This week, Brisbane’s Courier Mail came out with an article titled ‘Assessing Restaurant Standards’ which delves into the world of mystery dining.

Mystery dining is done by professional companies who restaurants hire to dine at their restaurant and then score their experiences. Lots of things are rated from service and quality of food to the state of the bathroom. Fine dining restaurants often employ mystery dining companies as they’re typically more cashed and often have hundreds of thousands or millions poured into them so they have a lot to lose if they go under up but smaller cafe’s and restaurants should do the same, even if it’s just asking some friends or acquaintances to report back (though they may not be as brutally honest as a professional company would be who has no personal connection with the restaurant.) Or by reading reviews written about them in the press, dining guides or on peoples blogs.

It’s so important for restaurants to get feedback about the customers dining experience so that they can act on issues straight away before it’s too late and they’re out of business. An article by chef Benjamin Christie states that restaurants established and trading have only a 30% chance of surviving the first 12 months and then less than a 5% chance of surviving 3 years.

Traditional marketing methods for restaurants are also losing their impact. Press ads, radio and TV are not only expensive but people are becoming so bombarded with advertising they’re tuning out. They’re also becoming more cynical of advertising and quickly recognise an advertorial or biased review written by a magazine or newspaper which a restaurant has paid to have an ad in. Word of mouth and publicity is more important than ever for a restaurant. A real, non-biased review will hold more credibility than any paid for advertisement ever will.

So even though complaints from customers, negative feedback from a mystery diner or a bad review can hurt the feelings of a restaurateur, it’ll hurt a lot less than having to close and never realising what went wrong.

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