Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! We are grateful for your continued support and help. We would like to welcome Marval Auto Glass in Denver, CO, who will be using our automotive service mystery shopping service to evaluate their customer service and sales for their windshield replacement service. Statesman USA located in Scottsdale AZ is utilizing our onsite mystery shoppers for their real estate property locations. We are pleased to welcome Salons by JC located in several states who will be using us to evaluate telephone, email and onsite customer service and sales for their retail leasing properties. A brand new TomKats restaurant is opening soon in Nashville, TN. We are proud to be adding the new Fin & Pearl to our list of restaurant mystery shops!

Winter Update

December 9, 2016

Winter Update

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! This month we're welcoming The Broken Yolk Cafe, Orange CA to our growing list of restaurant onsite mystery shop evaluations. We are also pleased to welcome Hampton Homes and Oakdale Homes from Farmers Branch Texas who will be using our telephone and video real estate secret shopper program.

 Advanced Feedback is excited to welcome Carnitas' Snack Shack in the San Diego CA area. They will be using our onsite mystery shopping services in order to help with customer service and team evaluations for their restaurants and bar. BASIS Educational Ventures in Scottsdale AZ joined to use our educational onsite secret shopping services for their BASIS Independent Schools in CA, NY and VA.

Welcome New Clients! July, 2016

July, 2016

Welcome New Clients!

Advanced Feedback is pleased to welcome three new real estate clients. Terra Holdings LLC New York, NY using our video real estate mystery shopping service. Rocky Gorge McLean, VA for onsite shops. Dart Properties Sterling Heights, MI for onsite and phone shops. We also have two new restaurant clients! 3lb. Restaurant - San Diego, CA will be having us shop their restaurants and bars at Brothers Provision, The Barrel Room and Urge Gastropub onsite. Downtown Dining in Monterey, CA will be utilizing our services for their Rio Grill at the Crossroads Carmel.

Welcome New Clients! May 2016

May 24, 2016

Welcome New Clients!

Advanced Feedback is excited to welcome Lansing Brewing Company in Lansing MI and Hyatt Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara CA. They will be using our onsite mystery shopping services in order to help with customer service and team evaluations for their bars and restaurants. Car Wash Express in Denver CO joined to use our automotive onsite secret shopping services. The Agency in Beverly Hills CA will be using our real estate mystery phone shops for their properties.

Welcome New Clients! April 2016

April 21, 2016

Welcome New Clients!

A welcome to Dickey's Barbecue Pit, evaluating customer service and sales with Advanced Feedback's undercover video shoppers. Juiceland in Austin, TX is utilizing onsite mystery shoppers for their restaurant. Residence Inn Alexandria, Alexandria, VA is evaluating their hotel with both telephone and mystery shopping programs. Century Homebuilders Group, Doral, FL will be using our real estate secret shopping services in South Florida.

Winter Update! March, 2016

March, 2016

Winter Update!

Advanced Feedback welcomes Crown Plaza Charlotte, Charlotte NC and Residence Inn Alexandria Old Town South at Carlyle in VA, both conducting hospitality mystery shopping. We are also pleased to welcome Blue Ocean Robata, Blue Smoke Sushi, and Love Boat Sushi locations in San Diego, CA using our restaurant secret shopper program. And a welcome to Procter & Gamble's Mr. Clean Car wash locations in Georgia and Texas using our mystery shopping services.

McDonald Automotive Group Renews and Expands Telephone Mystery Shopping Service With Advanced Feedback

Client renews their mystery shopping services with the San Diego based mystery shopping company -- Advanced Feedback, Inc.

SAN DIEGO, CA, June 25, 2013 – Advanced Feedback, Inc. welcomes back McDonald Automotive Group. Originally signed in 2002, the mystery shopping firm previously conducted phone mystery shops for their Colorado dealership locations until 2008. Since returning they have now added their parts departments.

The dealerships rely on phone mystery shops to monitor each service and parts agent's customer service skills. Mystery shoppers pose as potential customers and call inquiring about a series of problems, purchasing parts, rates and availability. Agents are scored based on a number of criteria from phone handling to appointment setting.

