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Submitted: 7/11/2006 8:17:46 AM Modified: 11/5/2006 10:48:22 PM

As an employee of the Cheesecake Factory I am writing in this forum because no one physically will ever respond to any prior issues at hand. I am fed up with recent events taking place in my store. The company spends ~2.5million or so a year on an outside company to secretly come in to the restaurant posing as guests to evaluate our services. The "mystery shopper" must remember dozens of questions, exact times, and details without any note taking. This outside company services many restaurants and other business types. Without any training but only the incentive for a free meal, the shoppers evaluate numerous things throughout their entire visit but again all through memory to report at a later time. Week after week, prior to opening the restaurant all staff are aligned and repremanded for their disgraceful actions from the prior shopper report. We are told that we are worst in the company for service, that we need to get at least 100 % or we will be finding other jobs. We are told a quarter of the staff is looking to be fired. We were told that corporate is sponsoring an incentive plan to anyone who has the most improved scores will win a party (BIG DEAL), but that we as a team shouldnt even worry about it because we suck so bad we wont win anyway. Everyday this behavior gets increasing worse from management. These scores are not at all a clear indication of this stores performance. In fact, our restaurants staff is exceptionally better than other area restaurant chains. The reason we have a 2 hour wait time compared to other restaurants is because of our exceptionally fresh food, and great staff. The people who work at our store are extremelly dedicated and very hardworking. However, management gets bonuses for the scores in which the servers receive. This is why such a huge deal is made to push us to get above 100%. The fact is servers get absouletly nothing in return but either a pat on the back or a hard time day in and out. There is never any real incentive for the waitstaff to do better- we never see the money management gets. We are supposed to be a team and the leaders are very money hungry-driven and in direct result make daily negative comments about our poor service when infact its how the shopper is reporting it. We have caught many shoppers reports to be lies (partially). It is the servers job to "feel" the guest for the mood they are in. If its a quick lunch break, get them in and out. But why must we take the downfall when shopper is in a hurry to get in and out and asks for the check halfway before the meal is completed and then dashes and later reports that a dessert presentation wasnt done (minus 6 points). This person is only after the free meal and doesnt care about the real issue at hand. Or a women comes with a child and since we arent kid friendly and dont supply crayons or toys that the ambiance was bad and she didnt enjoy her time because her kid was screaming- yet thats our fault. I could go on and on about how people twist things in their direction to make it the restaurants fault. The shoppers are unaware that people who have worked for the company many years will get fired over the fact they had a bad shopper score. I believe too much emphasis is put into these shoppers and should be a mere suggestion. I really feel the company should use the millions spent on shoppers to have better training or incentives within the company. This would not only raise the moral but keep staff longer and more loyal. Why waste the money on an outside company who isnt trained themselves and doesnt help us but help us better if the money was redirected back to us. This would better increase profitablity and wouldn't everyone be much happier? Utterly Annoyed East Coast (above mason dixon line) U.S.A.

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Rebuttal Consumer Comment Submitted: 7/11/2006 8:52:51 AM Modified: 7/11/2006 8:52:51 AM

Mystery Shoppers ARE Valuable

I don't know what your specific Cheesecake Factory issues are, but mystery shoppers are a valuable tool in assessing customer service and business performance in nearly all businesses. I can't tell you how many companies put on their best show, clean up, put their best employees on duty for the days the "big shots" show up, but for the average joe customer, they couldn't care less. That is the point of the mystery shopper. As for not taking notes: mystery shoppers evaluate service time from the time they walked in to hostess acknowledgement to seating to ordering, bringing food and drink. They will visit the bathroom. They will look around the restaurant at the "ambiance" looking for filth. Was the menu itself clean or sticky? Were dishes chipped, silverware bent? Were all the items on the menu available, or were they already 86'd? Does one need a notepad or tape recorder for that? As for a free meal, not all mystery shops are free. Sometimes the shoppers pay for their meal to see how well the payment process works with cash/credit card versus a gift card/check, and if they buy something in addition to the check and/or try and return an item. I've never been a mystery shopper, but I've used their reports and found them to be extremely accurate for the day and time they report. You say you were fired for the results of one shopper report, my initial thought was that was the last straw; there was probably more items on your individual record than being identified on a mystery shopper report as a poor performer. It costs a heck of a lot of money to train one employee. It's hardly worth it to hire and then fire over one small issue. If I am wrong and Cheesecake Factory cut you loose for one lone bad report, well then, you're better off. Elaine - Boise, Idaho U.S.A.

Rebuttal REBUTTAL Individual responds Submitted: 7/11/2006 12:12:05 PM Modified: 7/11/2006 12:12:05 PM

In response

I was never fired. I am stating people are being threated to be fired and my last job did infact fire people for specifically one low score. Ive never been fired because I do my job. This is not a direct problem of my own. I have never had a bad report. Being part of a team I am only disgusted in the way management treats its team members because of it. Half of the mystery shoppers dont realize the extent to what they are reporting. It looks to corporate on paper that our restaurant does poorly at times because of sometimes bad scores, but infact we are highly respected as a restaurant for our area. Which is why we still have the customer base who still wait 2 hours. I realize you dont need to take notes on the reasons you suggested (if things are clean or not) But specific questions about the exact time it took for the server to initially greet you a)0-1 minute b)1-2 minutes c)3-4 minutes d) over 5 minutes. How do they know after maybe days of reporting what the time was. Are they really going to remember that we put the sugar caddy on the table before we approached them with their coffee. Are they going to remember we even asked them if they wanted coffee when they were busy conversing? Did we describe 2 deserts or 3? People dont really remember tiny details that make up so much of the report and its all in opinion anyway. The glass is either half full or not. Restaurants carry so much weight on what these people say. Thats all I was saying. Elizabeth - Brookhaven, Pennsylvania U.S.A.

