Article

How Secret Shoppers Can Help You Create a Better Guest Experience

Kam Talebi, CEO of The Butcher's Tale, an artisanal steakhouse in Minneapolis, recalls the first time the concept used a secret shopper. A server who had been "the star of the show" received back-to-back customer complaints. Talebi needed to send in a stranger who would provide an unbiased report on the server's performance. "We use secret shoppers in our restaurants frequently to get a more realistic, objective view of the customer experience," says Talebi.

You can't see, hear or control everything that goes on inside your restaurant. Secret shoppers – also called mystery shoppers – provide independent and objective data on your independent concept's efficiency and quality.

Fortunately, the secret shopper had a good experience with the server, which put worries at ease. As Talebi recalls, the GM sat down with the server for a personal check-in, which helped resolve the underlying problem. "After that first evaluation, we told the employees that we would be sending in monthly secret guests going forward to keep them on their toes," says Talebi, adding "In reality, we do quarterly secret shopper experience evaluations now."

Taco Ocho is a Dallas-based restaurant with four locations that use secret shoppers to troubleshoot issues at the concept. "When a store has really slow sales, particularly during specific dayparts, we want to understand whether there is a service issue that is impacting sales," says co-owner Hari Nathan Bhushan. At another time, Bhushan brought in a secret shopper to evaluate a management change in one unit.

Secret shops showed Bhushan how different factors worked to impact the guest experience. Employees had been closing the blinds, which gave the impression the restaurant was closed. Other times, the music was off when it should have been audible for customers. While there were some tough talks regarding performance issues, most of the changes Bhushan made tended to be rules or policies to create a better guest experience, such as leaving the blinds open until closing time.

Bhushan recalls when a secret shop confirmed negative feedback around portioning which was posted in online reviews. Taco Ocho had been using plastic containers to hold rice and beans that accompanied orders. The restaurant began plating rice and beans on the plate. Customers thought the portion was larger when in reality it was the same size as before. Nonetheless, their perception of value positively increased.

For Bhushan and Talebi, secret shopping helped to troubleshoot previously identified problems and improve the guest experience. However, secret shoppers can also help a concept become more profitable. In a case study per- formed by New York City-based Coyle Hospitality, which offers mystery shopping as part of its consultant services, a restaurant-bar concept used secret shopping to investigate a five-percent spike in beverage costs. Before bringing in a secret shopper, the concept's owners tried to resolve the high prices by re-pricing drinks, analyzing the menu mix, and making sure that pour devices were installed on liquor bottles to prevent over-serving.

Despite these changes, beverage costs remained at five percent above par. Worried there was a theft issue, the concept owners requested mystery shoppers to observe the bar and help identify the thief. Before they sent in secret shoppers, Coyle asked the client what controls were in place, such as a security camera or key controls to the cash drawer. This feedback allowed the concept to make a number of positive changes before secret shoppers set foot in their bar. Observational data from secret shoppers showed that employees were making two key mistakes that cost the restaurant money. First, employees made errors entering items in the POS. Second, they gave away free drinks and, in some cases, took money for drinks that never got made due to high volume.

At first, secret shoppers felt these errors were incidental rather than purposeful; however, they noticed the same errors being made on multiple visits. No doubt, these mistakes were affecting income. While this data clearly wasn't what the owners wanted to hear, management was able to institute policies that directly targeted the problems shoppers observed. As a result, beverage costs fell back in line with expectations. These changes added $2,000 worth of profit during busy weeks.

How to Hire a Secret Shopper

Rich Bradley, executive director of MSPA Americas, the Mystery Shopping Professionals Association, says that owner-operators of independent restaurants can be so immersed in their unit that they develop a sort of operational blindness. "Sometimes you are around something so much you don't notice the little nuances that make a difference for the guest," he explains. "A shopper coming in who is looking at the environment from a completely objective, brand-new perspective is looking for all these details that can be overlooked on a day-to-day basis."