"Our clients rely on our mystery shopping programs to gauge agent performance and the first impressions of their potential customers in order to help turn real calls into real customers." stated Kurt Adams, Account Director of Advanced Feedback.

On a daily basis, Advanced Feedback provides immediate results to McDonald Automotive Group and many other companies. These results include the agent's individual phone shop report and recorded call; all accessible via online streaming and smart phone apps. This immediate feedback allows for correct training and counsel to take place if needed.  To learn more about telephone mystery shopping visit http://www.advancedfeedback.com/mystery-shopper-phone-training.html.  Or, if you are looking for something short term, they also offer an on demand type of service through their secure online store http://www.advancedfeedback.com/phone-shop-store-2.html.

Welcome Salon Republic!

Advanced Feedback is proud to welcome Salon Republic, to our list of onsite mystery shop evaluations! Salon Republic will be taking advantage of our telephone and onsite mystery shopping services for their salon facilities.

Welcomes Two New California Restaurants

Advanced Feedback is proud to welcome Bestia LA, to our list of restaurant mystery shop evaluations! Bestia LA will be taking advantage of our mystery shopper services. We are also proud to welcome Aloft in Silicon Valley!

Morongo Casino Resort & Spa Extends Mystery Phone Shopping Service to PBX Department

Southern California casino expands telephone mystery shopping services to their PBX department in order to further enhance the customer experience for their front lines.

SAN DIEGO, CA, May 17, 2013 – Advanced Feedback, Inc. a San Diego based mystery shopping company that provides video, onsite and telephone skills evaluations nationally and in neighboring Canada and Mexico. Welcomed the addition of another Morongo Casino Resort & Spa department this year. The mystery shopping firm has been working with the Cabazon, CA casino since 2012.

Account Manager, Geoff Gladu of Advanced Feedback said, "We are very pleased with this new expansion and owe it all to Matt Huber their Revenue & Reservations Manager. We have been working closely with Matt throughout his career since 2006 mostly providing reservation and PBX department services.” He also commented “We look forward to providing Connie Aragon (PBX Manager) the same high quality of service and support both today and in the future."

The casinos Reservation and PBX departments rely on telephone mystery shops to monitor each operator’s customer service telephone skills. Mystery shoppers pose as potential customers and call inquiring about such things as rates, availability, special events, gaming, amenities, services, specials and much more. Telephone attendants are scored based on a number of criteria, such as rapport building, determining needs, building value, appointment / reservation offers, overcoming resistance, friendliness, helpfulness and professionalism.

Advanced Feedback provides next business day and even same day reporting to Morongo Casino Resort & Spa. These results include the agent's individual phone shop report and recorded call; all accessible via online streaming and smart phone apps. This immediate feedback allows for encouragement, corrective training and counsel to take place if needed.

To learn more about telephone mystery shopping visit  http://advancedfeedback.com/services-mystery-shopping-company.html

Contractors State License Schools Renews Telephone Mystery Shopping Service With Advanced Feedback

Client renews their mystery shopping services with the San Diego based mystery shopping company -- Advanced Feedback, Inc.

SAN DIEGO, CA, May 16, 2013 – Advanced Feedback, Inc. welcomes back Contractors State License Schools. Originally signed in 2002, the mystery shopping firm previously conducted phone shops for their California State wide locations until 2011.

The campuses rely on phone shops to monitor each sales agent's customer service skills. Mystery shoppers pose as potential students and call inquiring about classes, rates and availability. Agents are scored based on a number of criteria, such as friendliness, helpfulness, positivity, qualification, building rapport, building value, enrollment / appointment offers, overcoming objections and/or fears.

Linda Tran, Account Administrator of Advanced Feedback states, "In today’s economy, many businesses rely on mystery shoppers to be their eyes and ears on their employees. Phone shops gauge agent performance and the first impressions of their potential customers."

