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FAQs

Here’s a quick round-up of commonly asked questions – but don’t hesitate to speak to our team if yours isn’t covered below…
Silent Customers (the people who carry out the visits) choose the visits that appeal to them. However, we do not assign visits to Silent Customers whose writing samples or grading fall below our high standards. We have never found that we needed to discriminate on age, income or appearance. We all view the world through different filters, so while one Silent Customer will favour writing more about the food, another will be weighted towards the décor and ambience, and another the service. This feedback is a reflection of how real people are experiencing your establishment and, while you might think the food is the most important aspect of your business, that is not what everyone thinks, feels or why they would choose to come back or not. The more Silent Customers who give you feedback, the more of an unbiased and accurate reflection you will get of your business.
Yes, you can absolutely design your own survey and write the questions, but we find that clients don’t have the time to do this since it’s not a simple as you would believe it to be. “The structure of a questions pre-supposes the answer”. In other words, how a question is phrased will impact the output of the feedback. We have spent years writing questions and the supporting guidance that goes with them. We know which questions deliver useful feedback, so you don’t have to. We find that starting with a template works best and then we can adjust it to your specific customer journey, and tweak it as we learn more about what’s going on in your business.
We have a deep culture of caring and empathy. We are a small agency with a team that have worked together for many years. Our uniqueness is centred around our values of care and behavioural change, motivated through kindness not criticism. We are also flexible and responsive, and focused on behaviour rather than tick-boxes. We are focused on helping our clients move their teams beyond the service basics. We look at behaviours and ergonomics and can often diagnose issues that can be simply rectified. Finally, we are the only mystery company that has a two-stage validation process, enabling us to audit and monitor our own standards.

Ensuring the discretion and anonymity of our mystery shoppers is of utmost importance. We select and train our mystery shoppers to maintain a low profile and blend seamlessly into various retail or dining environments. Our team members are adept at conducting their evaluations discreetly, never revealing their identities or intentions to the staff or customers at the establishments they visit. Additionally, we adhere to strict confidentiality agreements and ethical guidelines, ensuring that our mystery shoppers uphold the highest standards of professionalism and discretion throughout their evaluations. This commitment to confidentiality allows us to provide unbiased and reliable feedback to our clients, contributing to the integrity and effectiveness of our mystery shopping services.

 

Rest assured that our mystery shopper and mystery diner service is designed to focus on evaluating the overall customer experience and service quality rather than catching employees out. Our approach is constructive and aims to provide valuable feedback to help businesses enhance their operations and customer service standards. Our mystery shoppers are trained to observe and evaluate various aspects of the customer experience discreetly and objectively, without causing discomfort or suspicion among employees. The goal of our service is to support businesses in identifying areas for improvement and implementing positive changes for continuous development.

Silent Customer specialises in providing qualitative feedback to our clients. Our carefully selected and trained mystery shoppers focus on delivering detailed and insightful observations based on their experiences at various establishments. Through qualitative assessments, we offer comprehensive insights into the customer experience, service quality, staff interactions, and other critical aspects of business operations. Our goal is to provide valuable and actionable feedback that highlights specific strengths and areas for improvement. We prioritise the qualitative approach as it allows for a more personalised and in-depth evaluation of your business, enabling you to make strategic and impactful improvements.

Engaging a mystery shopper or mystery diner service can bring several valuable benefits to your business. Mystery shopping and dining provides an unbiased and objective evaluation of your operations from a customer’s perspective, offering insights that may not be apparent through internal assessments. By utilising mystery shoppers or diners, you can identify areas for improvement in service quality, customer experience, staff performance, and overall operations. This feedback can help you make informed decisions to enhance the quality of service, drive customer satisfaction, and ultimately increase customer loyalty and retention.

Contact Us for a Free Consultation

Mystery customers offer an objective perspective on your customer experience, allowing you to uncover blind spots, identify areas for improvement, and ensure consistent service quality across all touchpoints.

Our experienced team analyse the feedback and recommendations provided by our mystery shoppers, allowing you to make data-driven decisions, implement targeted training programs, and enhance overall customer satisfaction, ultimately driving business growth and success.

Contact our Silent Customer team today for more information.

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Free Training Tools

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Intercepting Complaints

Check-backs and complaint handling go hand in hand. Intercepting a problem before a customer tells you, or Google, not only prevents negative word-of-mouth but can increase revenue through loyalty and positive PR.

Use our fun PEP talk sheets to support your front-line teams in learning how to avoid complaints.

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Engaging Conversations

Building a natural and genuine rapport with guests can be the most positive and memorable part of their dining experience. Whilst the food and the environment can be remarkable by itself, making a customer feel that they are more than just a table number, has a far wider reach in terms of spreading positive word-of-mouth.

Use our fun PEP talk sheet to support your front-line teams in learning how to have engaging conversations.

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Positive Body Language

Being able to communicate positivity, and with enthusiasm, encourages customers to reciprocate in the same manner. However, most of us are unaware of how we are perceived by others and, whilst we may think we are coming across as welcoming and friendly, our body language could be telling a different story.

Use our fun PEP talk sheet to support your front-line teams in understand the importance of self-awareness.

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Relevant Recommendations

Team members need good product knowledge to be able to describe and enthuse, but often don’t know what many of the dishes taste like. A lack of upselling is also often due to a lack of confidence in knowing where to start a conversation that leads to a recommendation.

Use our fun PEP talk sheet to support your front-line teams in learning how to upsell.

Download PDF