Silent Customer: Ben

"From country pubs to city centre restaurants, and beyond, becoming a Silent Customer has enabled me to enjoy and experience a wide variety of hospitality establishments. Through careful observation, attention to detail and constructive feedback Silent Customers can really shape the way businesses choose their approach to customer service, food quality and style.

The visits are planned in advance and give you the time to research the venue beforehand.

The feedback is through a user friendly online form which is emailed when the visit is arranged and reimbursement is speedy and simple.

The key to being an effective Silent Customer is to take notice, focus less on what is going wrong and more on how to help the business to improve weak areas, fine tune what they already do well ensuring and an even greater standard of service to their customers."

Ben McEwen Director, hotcatUK & General Manager for Lexington Catering

Silent Customer: Sue

"Undertaking a Silent Customer assignment is always exciting, I never know what I am going to encounter. I look at their website before I visit in order to attain a feel for the venue. On arrival, it’s all about awareness, knowing what to look for, remembering the brief and being objective when criticism is called for. It’s obviously impossible to take notes, so I have to commit everything to memory but that’s not difficult if you have studied the brief well. I go online and complete the report as soon as I get home, taking my time and making sure I have been thorough and fair because someone’s business is relying on my feedback".

This independant forum is great if you want to find out more about how mystery shopping/dining works. You can read about other mystery shoppers experiences and ask them questions. The members are mainly US based but most mystery shopping/dining companies work in the same way and you might even bump into some Silent Customers on there. Click on the Mystery Shop Forum logo to sign up.

Janet Wood
The Silent Customer