On a daily basis, Advanced Feedback provides immediate results to Contractors State License Schools and many other companies. These results include the agent's individual phone shop report and recorded call; all accessible via online streaming and smart phone apps. This immediate feedback allows for correct training and counsel to take place if needed.  To learn more about telephone mystery shopping visit http://www.advancedfeedback.com/mystery-shopper-phone-training.html

Advanced Feedback - Mystery Shopping Company - Telephone Skills Training and Monitoring

Advanced Feedback, Mystery Shopping in Mexico

Advanced Feedback is proud to extend their mystery shopping services to clients in Mexico.

(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - SAN DIEGO, CA, Feb 19, 2009) – While domestic businesses have long used mystery shopping to measure and improve sales and service efforts, a growing number of international businesses are starting to use U.S.-based mystery shopping companies to test their foreign sales and service.

In 2008 Advanced Feedback Inc. was contracted to provide telephone and onsite mystery shopping services at various resort and real estate developments throughout Mexico. International developers and property managers often use a combination of both in-house and out-sourced sales and service personnel presenting a challenge of both distance and diversity. Lacking employee measurement and customer feedback, our clients turned to Advanced Feedback for a standardized and in-depth secret shopper program, says Geoff Gladu, Account Manager for Advanced Feedback.

New Mystery Shopping Video Services

Advanced Feedback is pleased to announce the launch of it’s entirely redesigned website at AdvancedFeedback.com. The site has a completely new look and provides users with an overview of all customer experience management tools.

Along with a multitude of varying mystery shopping services, Advanced Feedback is happy to announce our newly designed and reformed video shopping services. Our professional video mystery shopping services provide you with the tools and technology to see exactly what is happening between your employees and your customers. Our services not only provide insight into the experience of a customer, but actual, objective evaluation of your team’s selling skills. Concealed cameras film the entire presentation from greeting to closing.

Businesses hoping to take customer service to the next level can benefit with our services by:

    1. Professional and affordable video shopping services for any industry
    2. View customer flow and analyze performance gaps
    3. Monitor procedures and implemented initiatives
    4. Evaluate new hires and staff veterans
    5. Are your employees ethical and interested in customer needs?
    6. Motivate your sales team and drive them to produce results
    7. Video is highly effective in sales meetings and training seminars
    8. Evaluate your competition
    9. A real, authentic, recorded customer point of view
    10. Visual presentations show you exactly where changes need to be made
    11. Stimulate friendly competition between your top performers
    12. Establish total awareness of your sales or business environment

Howard Puterman, VP and General Manager of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, states “Advanced Feedback has been servicing my needs for the past eight years and has been absolutely terrific. They are always responsive to our ever-changing needs.”

Contact them today to see how we can offer you totally customized sales and customer service inspections.

Welcome to team Advanced Feedback, Caffe Italia!

Advanced Feedback, Inc. is proud to welcome Caffe Italia in Little Italy – San Diego to our list of onsite restaurant mystery shop evaluations! http://www.advancedfeedback.com/restaurant.html

Advanced Feedback takes Mystery Shopping to Canada

Mystery shopping is not just a U.S. based practice. Advanced Feedback provides mystery shopping not only in the states but also in Canada and Mexico.

(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - SAN DIEGO, CA, Feb 19, 2009) – A long time provider of telephone and onsite mystery shopping, Advanced Feedback now provides both services in Canada. "Our presence in Canada was first established when we started using French speaking Canadians to meet the needs of one of our multi-national clients", says Zachary Hooker, President of Advanced Feedback. Inc. "For most secret shopping programs to be successful it is important to recruit and train shoppers that reflect the clients target market – even regional dialects can be a tip-off if the business typically caters to their immediate locale."

During their first few years supporting Canadian businesses with secret telephone shops, Advanced Feedback made all calls from their San Diego location. As the volume increased the mystery shopping firm established a system to use local Canadians, routing the recorded phone shops through their in-house servers. "Our clients use Advanced Feedback's recorded phone shops, Feedback-24 alerts, phone skills tips, and monthly performance trend reports to monitor and train telephone agents. In these times of economic uncertainty it is absolutely essential to turn all inbound calls into appointments, reservations, or sales. You simply can't afford to lose a lead due to poor phone skills" proclaims Zachary.

