Preferred Feedback Blog

When you ask people to give you feedback on their impression of your business, they know that you care about what they think and that you care about guest satisfaction in general. You are letting them know that you are open to criticism and they naturally assume they can make a positive difference due to the feedback they provide. If someone takes the time to provide you feedback, they naturally develop a sense of ownership in the success of your business. You are making a strong connection with your customers and creating loyalty with this type of relationship.

Preferred Feedback takes this a step further to ensure a high level of participation for your business. We invite every household in your community or trade area to visit you as a mystery shopper with the promise that they will receive a gift voucher in return (good for free product and services from your business). They make their initial visit as a regular customer and complete and return a brief survey (either by mail or online). We receive and process their survey and quickly send them the promised gift voucher (similar to a gift certificate). The Preferred Feedback program resonates with the consumer so well that a very high percentage of people will participate.

Now you’re ensured to get them back a second time. They are a vested participant…they have earned their gift voucher and they will use it! When they visit you on this second visit, you know that they were a mystery shopper for you…they have a gift voucher in hand. This gives you the opportunity to strengthen the bond with this guest by making sure to coach your team to thank them for being a mystery shopper. Also coach your team to go out of their way to ensure this second visit is a very positive experience and you keep them coming back again and again.

PREFERRED POINTER

• Let your mystery shopper’s know how much you appreciate them. Coach your team to recognize and thank them… treat them as a VIP! After all, they are one!
• Coach your team to go out of their way to make sure their second visit is a very positive one and you keep them coming back again and again.
• Hand a “Thank You” card out to each person that redeems a gift voucher. This practice/policy will help ensure that your mystery shoppers are recognized. We can help you design the perfect thank you card. Just shoot us an email or give us a call and we will be glad to go to work on it.

It’s all about attitude. I choose to be thankful for a person that let’s me know about a negative situation they encountered at my business. This person is letting me know that they want to do business with me… maybe not under the conditions they experienced… but they want to do business with me and they are giving me the opportunity to address something that needs to be addressed. Statistics suggest that only approximately 1 in 20 people will actually complain about a negative experience. The person that is alerting me to a negative situation is helping us improve the guest experience for not only them but several other customers that may be experiencing the same situation.

Most people are somewhat surprised when their first Preferred Feedback mystery shopper results start coming in. It can be hard to look at criticism even when we have invited it. However, our attitude about the results and how we react to them will make all the difference in the positive impact you can make on your business. This is real feedback from real people and the results are an accurate portrayal of their perception of your business. Believe it! If you do and react accordingly, you will be on your way to better operations that impact all guests and the increased sales that will follow!

PREFERRED POINTER:

• Make sure any report you generate represents a minimum of 30 surveys.
• Use the negative response report to measure your operational effectiveness. Any question that lands in the “red zone” on a negative response graph report needs further investigation. If you look closer you will likely find the source.
• Look closer by running a query on a question in the red zone. Select to view a report using only the negative responses. You can view those specific surveys to learn more. You can also view an overall breakdown report that may narrow down the negative responses to a time of day, whether it was a drive-thru or  a dine in issue, etc..

We at Preferred Feedback take great pride in our ability to effectively introduce people to businesses. We are going to invite every home in your entire community (or trade area) to visit your business as a mystery shopper and a very large number of people are going to take us up on the offer! You won’t know who they are since they will be visiting you as a regular paying customer but, trust me, they will be there… every day! Are you ready?

I remember when I was a kid and my Mom would announce that company was coming. All of a sudden there was a buzz of excitement in the air at the prospect of seeing old friends or meeting new ones. Mom was very good at getting everyone shifted into a different gear as we prepared for our guests. We started vacuuming, dusting, changing the linens, cleaning the bathrooms, mowing the lawn and doing anything else that needed to be done to get ready. My mom was a great cook but, as she started planning the meal(s), I knew that the best of the best that Mom had to offer was in my future! Mom didn’t know it at the time but she was preparing me for a life long career in the food service industry. These were great lessons that I lived by as I got ready for my guests each and every day.

Preferred Feedback is ready to invite everyone to your place and company’s coming very soon! Not only is company coming, they are going to give you feedback on their perception of you as a host. Sound a little intimidating? Not to worry because you will be ready, right? Besides, the people visiting you are there to help by giving you feedback and, regardless of their first experience, our program will bring them back a second time. And you will know who they are on that second visit! You will have the opportunity to thank them and make sure that second visit is a very positive experience and you keep them coming back again and again.

Have fun making new friends!

“Hey I’m one of your mystery shoppers!”.

