The Benefits of Mystery Shopping for Bars and Restaurants

Several factors will impact the success of your bar or restaurant. Not only do you need to ensure you’re providing great food and drinks, but it’s important to have a well-trained team and an inviting atmosphere. To stand out from the crowd, it’s crucial to prioritise customer satisfaction and improve your customer experience.  

One way to get some honest feedback about your establishment is to work with a mystery shopping company. More businesses in the hospitality sector are starting to use mystery shops to help them remain competitive and there are several benefits to using a wide range of mystery shopping services. If you’ve been considering trying mystery shopping to improve your business, some of the biggest benefits of doing so include the following;  

Identifying Areas for Improvement

As a business owner, it’s hard to see your establishment from an objective perspective and identify areas for improvement. By working with a mystery shopping company, you can get feedback from a neutral third party and discover any areas that need attention. Feedback can be provided on all aspects of your bar or restaurant, including the atmosphere, speed of service and product quality. With this information, you can make the necessary changes to enhance the customer experience and increase your bottom line. 

Ensuring Consistency

Consistency is crucial in the hospitality industry. When customers visit a chain of bars or restaurants, they expect to experience the same high standards of service and quality at each location. Mystery shopping can help you to ensure that your customer experience is consistent across all locations. By evaluating different locations, mystery shoppers can provide you with valuable feedback on areas that need addressing to ensure consistency in your brand. 

Improving Customer Experience

There’s no denying that customer experience is one of the most important aspects of running a bar or restaurant. A positive experience can lead to increased customer satisfaction, repeat business and positive word-of-mouth marketing. Mystery shopping can help you understand your experience from the customer’s perspective and you can then make informed decisions on how to improve your overall experience. By making changes based on the feedback you receive, you can ensure you’re investing time, effort and resources in the right areas.  

Evaluating Staff Knowledge and Performance

Your team is the face of your business. They need to be knowledgeable, friendly and efficient, and this is crucial to providing a high-quality experience for customers. Mystery shopping can evaluate the performance of your staff and the feedback you receive can help you identify areas that would benefit from additional training and development.  

Cocktails are a staple of most bars these days and quality assurance is essential to ensure that customers receive the best possible product. Mystery shopping can even evaluate your team’s knowledge of drinks, including the ingredients and preparation methods of cocktails, as well as different wine and beer options. Mystery shoppers can assess the presentation of the cocktail, and the overall experience of ordering and receiving the drink. They can provide constructive feedback to ensure your establishment is living up to expectations.  

Checking Product Quality

Of course, the quality of your products is crucial to customer satisfaction. A mystery shopper can evaluate everything from the taste of your cocktails to the freshness of your food, providing you with an insight into what customers receive on a day-to-day basis. With this feedback, you can make changes to improve the quality of your products and keep your customers coming back to your establishment time and time again.  

Working With an Experienced Mystery Shopping Company

All in all, mystery shopping is a valuable tool for bars and restaurants looking to ensure quality assurance and improve their business. With the right feedback from a team of mystery shoppers, you can improve your products and services, provide a better experience for your customers and ultimately, keep your business thriving. 

If you’re trying to find a mystery shopping company that has experience working with bars and restaurants, contact us at Proinsight today. Over the years we have worked with global brands like Starbucks and UK businesses like Bannatynes Hotels to help them review their complete experience. We’re experts at getting under the skin of our client’s businesses and helping them to succeed in this very competitive space. We look forward to hearing from you.