Scams to Watch Out For

Regrettably, thieves will attempt to turn every type of legitimate business into a scam, and mystery shopping is not immune. The Federal Trade Commission has a great write-up on what red flags to look out for. Historically, the most common mystery shopping scam was the one that convinced victims that they had to…
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Keeping an Eye on Your Competition with Competitive Mystery Shopping

As we’ve discussed in earlier posts, self-scouting is hugely important to identifying your business’s strengths and weaknesses.  Without a doubt, that’s the baseline, foundational exercise every business owner should engage in regularly.  But there’s another critical dimension you can investigate, which will provide you with something just as important: context.…
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Connecting with Millennials

There is an abundance of articles that describe millennials as being self-entitled, coddled, and possessing little-to-no social skills.  We’ve all heard stories about young twenty-something hipsters who spend more time photographing their meals than actually enjoying them.  The truth is, sweeping generalizations, especially negatives ones like these, serve no one,…
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The Biggest Reason Secret Shoppers Can Benefit You

As Coach Vince Lombardi said, “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing.  You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time.  Winning is a habit.” In order to enjoy long-term…
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How to Earn Bigger Tips

As Tim Kirkland observes in The Renegade Server, if you ask most servers how to make better tips, they’ll tell you things like, “Be friendly”, “Make sure the order is right and fast”, “Keep the beverages full”, and say, “Thank you.” These are all great, but they’re the kinds of things…
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