This is likely what you’ll hear on the street once you begin the Preferred Feedback mystery shopper program. I’m happy to say that I’ve been hearing it for years. Mystery shoppers take some ownership in the success of your business and take pride in the fact that they have helped you with your mission of providing top notch customer service. My natural response is “Thank you. I really appreciate your help!” I can then go on to let them know how seriously we take the feedback and how we reward employees for a job well done.

Are you aware of any other marketing program that creates this type of connection with your guests? One of the best types of marketing is marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing. You are asking people for their feedback and at the same time introduce them to your product and services. People are happy to be rewarded with a gift voucher and you get to see them in your business again when they use their gift voucher. People are more than happy to connect with you in this way, you are building your business, and just the nature of our program goes a long way to creating loyalty with mystery shoppers and all of your guests for that matter. Have fun building your business and making new friends!

PREFERRED POINTER

Make sure you offer a sincere thanks to people who let you know that they have been a mystery shopper for your business. This is your opportunity to strengthen the bond with this guest. In the unlikely event that they share a negative experience… embrace it. Offer an equally sincere appreciation to them for letting you know about something that may be negatively impacting many guests. You can reassure them, that if their experience was noted in their survey, it would have been addressed but you will follow up just the same. Even though their first mystery shopper experience may not have been positive (hopefully their second visit was), your positive reaction to their comments will more than likely bring them back.

There is a direct correlation between your operations and how people feel about your prices and the value they received. When Preferred Feedback compares the results of restaurants within the same brand, the restaurants with the highest guest satisfaction scores get very good ratings on both price and value. As a matter of fact, price and value fall well into the “green zone” (safe zone). Restaurants, from the same brand, with the lowest guest satisfaction scores get very poor ratings on both price and value and fall deep into the “red zone” (caution area).

Our experience… We had a restaurant that had a low guest satisfaction score (a little below 90%). The price and value ratings were very poor. A year and a half later, with new leadership, we had a guest satisfaction score above our minimum target of 94%. Our price and value ratings improved significantly and had moved into the green zone (safe zone). It just so happens that we had to implement a price increase within that year and a half period also.

The same restaurant…

higher prices…

better operations…

         … Price/value ratings moved from poor to very good!

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• You do not need to lower prices to improve your customer’s impression of your prices. Listen to what your customers are saying about their impression of your operation and focus on moving anything in the red zone to the green zone. You should see a significant improvement in the way your guests feel about your prices and the value they received.
• Need to implement a price increase? Make sure your operations are in line and you should be able to minimize any price resistance that you may encounter.
• Even if you are in a situation where customers are a bit price sensitive and your price ratings aren’t where you would like them, your good operations will cause those same guests to feel “Prices may be a bit high but I feel I received a good value!”.

It seems that our natural tendency, after discovering a problem area in our business, is to want to address the problem with our entire team versus identifying and going directly to the source. However, if you can get to the root of the problem and address this directly it will save you and your team a lot of time and frustration. Preferred Feedback was designed to not only identify a problem area but help you get to the bottom of it.

The Director of Operations of our Taco John’s restaurants shared the following experience…

In the Taco John’s world, Potato Olés are a very popular product. So much so that two of our 18 survey questions are Potato Olés related. One of those questions is “Were your Potato Olés hot, crispy and golden brown?”. One of our restaurants was getting a very high number of “No” responses to this question. As a matter of fact over 15% of our guests were not happy with their Potato Olés. After discovering this, the restaurant GM immediately scheduled a store meeting to address it. Every employee was required to watch the training video again and it became a topic of discussion everyday in the restaurant.

A month later, the problem still existed. The GM was frustrated and visited with all employees again. The Director of Operations followed up and he and the GM checked fryer temps, oil quality and oil handling procedures all of which checked out. It wasn’t until then that our Director of Operations remembered that he could query mystery shopper results. He logged into his Preferred Feedback account and generated a report for that two month period. He simply clicked on “edit” and ran a query asking to see reports using only surveys from people who had a negative response to the Potato Olés question. When he looked at the Overall Breakdown Report, he found the answer very quickly. Almost all of the negative experiences had taken place at night. It turned out that we had a night supervisor with an attitude problem. He worked most of his time on the production line, he did not take the coaching and training seriously and was stuck in his old bad habits. As in many situations like this, we basically had one person that was negatively impacting a large number of our guests. By addressing this situation with the one individual we were able to fix our Potato Olés dilemma.

PREFERRED POINTER: Preferred Feedback will help identify operational opportunities for you. Don’t forget to run a query on any question that is of concern. You may find the answer to your problem very quickly.

The direct mail marketing aspects of Preferred Feedback and the significant rates of return have always been an undeniable success. When direct mail nets about a 1-2% rate of return nationally, Preferred Feedback nets a 6-10% rate of return for most of our clients. Preferred Feedback has always been extremely effective in its present form and direct mail will continue to be a primary means to drive transactions to your business. But things just got even better!

