Monday, December 06, 2010

Beware, the mystery shopper!

I took my first assignment very seriously (ahem!) and began my observations the moment I entered the restaurant (hubs as alibi):
How long did the hostess take to attend to me? *checks time*  Did she give us an accurate waiting time? Is the server friendly and attentive to our needs? Must remember to check serving time between the appetizer and entrees. Wait, the server didn't check on us to make sure we are happy with our appetizer *makes a mental note* Takes note of presentation, temperature and taste of food served. Hmm...let me check the cleanliness of the restaurant. Now, where is that manager that I'm supposed to look out for? Oh, I need to make a trip to the toilet too! .....
 Ordinarily, I would have been quite happy to enjoy my meal without the server popping by ever so often with the obligatory "How are you finding everything so far?". However, I was required to take note of the server's attentiveness and couldn't help but notice that he was spending more time checking on our neighboring table than on us. So that was one less point for him! But overall, we were very satisfied with our meals and the highly recommended bread pudding was really yummy! We ended up spending $20 more than what would be reimbursed but it was still a pretty worthwhile meal and a fun experience. I will definitely be keeping an eye for more assignments like this in future! :)

2 comments:

sugarlens said...

haha, you are a tough critic! I wonder if they have anything like this in my area? A free (or cheap) meal is always a plus in my book.

knickknacks said...

I'm sure they do! The safest is to look up organisations to sigh up as a shopper through MSPA. This is to ensure that you don't end up with scams. Have fun! :)