Restaurant Marketing Research Using Mystery Diners

Copyright (c) 2011 Baz Rothwell

When it comes to finding out how your venue stacks up against the opposition nearby a mystery diner is your best bet. By using a mystery shopper, you will get an unbiased view from a customer perspective.

If a customer has a complaint, he will not tell you what your venue does well. So the benefit of using a mystery shopper is clear, they will let you know what they like and what they don't like. You will also receive a analytical view, in other words, a customer making a complaint, will be emotionally involved which leads to an exaggerated response.

Knowing this information, both the good and bad things will help you with your restaurant strategy.

Let's take it from the top and look at how a customer reacts in a typical example. What does a customer want when he walks through the door?

Well, he's probably hungry (unless it's feeding time, and he's just going through the motions) so he wants timely service. He wants to be noticed and looked after. He wants to be relatively comfortable. He expects cleanliness. He needs good service, to show he's valued. He wants his food at the right temperature. He wants the meal he orders to be value for money.

Start off on the wrong foot and your customer is on the lookout for anything that will compound his negative view. For example, if, when he enters your restaurant, he expects to be greeted and seated, but isn't, then he will be edgy. In his mind he will be on red alert for other 'problems'. Even if your waiter/waitress greets him pleasantly, he will still be on 'high alert mode'. Hopefully, if everything goes smoothly, he will leave in an OK frame of mind. However, there are still 3 problems with this.

1) You didn't know there was a problem to start with, so you would not be able to put it right. 2) Next time he wants to visit your establishment, the issue is going to pop in his head. Now, he may still enter your venue, or he may turn away and go elsewhere. 3) There is also the possibility, the 'incident' (which is what it could be in his mind) comes up in conversation, therefore giving you negative word of mouth.

Bear in mind, we are all human beings, we have our feelings and expectations. We are also quite fickle, everyone has little things they hate. You have, I have and your customers' have.

It is your business to make the dining experience of your customers run as smoothly and enjoyably as possible.

So use a mystery dining specialist, so they can pinpoint those irritating little details, so that you can iron them out. They will also identify what you are doing well, giving you an opportunity to praise your hard working staff. So go ahead and take some action, so that you can improve your service levels. Your customers deserve it.


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You must have restaurant marketing strategy to plan your restaurants growth. For a free 5 part e-course of marketing strategies go to http://bit.ly/dSra0k
For a typical mystery shopper questionnaire for your restaurant business contact Baz through http://restaurantmarketingguy.com or email him