Florida Restaurant & Lodging: Articles on Mystery Shopping Customer Service: Articles
Satisfaction Services is a leading provider of Quality and Service Evaluation Programs, a concept of mystery shopping. We have changed the philosophy of an industry that has focused on people doing things wrong into a philosophy of rewarding people for doing things right. Secret Shopper Satisfaction Services, Inc. _
_ Mystery shopping customer service _
_
Home _ Clients _ Services _ Shoppers _ Interested Clients _ Franchise and partnerships _ Contact us _ The art of mystery shopping
_
_ Mystery Shop secret Shopper News _ Clients Log In Shopper Evaluations Reports _
Mystery Shoppers Log In
_ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
   
Client Login Client Demo Sales Information F A Q Testimonials

FRL Florida Restaurant Lodging Florida Restaurant & Lodging


People dine where they feel good, and an effective quality and service evaluation program will ensure they feel good with you

Service with a Smile: The Key to Success


In a recent Zagat Survey, 72 percent of the respondent complaints were service-related. That is a staggering number, but not entirely surprising given the current state of customer service.

For years, restaurant and hotel patrons have been disillusioned by declining service at even some of the most exclusive places.
As a result, most customers have simply come to accept bad service as part of the guest experience.

Many restaurant chains and hotel operators pay more attention to promotions and filling seats than ensuring that customers occupying those seats are having a positive experience.

Businesses spend thousands of dollars on marketing and advertising to get customers to come to their places of business, but invest little time or money on understanding what they do to you once you're there. If you can give someone a good experience, you don't have to run an ad every morning to try to get customers in for lunch.

People like to spend money where they feel good, and Houston's is a restaurant that truly understands this concept.

Unfortunately, customers accept lower levels of service because their experience with competitors has not been any better. Customers are thrilled when staff members show the smallest effort in doing a good job. This current state of customer service has created a goldmine for any business that goes even the slightest bit above and beyond what customers expect.

A genuine smile and fairly quick and professional service make a dramatic impression that will result in rave reviews from customers and endless word of mouth referrals.

Knowledge of your customer’s experience is power
If you've been thinking about improving your company's level of service, the rewards will come to your bottom line in several ways:

1) Customer retention and repeat business (10 customers that love your experience and stay with you once per month, spending at least $50 each visit, for the next 10 years means $60,000 to your business);

2) New business gained from word-of-mouth (whenever people have a good experience somewhere, they like to share it with their friends – say the 10 customers above tell 10 people per year – results become exponential.)

Establishing better customer service within your organization is relatively easy and starts with you laundry listing the standards by which you wish to operate. Then communicate these standards to all employees and set up a program by which you can measure and monitor the results. Because some habits take a while to become ingrained, communicating the standards is not enough.

The measuring and monitoring portion is important to be sure the standards become ingrained. People tend to do more of what you inspect than what you expect.

Whether you create a quality and service evaluation program internally or outsource it, there are certain elements that should be included:

  • Recognize and reward employees for what they do right. Recognizing or even rewarding positive behavior makes it happen more often and is a much better approach than looking for things employees are doing wrong.
    Making a big deal over the top performers goes a long way to communicate top-down philosophy for superior service.
  • Build suggestive selling into your program. If your restaurants, bars, and gift shops routinely suggest customers try new products or in-store promotional items, the incremental revenues can be enormous.

    Moving your suggestive selling percentages from eight percent of the time to 98 percent of the time companywide can mean big increases in revenues. Do a quick analysis with your average price for some shocking numbers.
  • Timely data and frequency are key to analyzing the company's performance. If you have a hundred evaluations of the execution of your process you can be pretty sure that the resulting trend analysis has accuracy.

Shopping your properties frequently will ensure accurate information that will provide the actionable data to make decisions with confidence.. Be sure to use different shoppers all the time to ensure accurate results.

Timely information is important. Quickly email evaluations to managers and employees so the experience is still top-of-mind and the evaluation makes more sense to your employee and so that your manager is aware of any problem areas sooner.

A good aggregate backup reporting system is essential too so that you can look at the company's overall averages for various time periods to monitor progress and even drill down to specific locations and even specific employees performance over time.

Measuring and monitoring performance and the delivery of service is not a new concept. Doing it right and consistently can mean a much bigger bottom line.

Mike Albert is the founder and CEO of Satisfaction Services, Inc., a leading provider of quality and service evaluation programs and an FRLA member
.

HOME MYSTERY SHOPPING BY SATISFACTION SERVICES

 

Mystery Shopping Shopper contact

Some of the Services we offer as a leading Mystery Shopping Company:
Mystery Diners -IVR - Instant Voice Response - Telephone Surveys - Guest Surveys - Exit Surveys - Comment Cards and programs - Guest Service Checks - Secret Shopper Programs

We Look forward to talking with you about improving and monitoring customer service in your restaurants : Satisfaction Services, Inc. ® 1-800-564-6574

   
   


       
_ _ _
Satisfaction Services Inc., Focusing on the formula for success in your business.
©2007 Satisfaction Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact Us : Terms & Conditions : Privacy : Home