While it can be tempting to have a friend or family member act as your secret shopper, results tend to be better when you hire an independent party. If a friend or family member goes in and they observe something negative, they may downplay their observations so they don't hurt your feelings. You may have asked them to be forthright, but it can be awkward and uncomfortable to share bad news. "That can distort the data because the person with the connection to the owner may not feel comfortable delivering the full truth," Bradley says.

"There is no relationship and no identity with a professional shopper. They are free to describe exactly what they say, heard, smelled and tasted when doing their visit," he adds. When the report comes in, you can trust that person is objectively reporting their experience rather than holding back from a sense of loyalty.

You can still ask known people to conduct mystery shops for you. That said, it's worth bearing in mind that you may not get an unbiased perspective when you do so.

There are many companies that offer mystery shopping, including hospitality consultants with which you might already have relationships. When asked for his advice on how to pick a trusted partner to perform this work, Bradley says the most important criteria to evaluate is rapport. "It's important to align with a company that is going to really understand you and your business. The mistake I've seen is that many people base it completely on price," he says.

With rapport, the company will listen to your considerations from the start. They'll think about what could be at the root of the problem, and suggest questions that are likely to solicit the right data to shine light on the issue. In some cases, as the above-referenced Coyle case study shows, they may even suggest operational improvements that will improve performance even before evaluators visit.

Another route is to check whether trusted providers you already work with, such as distributors or consultants, offer secret shopping as an add-on service. If the consultant is known to staff, this strategy may not work. Secret shopping relies on the evaluator's identity being secret. As with a restaurant critic, when the identity is blown, the food and service are likely to be a step above what other guests receive.

Preparing for a Secret Shopper

Mystery shopping programs can be catered to your concept's needs, answering only the questions you most care about. One obvious place to start is anywhere that you consistently receive negative feedback from guests or via online reviews, such as the plating of food at Taco Ocho. If your concept doesn't have negative reviews, chances are something calls out to you as suboptimal, inefficient or otherwise problematic. This is a great opportunity to take something you don't think is working as it should be and get an unbiased perspective – and perhaps fresh ideas – from someone new.

This checklist of potential areas to investigate can help you think through the question of where to begin. Use these areas as a springboard to hone in on criteria for your shop. The more specific you can be, the better.

When it comes to secret shopping, less is more. When you attempt to evaluate too many variables at once, the report will be watered down. Remember, you can always run a second shop at a later date to address a different aspect of business.

Come up with the focus areas on your own, then work with the partner you selected to come up with survey questions designed to elicit the right data. Shoppers will answer the questions and provide a concise narrative that adds context to the observation.

Sometimes, operators want to turn survey creation and evaluation over to the third party and leave them in charge of determining the right focus for the shop. Bradley doesn't recommend this approach.

He says that operators who don't think through what's going to be evaluated in conversation with the company administering the shop will often react with surprise when data comes in. They had expectations about the feedback they would receive and were surprised when something wasn't evaluated, but they did not share their expectations in advance.

After the initial questionnaire is ready, Bradley recommends taking it on a test drive by scheduling a couple of shops. This initial data validates the survey and gives you the opportunity to tweak if answers aren't getting at what you hoped to ad- dress. Once you are satisfied, you can run a full program and know the data is going to speak to your needs.

Keep at It

"If you don't take the data and use it, your program is kind of a waste," says Bradley. Set aside time to read the report and think about the issues that are exposed. In some cases, solutions are obvious. If closed blinds give the impression the restaurant is closed when it should be open, instruct staff to leave the blinds open until closing time. In other cases, issues involve more nuance and time to correct.

When you have made a good faith effort to work through issues, schedule another secret shop. A fresh round of data will let you know whether things have improved in the ways you'd hoped. Alternatively, you can come up with a new survey to test a new area of operation and improve performance across the board over time.

Let's say your concept gets to a point of receiving consistently high evaluations from secret shoppers. Should you discontinue the program? Bradley doesn't think so.

In his experience, customer service suffers after clients discontinue the program. "If they happen to restart, the scores have dropped off dramatically because the employees know they're not being watched anymore. That which doesn't get measured doesn't get done properly," Bradley says.

