Secret customer is a traditional method to discover your business. This old but gold way is still in use. Why? – because this is the way you can see your business through the eyes of customers. If you have a business in the hospitality industry, this is the first method you must try! The secret customer method was once very common in clothing and hotel businesses. However, it later became popular in other industries as well. Nowadays, it’s getting popular in Cafes, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, pubs, and nightclubs.
For success, we need to evaluate the product we sell. But what if we provide a service rather than a physical product? Cafes, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, pubs, nightclubs, and hotels are in labour-intensive industries (hospitality). These businesses sell smiling faces and warm conversation in addition to a room, a glass of cocktail, or a main course. In fact, this is a strategy used to gain a competitive advantage.
As a business owner, you can check every single plate going from the kitchen to the customer’s table. Or you can also check all rooms before their customer check-in. However, you can not stay next to the waiter or a bellboy while they are serving the product. This is exactly where you need the secret customer method.
We can say that the secret customer is feedback. Other feedback methods are available, like surveys and Google + social media reviews. Surveys can be biased, exhausting and costly. One more thing, you will need volunteer customers which is very difficult. Let’s look into online reviews. There are good news and bad news. The good news is that there is no cost! The bad news is that all reviews are visible to everyone. Most customers leave online reviews either because they like it very much or because they have experienced something very bad. By the way, they can be biased like surveys too!
Why secret customer? It’s the most effective way to see what you don’t see and know what you don’t know. It is more reliable and convincing than surveys. It is more private than online reviews. You can customise it too. If you want to see your team’s behaviour towards a tough customer – no problem! If you want to see your team’s sales skill towards a passive customer – sure thing! Or you can keep it standard as we do it all ways professionally.
All you need is BSB Management – It’s time to meet with us!