Quality Assurance through Mystery Shopping
“A high percentage of guests take a look at the review rating of a hotel before making a booking. A single negative online review can result in thirty lost bookings for your hotel.” (by Procell InSite)
Did you know that all international hotel chains conduct quarterly mystery shopping audits in ALL of their hotels worldwide? This is absolutely necessary, because they know how damaging and costly a negative online review can be! They take this matter so seriously that they have dedicated staff assigned to monitor and address guests’ feedback on social media outlets. They do not just sit on any negative feedback, if any, but they do take swift actions to rectify a situation so as to minimize any negative effect on their bottom line. One way to avoid this and detect weaknesses in the operation is to see the operation from the eyes of a guest, the MYSTERY SHOPPER.
It has been long established that Quality Audits, as Mystery Shopping is commonly called, is a very useful tool to assess the guest experience and effectively detect weak spots and identify areas for improvement, opening the opportunity to enhance the service quality and consistency of your hotel and restaurant operation, and ultimately improving guest experience, bottom-line and brand image.
This is a process of collecting a wide range of comprehensive data across several touchpoints listed below during the evaluation to gain insights into the guest journey. This holistic view and qualitative insights, a context beyond numerical ratings, allow for a meaningful analysis, actionable insights and targeted improvements.
The job of a Mystery Shopper may look fun and perhaps glamorous from the outside, but in reality, a shopper starts deep in his work throughout his 2 – 3 days stay, right from making the reservation, through check-in and perhaps even after check-out. Depending on the size of the hotel, particularly the number and types of food and beverage outlets and leisure facilities among others, between 300 to 500 criteria have to be checked within his stay. He also records pictures, specific observations, interactions and memorable moments.
To measure your hotel’s performance, it needs established standard criteria. The big hotel chains have of course for every brand its own set of criteria that needs to be checked. Only few privately-operated hotels have those. In its absence we take as basis for evaluation internationally established brand criteria for a certain “star-category”, such as 3-star or 4-star hotels and modify them in collaboration with the owners or management to the particular situation of the hotel.
Generally, these are the touchpoints during his stay in the hotel:
- Reservations over the phone, checking the flow of given information and attempts to upsell;
- Review of website, checking the functionality and maneuverability is a special field that we usually outsource to specialized hotel marketing companies;
- Check-in/check-out/cashiering at the front desk/concierge functions: efficiency and smoothness in the flow of the process, speed of resolving issues, etc.;
- Cleanliness, ambiance and comfort of the guest rooms and its bathrooms including its bed and bath linens and of the common areas such as entrance, lobby, reception, toilets, food and beverage outlets, business center, fitness center, pool, spa, stores and other facilities that may be there;
- Amenities: quality and stock of supplies available such as toiletries, towels, etc.;
- Food and beverage: menu options, pricing, quality of food and beverages and its presentation, staff attitude, speed, quality of service and the “odd” special request;
- Staff’s guest interaction skills: courtesy, warmth, responsiveness; how well guests’ inquiries and concerns are addressed, and how issues such as room temperature and noise are handled;
- Employee performance: observance of standard operating procedures, other metrics such as guest satisfaction, response time and service quality;
- Maintenance: issues such as broken fixtures, faulty appliances, visible cracks on the wall, etc.;
- Guests’ feedback: analyze from online reviews, guest surveys and feedback cards while looking out for any recurring themes or specific pain points mentioned by guests.
It must be understood that the mystery audit is a snapshot of the moment that could have been handled differently by another staff at another time. In most cases however, the reasons for shortfalls are either a lack or a non-compliance with established policies and procedures that are recorded and need to be addressed.
Mystery shopping will not achieve measurable results as a single tool, but is a valuable part of a holistic method of training to maintain and improve service and quality consistency.
Throughout his stay, the Mystery Shopper remains anonymous until check-out, when he identifies himself to the Front Office or higher manager, his charges will be reversed and he will leave without the results of his audit to be discussed.
The successful passing of a mystery shopping audit requires to achieve a certain number of points. Falling below this number triggers a follow-up audit and a second failure to reach required minimum points may result in more drastic measures for the GM.
The Mystery Shopping Audit ends with a comprehensive report to the Owners or Corporate Management for review and development of an action plan for rectification, such as individual or group trainings, revisions of policies and procedures, etc. The Mystery Shopper may be invited by his clients for further discussions and course of action, described in the second step.
Optionally, GHS may recommend guidelines for lasting improvement. This includes qualitative interviews with your management and staff. In this case, GHS inspectors may stay between 3-4 days instead of rushing through a hectic 2-day audit. We also take our time for detailed discussions with the department heads, management and owners to ensure a lasting improvement.
In most international chains, the results of the mystery shopping reports are also tied to the performance bonus of the GM and Department Heads, along with other criteria, such as the achievements of key performance indicators (KPI’s).