Category: Mystery Shopping

Has your management team considered new ways to motivate employees during performance reviews?  A recent article on best practices for employee performance reviews contains suggestions for delivering more rewarding employee reviews.

Back in the 1980’s, one of our early mystery shopping clients was a McDonald’s franchisee. When our CEO, Elaine Buxton, met with him to discuss our quality review process, she explained that all reports would reflect the utmost professional language. She gave the example stating the review team would change a phrase like “She took her sweet time” to something more professional sounding, such as  “She was slow in approaching the drive up window.”  That wise client taught us an early and valuable lesson: don’t change the tone of what the shopper communicates in verbatim comments. As he so aptly put it, “I can picture exactly what happened when I read “she took her sweet time”, so keep those types of comments in, please. We learned a lot from that client, including how to guide a quality review team  to strike a balance between flavor and tone, content and quality. 

As 2010 came to a close, Elaine Buxton completed her term as President of the Mystery Shopping Providers’ Association (MSPA), North America.    Elaine has been involved with MSPA since its beginning in 1998. Confero was a charter member of the organization.

Nations Restaurant News recently reported in the article, "Restaurants put Marketing Muscle behind Kids' menus," that families are returning to restaurants.  This is good news for restaurants that focus on attracting the family dining segment. Whether they use an e-mail blast, radio ads, table tents or a combination of communication methods, restaurants benefit from a family strategy that allows them to bring in more customers and deliver a dining experience that encourages families to return.