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Grow your business through employee training, improving company communication and morale and inspect what you expect through mystery shopping reviews.

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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5 Signs Your Customer Service is Failing

Failing customer service is a death knell for any business — there’s no surer guarantee of decline.  Spotting those early signs is critical, and it’s not always as obvious as seeing bad reviews on Facebook or Yelp. Employee Satisfaction If your employees are unhappy, your customers will be too.  Employee…
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4 Ways to Grow Your Business Through Staff Development

If customers are the lifeblood of your business, your employees are the muscles that power it.  You know the work doesn’t get done without your employees’ boots on the ground, and giving them the tools to do that work will not only ensure their success but also their job satisfaction.…
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When Customers Complain

Customer complaints are an unavoidable challenge for any business to confront, but knowing how to deal with them can do more than save sales—they also build customer loyalty.  In that vein, 7 Steps for Dealing with Angry Customers (Forbes, 2013) has some key customer service tips, including the core tenets like, “Actively…
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Monitor Your Employee Customer Service

Customer service is the lifeblood of every business and is something that will make or break any company long term.  But putting signs in the break room that emphasize how important the customer is can only accomplish so much.  Even a rigorous initial training program for your employees can break down…
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3 Ways to Use Telephone Mystery Shops for Your Business

Most would say that phone conversation is a dying art — text messages and social media have reduced it to a fraction of what it once was.  But having a staff that can still sell and drive business to your location over the phone is as critical now as it…
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Building Customer Loyalty Through Customer Satisfaction Surveys

If there’s one key lesson a mystery shopping company can teach a business, it’s that customer loyalty isn’t something you earn once — it’s something you earn again and again, every day.  And knowing what your customers think about your business isn’t simply a luxury; it’s a necessity to make…
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5 Benefits of Working with a Mystery Shopping Company

Let’s face it, it’s impossible to judge just how effective your business performance is doing without an independent set of eyes.  Most employees and managers are just too caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of doing their jobs to see the big picture accurately.  And there’s not enough time in…
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Fake Checks From Mystery Shopping Companies

There is currently a scam circulating where people looking for mystery shopping jobs are receiving checks and then being asked to wire money to other mystery shoppers. Be aware this is a fraudulent attempt to pray on those looking for mystery shopping jobs. We recommend doing a little research on…
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The Ultimate Question

For most restaurants, this is the time of the month where managers and owners are reviewing their profit and loss statements for January.  A “P&L” is an essential tool in running any successful restaurant.  Revenue and expenses are calculated to determine the success or failure for the preceding month’s activity. …
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Turn Waitstaff Training into Sales Strategies

By Pencom International Sell more appetizers. Sell more premium drinks. Don’t forget about desserts. Did you charge for that side of sour cream? The average profit on the dollar for restaurants is less than a nickel, so every successful restaurant manager knows how hard it is to make this business…
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A New Year … Not So Fast!

The beginning of a New Year is always an opportunity to question ourselves as to what went well last year and what improvements or changes are needed. By now, new budgets have been developed. Maybe even Strategic Planning has taken place. You’ve analyzed the strengths of the restaurant and perhaps…
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