Advanced Feedback conducts mystery shopping programs in all states, Mexico, and Canada. For more information visit www.AdvancedFeedback.com

Boutique Hotels – Missing the Opportunity to Provide Personalized Services

(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - San Diego, CA July 18, 2011) One measure of personalized customer service, and perhaps its most objective indicator, is a hotel’s willingness to practice it over the phone.  Being one of only two possible first impressions a hotel has to work with, the personalized phone call is so simple it ought to be automatic yet it is increasingly rare. Less than 5% by one measure!

In part one of an independent national study to measure customer service and sales in today’s web-based world, Advanced Feedback, Inc. called over 250 boutique hotels to see if this traditional line of communication was any more personable than an online search.

“The phone shop doesn’t lie” explains Zachary Hooker, President of Advanced Feedback. “Unlike customer surveys or feedback requests, there is no upset customer or buyer biases, just the facts.  They either do it or they don’t”.  Zachary is referring to whether or not the front line is tasked with and performing the niceties of good old fashioned personalized sales and service:  “May I have your name?”, “Have you stayed with us before?”, “Would you have any special requests that I may help you with?”

The company began their study by focusing on a segment that should lead the pack in personalized services, boutique hotels, the popular personality or lifestyle brands of recent years.  Using a simple mystery phone shop to check rates and availability, Advanced Feedback was able to objectively determine if the hotel is intent on providing service any more personable than an online reservation form.

The answer is no.

In fact, based on their results one could argue that today’s hotel agents ask fewer questions to personalize the service than found in a typical online rate inquiry where we know we’re at least asked to select room type or bed preference.  One could also question if some properties have an objective to encourage guests to go online versus call their business. Looking at the data below tells us management is no longer committed to phone skills that include rapport and personalized services:

17%      Asked for the caller’s name

31%      Asked the caller if it was their first stay or reason for visit

9%        Asked about specific needs or preferences

10%     Mentioned any hotel amenities or benefits prior to quoting price

4%         Covered all four areas of personalization

Boutiques might be well designed to cater to a particular lifestyle or modern trend, but the Advanced Feedback study shows a missed opportunity to turn a hotel’s charm and personality into a memorable first impression.

Furthermore, looking beyond the qualifying aspect of the call, one might speculate that specialty hotels would at a minimum embrace each incoming call as an opportunity to highlight something interesting about the property.  Yet only 10% of those called mentioned even one unique feature or benefit of their boutique property!

“We started with boutique properties thinking this would be a benchmark for how good phone skills set the stage for a personalized hospitality experience.  We didn’t necessarily anticipate better overall skills from boutiques, as the major well known brands often have phone training systems in place, but we did expect the personalization to be there” continues Zachary.

Comparing the overall phone skills performance of boutiques to a sample of well known brands, collected during a control group survey, the study shows no overall difference, boutiques 37%,  majors 37%.  In addition to the personalization aspects of inbound phone skills  (rapport and needs assessment), the survey scored other phone handling and sales criteria such as the use of a professional greeting and asking for a reservation.  These scores, shown below, are also roughly inline with a random selection of non boutique hotels.

92%      Answered within three rings

82%      Used an appropriate hotel greeting

47%      Asked to secure a reservation

24%      Handled resistance to a reservation

33%      Attempted to lead the conversation

37%      Overall phone shop score

In general,  it can be concluded that the front desk or reservations is adequately staffed and trained to answer the phone professionally and politely, but that’s where the training stops.  It seems this is true across all brands, not just boutiques.  The company will know for sure when a second phase of the investigation is complete.  “Clearly when only 47% of hotel agents ask the caller to make a reservation, phone skills training is no longer front and center.  Excuses include cuts in training, attention to online sales, etc. but as long as you’re paying people to answer the phone, they should be selling your service”, challenges Zachary.