"The cost to do a shop or two a month is minuscule in the grand scheme of things, yet the data that comes back is so critical to operating your unit at a high-efficiency level," Bradley adds. "It's such a sensible investment."

ONE SECRET SHOPPER'S VIEW OF THE BUSINESS

Kelli Laube, Hospitality Trainer for RestaurantOwner. com, has been performing secret shops for the past year as part of broadline distributor Ben E. Keith's Host Services.

She describes a typical secret shopping visit: "As soon as I walk in, I have a timer going of how long it takes them to greet me. Sometimes the greeter isn't even present at the front. I'm really passionate about the greeter role because they create the guest's first impression of the entire restaurant both in person and over the phone and that initial impression could be the main reason the guest decides to come back or not."

As Kelli is walked to the table, she evaluates the greeter on variables like walking speed, small talk, and customer service. Does the greeter make sure she is happy with the table? Do they hand her the menu, or do they place it on the table and walk away?

Kelli then sets another timer to track how long it takes the server to greet her. If all goes well, she is greeted by a friendly server within a time frame that's appropriate for the concept. Most operators strive for customer greetings in under a minute.

Kelli evaluates servers on their body language, conversation skills, and ability to make menu recommendations. She usually tries to send one item back to test how the server handles it. She generally doesn't pay attention to how long it takes to get entrees "unless it's a ridiculous amount of time."

During the meal, her focus remains on all aspects of hospitality and customer service. She notices how servers interact with nearby tables, whether servers are on the floor or hiding out in the kitchen, and how promptly servers are pre-busing their tables." Of course, that is going to affect my experience and how the food tastes to me," Kelli says, recalling one Louisiana restaurant where an adjacent table was not bussed for 30 minutes. Every customer who entered the restaurant had to walk by the dirty table.

At the end of the meal, Kelli notes how long it takes to bring the check and whether the server personalized the end-of-meal interaction. While walking out, she checks whether the greeter notices her exit and thanks her for visiting. In one instance, Kelli recalls, a greeter was so absorbed in end-of-shift side work that she actually had to step around the woman to exit the restaurant.

Kelli distills her observations into a report, complete with charts. She usually sits down with management to discuss the report. Kelli uses the report to organize hospitality training. Since she knows firsthand where staff succeed and where they fall short of expectations, she can hammer home hospitality best practices during training.

Most of the time, Kelli says that management and owners are not surprised at what they find. "They know they have these issues, but there is something different with someone else observing it from the guest's point of view. You need someone who doesn't work for your restaurant or know the staff to give an honest opinion about the experience," she says.

When it's brought to their attention by a secret shopper, operators have a better understanding of what a customer thinks about something that may be habitual in their concept. Secret shops encourage operators to raise their standards and hold staff accountable to better performance, for the benefit of the customer.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Mystery Shopper Reports

Numerous surveys tell us that the vast majority of dissatisfied customers don't complain. That may sound good, but most just don't return. They just go somewhere else. And repeat patronage is the lifeblood of the restaurant business. Many operators use mystery shoppers to find out what's really going on in their restaurants from the guest's point of view.

Mystery shopping reports can serve as an important way to identify what your staff is doing right and provide insights you and your managers may be missing of where improvements need to be made.

The key to maintaining a successful restaurant isn't just in attracting first-time customers, it's even more important to create loyal guests who come back again and again.

Regularly employing mystery shoppers can help you identify things that are going on in your restaurant that may be causing people to leave and not return. Some restaurants use trained mystery shoppers sent from firms specializing in this service. Others elect to recruit their own shoppers, as long as they can be assured they will be objective and honest. No one needs a mystery shopper to "sugarcoat" problems that need to be addressed.

Use these forms if you'd like to employ your own shoppers. Prior to the visit, be sure to review this form with them and give them a brief overview of what you're trying to accomplish and why their honest feedback is so important.

You can choose from two reports in MS Word format:

• General/Standard Report (to rate Facility, Service and Food & Beverage ratings)
• Hospitality & Service Report