Imagine knowing exactly how your customers experience your food business. Our mystery shopping service reveals the hidden truths of your customer service, product quality, and food safety standards.
What is Mystery Shopping?
Mystery shopping provides food businesses with an in-depth evaluation of their customer service, product availability, cleanliness, overall customer experience, and food safety and quality standards. In a mystery shopping engagement, our team poses as ordinary customers to allow for an independent, unbiased, third-party assessment.
Who can benefit?
Mystery shopping services are essential for any food business interacting directly with customers, such as:
- Restaurants
- Fast Food Chains
- Cafes and Coffee Shops
- Supermarkets & Grocery Stores
- Catering Companies
- Bakeries
How does it work?
- Initial Consultation & Service Customization
We start with an initial consultation to understand your unique needs and challenges. Based on this information, we tailor our scenarios and criteria accordingly. - Deployment and Data Collection
Our team visits different locations at varying times, preparing detailed reports after each visit, highlighting findings, areas for improvement and commendable practices. At your request and dependent on the nature of our findings, we provide immediate feedback to allow for you to take immediate corrective actions. - Reporting & Follow-up
We compile our findings into a comprehensive report which along with our actionable feedback is discussed with you in detail. At your request, we design and discuss additional services to support the remediation process (e.g. training needs assessment or Food Safety Management System (FSMS) improvement programs).
Figure 1 below provides an overview of the mystery shopping service.
Our Core Mystery Shopping Criteria
We pride ourselves on being flexible. What that means for our clients is that while there is a core set of criteria that our mystery shopping service is built around, we happily adjust and tailor our tools and techniques to meet your needs.
However, most mystery shopping engagements will address:
- Hygiene Practices: Ensuring employees follow proper hygiene practices for a safe and clean environment.
- Temperature Control: Monitoring storage, cooking, and serving temperatures to maintain food safety.
- Food Handling: Observing food handling to prevent cross-contamination and ensure compliance with company policies.
- Cleaning and Sanitizing: Assessing the cleanliness of all areas and confirming proper procedures.
- Allergen Management: Monitoring communication and procedures to prevent allergen cross-contact.
- Customer Service: Evaluating overall customer experience and staff’s ability to handle food safety concerns.
Why partner with us?
Even for food businesses with quality control staff in place, partnering with an independent mystery shopping provider has several benefits:
- Unbiased feedback: As an independent external party, we are better positioned to provide honest and impartial feedback.
- Broader perspective: Our team possesses diverse experiences that we can leverage to your benefit in a way that internal resources might not be able to.
- Enhanced credibility: You can demonstrate the highest commitment to quality by choosing to partner with a third-party assessor.
- Focused effort: With our assistance, your quality control staff are better able to focus on internal processes while we support your external evaluations.
Conclusion
To sum it up, mystery shopping is a powerful tool for food businesses aiming to excel in quality and safety.
By partnering with us, you’ll gain an independent, unbiased perspective that drives continuous improvement.
Furthermore, food businesses who embrace mystery shopping are able to demonstrate to their staff, customers and the community that they have a commitment to continuous improvement and excellence. In the highly competitive food industry, this can be a significant differentiator.
Take the Next Step
Ready to gain independent insights into your operation’s performance?
We’re here to help. Take action today!
Schedule a consultation with one of our experts and elevate your food safety standards, building consumer trust one step at a time.