The survey covered a wide variety of self proclaimed boutique hotels, ranging in size from only a few rooms to over 500.  On average small boutique properties did worse in all areas.  Those with less than 50 rooms had the lowest average overall score of 21%.   Above 50 rooms, there is a weak correlation between a hotel’s size and practice of good phone skills, boutiques above 500 rooms faired best at 62%, but with a small sample size.

Rooms                          Average Score             Calls

1-49                              21%                             46

50-99                            34%                             49

100-149                        39%                             59

150-199                        44%                             30

200-249                        48%                             27

250-499                        34%                             31

500 plus                        62%                             10

All Boutiques                37%                             252

With regard to the drop in performance with fewer rooms, Zachary claims that it doesn’t have to be this way.  “Our on demand phone shops give small hotels an incremental and low cost solution to training, one equally as effective as programs used by the large hotels and groups.”

“Again, what’s keeping the scores so low are the components of communication where boutiques should excel, namely the personalization of the call.  Personalization as simple as asking for a callers name, asking if the caller has visited their property before, if there are any preferences, and mention at least one feature of the property that may be a benefit to the caller – on average, done less than 5% of the time” he emphasizes.

Advanced Feedback’s survey also looked at differences between specific cities, states and regions of the country.  In part two of this study the research firm will investigate variations in service between brands, independents and hotel groups.

Go to THIS LINK  for a copy of the full report, or to find out how your hotel fairs relative to others in your area, region or the national average.

Is Your Hotel Hurting, or Are You Hurting Your Hotel? – Small Tourist Area Sampling Returns Big Results

(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - San Diego, California, May 11th 2009) – Advanced Feedback, Inc. a nationwide customer survey and mystery shopping company, phoned ten hotels, over half the hotels in seaside Coronado CA, a popular tourist island just west of downtown San Diego.  Part of a wider study on business and the economy, the mystery shoppers, posing as potential customers, simply called the front desk and asked “How far are you from Sea World?”

“I wanted to see if agents would make an attempt at a sale … with someone calling their hotel from out-of-town.” explained Geoff Gladu, Account Manager for Advanced Feedback.  Perhaps not shocking to this group of seasoned mystery shoppers, but alarming to any business manager, the team did not find one hotel agent who attempted to continue the conversation beyond answering their initial question.  “I was hoping to hear something along the lines of  ‘would you like for me to check rates and availability?’ or “Is there anything else I could help you with?’ anything, really.  Also, no one even thanked us for calling”, he added.  Considering these businesses spend a good share of their marketing budget on getting travelers to call their hotel, Advanced Feedback’s survey uncovered pervasive missed sales and branding opportunities.
Perhaps the hotel agents ignored the sales opportunity because the scenario implied the caller wanted to stay closer to Sea World, 6 miles from Coronado? To test this possibility, the team conducted a second survey to the same properties with the question “what is there to do for fun in the area?”  This time, all hotel agents did fine to sell the area but only two agents built value for their hotel and only two others thanked the customer for calling. Again, not one hotel representative attempted to continue the conversation or make a sale.

Deciding to make it as simple as possible for the front desk agent to recognize a sales opportunity, without saying “I want to make a reservation”, the mystery shoppers called the same hotels a third time asking, “How much are your rooms?”

Only one out of the ten properties that were called received a passing grade; the agent qualified the caller, built value for both rates and property and even offered to make a reservation.  All others failed.  One property attempted to qualify the caller, another spoke well of their property, but all of them were quick to provide the rate and let the potential customer off the phone – never once asking if the caller wanted to stay there!

“With beach weather soon approaching, there’s no better time for these seaside hotels to learn how to recognize and pursue the sales opportunities given – this usually starts with phone skills via a mystery phone shopping program”, said Geoff.

In a challenging economy like the current one, Advanced Feedback’s research is a wake-up call to companies not to overlook the training and monitoring of front-line employees.

Advanced Feedback extends mystery shopping to canine pals too!

