NU 6 by EV, Mystery Shopper

Introduction:

My idea started when I was in the US. Each restaurant is always striving to do their best to attract customers. The food industry is very fierce. Quality food and service is the key in getting business.

Situation:

In the Philippines, most of the time, there is no quality in the food and service served in restaurants and fast food. Sometimes, Filipinos don't care of quality food or service.

Great restaurants and fast food know the secret in attracting customers. It is by keeping the place clean, serving hot food and delivering on time.      

Problem:

To address food quality and service to all restaurant and fast food

Analysis:

The idea is not new but it is not implemented to a lot of areas. The information also is not available to public. In the US, they call this secret shopper. The objective of the secret shopper is to provide impartial feed backs of places they visit.

How will this affect quality of food? Restaurants rely on customer feedback to improve their service and food. It is their way of improving food quality. They can decide if they will serve other food type and provide better service to all their customers.   

This type of business will push all restaurants and fast food to better quality food and service. It will not only help the customers but help the nation in driving quality in everything.

Decision:

To implement this, there are a couple of items needed to accomplish. First is the mission and vision of the company. It has to be clear and concise to everyone why are they doing this. This will be the main driving force for the employees to buy in to the idea.

Second is the process. The process will crucial, specially, if you are trying to rate the establishment. It should be simple enough for the front line employee. Shown below is the process in providing feedback.

1.    As the secret shopper enters the establishment, they will start taking notes and rate them accordingly.

2.    They will start ordering the usual items or specialties of the store.

3.    The secret shopper will start rating in how the order was taken.

4.    In their service, the shopper will time the delivery of the product according to the promise it gave.

5.    When the product is delivered, rate the product according to their promise to their customers.

6.    The shopper can also rate various sections such as restrooms, table cleanliness and atmosphere. 

After gathering all the info from the target store, it is sent to the HQ of the establishment and published in the web for the public to see.

Third portion is the tools needed. A simple website that is easy to view. It can be published through social media such as facebook and twitter. These kinds of info what the customer looks to decide on their next spending.   

Execution:

The bulk of the operations come from the front line secret shopper. They should be impartial and educated individuals trained for these types of work.

Second is the systems operation. It would compose of internal systems such as email and external systems such as company web site.  

Capital is very minimal. IT operation of the company is another minimal cost. In my estimate, it would start below Php 1M. It would still qualify as a small business.

To sustainability, there are a couple of ways to do it. Sponsorships in the company website can be a source of income. There is an increase in internet advertising due the massive growth of users accessing the internet. Another source is paid subscription of companies would like to improve. Since there is a drive to provide good quality food and services, companies resort to this because customer feedback is not thorough. Unlike this method, secret shopper is impartial and has a complete list of items important to the inquiring company.

Conclusion:

Good food and service is the aim of this cause. We should demand more for our hard earned money. It will also drive restaurants and fast food in providing quality to the customers.

If this is successful, the secret shopper can extend its service to other industries that provide products and services. Samples of other industries are supermarkets, clothing stores, hotels and service stations.

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