Mystery shoppers now have the ability to participate online using their computer or mobile device! Preferred Feedback has always been very successful at attracting people to be mystery shoppers through direct mail and asking them to fill out a hard copy survey. Now mystery shoppers can participate online and we have the ability to market our program to the masses through social media, email, and other venues as well as direct mail. We will be reaching a whole new demographic who would never dream of filling out a paper survey and placing it in the mail… and our rates of return will grow exponentially.

Preferred Feedback continues to evolve with our continued focus on making this a WIN, WIN, WIN for all who participate.

• Your business benefits as we drive transactions and provide feedback so that you can continually monitor and improve operations.
• Mystery Shoppers appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback about your operation and be rewarded with a gift voucher good for free product and services.
• Your employees appreciate the opportunity to be rewarded for a job well done through an employee incentive program aimed at guest satisfaction.

As always, we will be introducing people to your business. Have fun making new friends!

You generated a report, you looked at the results, and you see a couple of areas in the red zone (caution area). Now what?

Preferred Feedback was designed to identify operational opportunities AND help you get to the root of any problem area. All you have to do is run a query on any area of concern. It is very easy! First select any timeline and generate a report. Take a look at the negative response report for the selected timeline. Is there a question in the red zone? If so run a query on that question to help you get to the root of the problem.

For Example… “Portion Size” is in the red zone. Click on edit report and scroll to the portion size question. Select the boxes next to “fair” and “poor”. Click on generate report. New reports are generated using only the surveys of guests that selected “fair” or “poor” on portion size. Click on view surveys. You will see only the surveys from people who were not happy with the portion size. Read the comments from these guests to learn more.

PREFERRED POINTER: Always remember that the answers to your questions are probably at your fingertips. Once you’ve identified an opportunity using the Preferred Feedback system, query the problem area and see what your guests are telling you. You may find that you can take a focused approached to solving the problem.

Preferred Feedback gives you an extremely effective way to identify operational opportunities and get to the root of a problem area. Below are a few examples of how we were able to use Preferred Feedback to correct some shortcomings…

PROBLEM: 15% negative rating on Friendliness of Employees:

• We queried the report by selecting “edit” and went to the “friendliness of employees” question. We selected “fair” and “poor” and generated a new report. We now have easy access to only the surveys from people that were disappointed with the service. We took a look at the receipts associated with each survey and found that the name of the same server appeared on most of the receipts! There was one individual that was negatively impacting 15% of the guests!

PROBLEM: 18% negative rating on “Cleanliness of Dining Room or Drive-Thru Lane”.

• Ran two queries on this report. A new report was generated by selecting “drive-thru” and the other selecting “dine in”. We were able to determine that most of the negative ratings came from people using the drive-thru service. We focused on the guest experience in the drive-thru to fix the problem.

PROBLEM: 16% negative rating on “Was your order complete?”

• We ran a query selecting “No” on the question. We read the comments on the surveys generated and found that 67% of the negative responses were due to the guests not receiving a cup of dressing for their salad. The other 33% of the negative responses were due to customers not receiving requested sauces. We focused on ensuring that each salad received a dressing and requested sauces were included with each order. Problem fixed!

PROBLEM: 15% negative rating on our fried product.

• We generated a report using surveys of only people that had given this area a negative rating. We took a look at the “Overall Breakdown Report” and noticed that most of the negative ratings had been given between the hours of 5:00 – 8:00 PM. We discovered we had an evening supervisor with an attitude problem. Once we addressed our findings with this individual, the problem went away.

PREFERRED POINTER:

In a lot of cases, problem areas are not the result of the actions of several but rather only one or two individuals that have had a negative impact on a large percentage of your guests. Use the Preferred Feedback system to help you get to the root of the problem area before you have yet another crew training session that uses up a lot of valuable resources including your and your team’s time. You will be much more effective, and save yourself and your crew a lot of frustration, if you can identify the source and focus on that.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions on generating or running a query on reports. You have a powerful tool at your fingertips and we want you to be in a position to realize all of the many benefits!

Happy New Year! Here’s wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

What is the best way to increase sales in 2019?

• Implement a measurable marketing program that drives many people to your business with money in hand! And it’s better yet if that marketing program can bring those people back at least one more time!
• Ask those customers about their experience when they visited you, listen, and take the appropriate steps to fix any operational deficiencies!
• Reward employees for a job well done based on customer feedback!

Hey, that’s what we do! WEIRD!!

Preferred Feedback will drive transactions and increase sales, provide you with valuable feedback from your customers, and give you the ability to establish an effective employee incentive program based on customer feedback. You will keep customers coming back again and again!

Good luck and best wishes in 2019!