the store could unfurl a banner that said “Welcome Secret Shoppers!”  There wasn’t anything else about the appearance of the store that gave him any indication that something was going on.  But it didn’t take him long to realize that something was definitely different from his usual trips to Zmart.Continue Reading

Should a Mystery Shopper Complain About Bad Service?

by

complain

Questions such as this one come in often:

I was on a mystery shop and had really bad service. If I had been paying my own money, I would have looked for a manager and complained, but I wasn’t sure if I should do that on a mystery shop. Instead, I am going to write a letter to their corporate office. They need to know how bad this was!

Although mystery shoppers need to, for the most part, act like “normal” customers, there are some things we need to do differently. One of those things is not to make ourselves memorable or do anything that would make us stand out. That usually means no complaining to the manager.

But what about after the shop? Should you write a letter, fill out a comment card or call corporate to let them know how bad your visit was?
Continue Reading

Venti Rage

by

As mystery shoppers, we know that employees are expected to say certain things and ask certain questions when they interact with customers. For example, they may ask questions to lead to suggestive selling, such as, “Would you like to make that a combo?” or questions about preferences, such as the kind of bread you want in your sandwich.

One New York professor decided that a Starbucks employee asking if she wanted butter or cream cheese on her bagel was an outrage. According to a report in the New York Post,  Lynne Rosenthal ordered a toasted multigrain bagel — and became enraged when the barista followed up by asking, “Do you want butter or cheese?”Continue Reading

Fine Dining Restaurant Service Standards

by

waiter1Fine dining restaurants typically have high standards for service. If you have ever done a fine dining restaurant mystery shop, you know how detailed the questions can be.

The four-star Le Bernardin restaurant in New York City has exacting standards for service. In fact, they have a list of 129 “sins” that staff are to avoid when serving customers.

Many of the these will be familiar to mystery shoppers, as they are the kinds of things we are asked to evaluate in our reports:

  • Not acknowledging guests with eye contact and a smile within 30 seconds. First impressions count!
  • Not thanking the guests as they leave. Last impression!
  • Forks with bent tines.
  • Chipped glassware.
  • Burned-out lightbulbs.
  • Lack of eye contact.
  • Not refilling water or coffee.
  • Soiled or ill-fitting uniforms.Continue Reading

Will Mystery Shopping Become Obsolete?

by

ivr.jpgHave you ever gotten one of those notices on your receipt to call a toll-free number and answer a few questions about your experience at a store or restaurant? Often the business “bribes” customers to participate by providing a coupon good for a discount on their next visit, or by entering them in a drawing for cash and other prizes.

Integrated Voice Response (IVR) is used by a lot of businesses, often as an add-on to their mystery shopping and other market research programs. Mystery shoppers have often wondered if IVR will put us out of business, but I do not believe it will. There is, however, something else on the horizon that causes me more concern.Continue Reading

How Waiters See Customers

by

waiter.jpgAs mystery shoppers, we are in the business of evaluating the service provided by waiters and other service providers.

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip–Confessions of a Cynical Waiter, a new book by someone called “The Waiter,” (but since publication, identified as Steve Dublanica) tells the other side of the story: what happens behind the scenes at a restaurant and what waiters really think of the customers.

“Waiter Rant” is often wickedly funny, such as in the descriptions of the various types of tippers, or the 40 tips on how to be a good customer. Those tips include, “Do not snap your fingers to get the waiter’s attention. Remember, we have shears that cut through bone in the kitchen,” and “Never say, ‘I’m friends with the owner.’ Restaurant owners don’t have any friends.”Continue Reading

A Mystery Shopper Would Not Do This

by

Many employees believe they can always spot the mystery shopper. Often the things they think give away the shopper are things that a shopper would never (or at least should never) do.

As shoppers, we are sometimes concerned that be required to ask what we believe are “stupid” questions will give us away. My answer to that is that real customers do dumber things than anything we do. Want proof? Check out this site: http://notalwaysright.com/.

At The Customer is Not Always Right, people who work in sales, tech support, food service and other customer service positions share horror stories of stupid and difficult customers. Anyone who has ever held a job dealing with the public will experience flashes of recognition. As secret shoppers, we have probably observed some of these types of interactions. However, if you see yourself as the customer in any of these stories . . . uh, there may be a problem.