Improvements for Factories and Manufacturing Businesses

How A Mystery Shopper Can Help Your Restaurant

13 March 2020

Pearl Welch

When people think of mystery shoppers, they probably envision someone walking into a department store undercover before reviewing their interactions with the sales staff. But a mystery shopping evaluation service can handle much more than just a department store. Today, it's not uncommon for restaurant owners to use such a service as well. If you own your own restaurant, here's how a mystery shopping service could help you improve your business.

The Owner is Often in the Kitchen

Many people start restaurants because they enjoy cooking. This means that during the day to day operation, many owners are back with the kitchen crew making sure everything is going according to plan. You might occasionally walk through the dining room or talk to a customer, but your focus is likely to be split between multiple areas. When you bring in a mystery shopper, they will spend all of their energy reviewing their server in the dining area. This could help you gain additional insight on what it's really like to be a customer in your restaurant.

Get Servers to Stay Focused and Improve

If you tell your staff that you have hired a mystery shopper service for the restaurant, this will help ensure that your servers stay on their toes at all times. Each customer that walks into your restaurant will be treated very well because the staff will always be wondering if the next customer is the mystery shopper.

The specific feedback that a mystery shopper can provide may also help you see things in a new lights. The servers might also take to the criticism more if they know it is coming from a neutral, outside party.

Be Prepared for a Restaurant Review

Is your restaurant trying to get listed in a popular food guide that awards stars or some other metric that is used to judge the quality of your food and dining experience? A mystery shopper is not a professional food critic or reviewer, but going through this experience will allow you to prepare your staff for when an actual professional reviewer comes through. They say practice makes perfect, and that's what a mystery shopper can do for your waiting staff.

Contact a Mystery Shopper Today

Get a mystery shopper to come to your restaurant in the near future and then go over their final report with all employees. You can point out things that the restaurant already does well but also use it as an opportunity for growth and improvement.

To learn more about how to improve your restaurant's dining experience, contact a company that offers a mystery shopping evaluation service. 

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