(Archive- advancedfeedback.com Feb 05, 2009) Advanced Feedback, Inc. has extended their mystery shopping services to their local neighborhood Humane Society, who was originally concerned that the mystery shopping company was too big for the single location.

As stated by Nicole Campos, Customer Relations Manager, “I appreciate all of your help while we develop a program that best suits us and within what your company can do. I realize that it is a little different than what you normally do considering the nature of our business and that we only have one location.” After working closely with her dedicated Account Manager, the two companies were able to tailor a program to fit Nicole’s exact needs.

The San Diego based company now conducts both weekly phone shops and a monthly onsite mystery shop offering valuable feedback in a timely manner. Phone shops are placed to help make sure that each incoming call is forwarded to the correct department is important. Phone shops help get pet related questions answered correctly while capturing the quality and level of the customer service by targeting each of the Humane Societies eight departments. These calls range in a number of different scenarios and are valuable to Nicole due to the frequency of the calls, which are delivered to her by email including the recording and a detailed survey within 24 hours.

These phone shops help keep the employees on their toes and provide the required level of customer service to all guests, both two legged and four. The onsite mystery shop conducted each month not only targets a specific department but also the main facilities. With a full summary of the details, along with an easy to understand scorecard, the information allows Nicole to visualize from the customer’s point of view. When asked about the program after six months of use, Nicole stated, “We are very happy with the shop results and are finally able to really use a lot of the data we have collected for training and new hires.”

At http://www.advancedfeedback.com you can learn how this mystery shopping firm is able to customize and tailor their services to fit your needs.

Mystery Shoppers Knock on Healthcare's Door!

It discusses increasing use of research initiatives such as mystery shopping by Healthcare industry and various ways in which it is being utilized as a customer service tool by different segments of the healthcare sector.

(Archive Advancedfeedback.com SAN DIEGO, CA, Aug 22, 2006) – Mystery shopping has been used to enhance customer engagement initiatives in most service industries, such as Hospitality, Retail, Automotive, and Financial Services for a very long time now. Is the Healthcare community finally embracing the benefits of this vital service and sales improvement tool as well? The answer appears to be yes.

Healthcare has traditionally limited itself to long-term approaches such as customer surveys or physician surveys. However, due to the competitive nature of today's technologically savvy and demanding "shopper", it seems the industry as a whole has woken to more aggressive techniques for fast acting monitoring and feedback such as mystery shopping.

Zachary Hooker, President of San Diego based Advanced Feedback, a leader in mystery shopping says, "Though we have been servicing almost all areas of the service industry for more than a decade now, this is the first time we have seen some activity on the Healthcare front. It looks to be pretty promising and long term."

"Mystery shoppers" posing as patients evaluate the facility by placing appointment calls, information calls for pricing, visiting the facility, faking symptoms, making special requests and sometimes staying in the facility overnight. The medical centers and facilities who have undertaken the services lately, believe that a number of changes have been made as a result of the practice including improvement in employee behavior, change in ambiance of waiting room and reception areas, more concern towards patient privacy and lesser wait times.

While like most other research techniques, mystery shopping gives insights into ways to improve patient interaction, identifies problems in service, and increases customer loyalty, one of its most effective uses is the aid it provides in explanation of customer survey results, that is, its ability to explain the customer feedback or response.

The "Mystery Shopping" approach seems to be particularly popular amongst mid size and small size segment of the industry. This is possibly due to the stiff competition and evaluation the smaller clinics and nursing homes face. Larger organizations also benefit from the service by using mystery shoppers from within their patient database, as well as those out-of-plan. Certainly, the fast turn around time, immediate results and comparatively lower cost of service makes it an attractive feedback and training tool.

"The foray of Healthcare into the Mystery Shopping arena is a welcome move and we look forward to the customer service initiatives it will promote in the sector." Comments Zachary Hooker from Advanced Feedback.

Advanced Feedback has over 15 years of experience in doing mystery shopping and customer engagement surveys. For more information, please visit www.advancedfeedback.com or write to Zhooker@advancedfeedback.com.