Restaurant
An alarmingly high percentage of restaurants fail within their first few years of opening, and an even larger number struggle, year-over-year, while returning a modest bottom line profit to their operators. Even with such a competitive landscape and known high risk of failure, restaurants continue to open at record rates.
For this reason, it is critical that restaurant operators actively seek to “wow” their customers by providing unique and exceptional guest experiences.
One of the most useful tools used to measure the guest experience is collecting customer feedback, and it comes in many forms and degrees of usefulness.
Surveys are helpful for collecting large quantities of data points but lack the detailed information that mystery shops provide
Online reviews are biased toward a particularly negative or positive experience whereas mystery shops are unbiased
Internal audits lack the customer’s viewpoint, but mystery shops capture the operation in its natural state
How Our Strategic Feedback Programs Drive Value
Drive Operational Performance
- Our Clients Use mystery shops to evaluate the service steps from an objective vantage point.
- Mystery shops help our clients to maintain brand standards across their restaurants.
- Mystery shops are a second set of eyes for our clients, and the reports provide information that their Executive Team, District Managers and Store-level Managers can use to drive change.
- Our clients use mystery shops to measure the effectiveness of employee training and evaluate performance.
Measure Operational Changes and New Initiatives
- Mystery shops provide our clients with feedback on new programs and initiatives from an operational perspective and can help evaluate employee behavior changes during the roll-out.
- Our clients use mystery shops on a project-by-project basis as a check-in for executional standards or to evaluate a new practice.
- Mystery shops provide our clients with the depth of information needed to successfully introduce new products.
Preferred Method of Collecting Feedback
- Mystery shops are our clients’ preferred tool for collecting customer feedback because of the accuracy and depth of feedback.
- Many of our clients use surveys in excess, but the number of questions asked and data that can be collected is limited. Mystery shopping is a much more detailed and thorough tool.
Constructive Criticism and Coaching
- Our clients use mystery shops as a constructive tool, not a ‘gotcha.’
- Our clients distribute the mystery shops to their management team to use for positive reinforcement and coaching.
Don’t Just Take Our Word For It: Hear What Our Clients Are Saying
“A Closer Look has been very easy to work with! During the pandemic, we pivoted to different types of mystery shops for our team members, as well as had an increased need for competitive market analyses because of the ever-changing market landscapes. Very happy to recommend A Closer Look to anyone who would like thorough, detailed, and swift mystery shops and competitive market analyses.”
– VP of Sales and Marketing, MBK Senior Living
Let us tell the story of your guest experience first-hand.
Track Your Business Pulse
Engage with your customers in real-time and measure customer experience
Reports and Analytics
We boast over 50 different reports to help our clients drill down to the data they need to help their business thrive.
Dine Out. Write. Get Paid.
Enjoy a meal by providing detailed feedback at one of the many partner restaurants we work with
Build Loyalty the New Way
Learn how your customers feel before it’s on social media
What Our Clients Are Saying
"A Closer Look has been instrumental in guiding our training and marketing initiatives to drive positive guest experiences as we grow. We are blessed to have a great vendor partnership with the team at A Closer Look!"
Vice President of Field Operations
Clean Juice
"A Closer Look has been an amazing partner in our mission to be the coolest frozen dessert brand. While we strive to provide the most flavorful experiences to each and every guest, A Closer Look provides integral insight as to what our guests see and feel during their time with us. Their shoppers are thorough with visits and thoughtful with feedback, shopper reports are quickly ready for review and the reporting systems that A Closer Look provides are robust but user friendly. We are thankful for this program so we can pride ourselves with the WOW's and work on any opportunities out there."
Director of Company Operations
Jeremiah's Italian Ice
"A Closer Look has consistently and thoroughly followed through with everything we have asked of them since the inception of our program. It's one thing for a company to make promises on what they can do, but it's quite another for them to actually follow through with such success!"
Chief Operating Officer
Build-A-Bear