Rebuttal Consumer Suggestion Submitted: 7/11/2006 2:05:26 PM Modified: 7/11/2006 2:05:26 PM

2.5 Million ? I doubt it !

You say your company spends 2.5 million on mystery shoppers? I doubt it ! Mystery shoppers are paid approx $25 per visit ,Yes i AM one ! There is only 109 Cheesecake Factory stores , so lets say that the MS company is paid $100 per visit now that works out to 25,000 visits per year , which would make it 229 visits to EACH restaurant per year ! Where did you get your info ? Now about the mystery shoppers having to remember dozens of things and check them off on a form , that isnt how it works , yes we are given forms to review , but there is a very specific protocol that is followed , one mystery shopper may be there to rate suggestive sales ,while another will go in for cleanliness etc. Ive done many shops , and never have i had to "wing it" on a report . There is usually very specific information on what we are to look for , it isnt hard to take notes on your pda or cell phone , and since your there from 30 mins to 1 hour , you have ample time to get the information requested . Free meals ? Not quite , we do get reimbursed ,it usually takes 4-6 weeks after the report is filed and with very strict spending limits ($5 for a drive in , $25 dinner & drinks (mandatory , but not neccesarily alcoholic) for 2 people at a steak house) now add in our gas money , time spent reviewing and filing the report . It makes a nice way to get a cheaper dinner , but definitely not free ! The fact that you said "Big Deal" when it came to your manager trying to give you incentives to raise your level of customer satisfaction says VOLUMES about why your store obviously scores low ! Michelle - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma U.S.A.

Rebuttal Consumer Comment Submitted: 7/11/2006 9:47:19 PM Modified: 7/11/2006 9:47:19 PM

mystery shoppers

I can understand how the OP feels about the mystery shoppers, although getting a bad one every week seems kind of extreme. I used to work for a company that used them, and most of the time they were pretty accurate. In fact, you typically can tell who a mystery shopper is because of the questions they ask. Overall, they're no big deal. But every once in awhile you got a shopper who was either lazy, didn't care, or didn't report accurately. And yes, management bonuses and employee "prizes" did depend on them. I once got in serious trouble because a shopper failed me and reported that I greeted her, told her to wait, took out the trash, and then helped her. What really happaned was another busy employee in my department greeted her when i was already outside, and told her I'd help her in just a moment when i got back from taking out trash since she was with a customer. Not exactly my fault. I certainly helped her as soon as I saw her. Another time a shopper walked in the store, up to a register, and proceeded to ask her the quesitons for every department in the store instead of walking around like she was supposed to, and left. A manager saw the whole thing, and sure enough, the next day we got the results of that shop and the woman had failed us cause that poor cashier didn't know the proper answers to the other departments. Corporate didn't care and counted it anyway and sent out reprimands. Just a couple of the most extreme examples. It sounds like the shoppers who replied to this take their job seriously. They realize that the answers they give do affect people and their jobs and bonuses and raises, even for the average employee. Mystery shops can be a great tool, but they've got some serious flaws in the way they are set up, and when a bad shopper screws you, that's definately a rip off. Typically, at my former employer, a bad shop was only accurate about half the time. Melissa - Unknown, Missouri U.S.A.

Rebuttal Consumer Comment Submitted: 7/11/2006 11:48:31 PM Modified: 7/11/2006 11:48:31 PM

I worked FOR a Mystery Shopping Company

Many years ago I worked for a mystery shopping company. I've never actually been a mystery shopper. My experience was that most of our "shoppers" seem to feel this obligation, so to speak, to find something, anything wrong with their shopping experience. The mentality was "if I don't find something wrong, then the company is going to think that I didn't properly evaluate the employee or business and won't give me anymore shops. Not all shoppers were like that, but I noticed A LOT were. Giselle - Any City, North Carolina U.S.A.

Rebuttal Consumer Comment Submitted: 11/5/2006 9:42:51 PM Modified: 11/5/2006 9:42:51 PM

Secret shoppers are a complete waste of time

I have worked with secret shopper companies and I can attest to the fact that most reports are inaccurate and a poor excuse for proper management. If you employ an experienced staff, keep them motivated and your management team is on point, there shouldn't be any need for such a company. Hire people with pride in themselves and their job, support their strengths while being aware of their weaknesses and you'll discover you don't need spies to ensure your staff is doing their job. As the poster stated, hanging their livelihood in the balance decreases morale and promotes intimidation as a style of management. To hire a person who absolutely has no clue about the business to ensure that the professional is doing their job is ridiculous! These people employed to secret shop aren't properly screened they only need to have a major credit card and transportation. Most I've encountered have been bored housewives with no knowledge of exactly what it means to "dine" in the first place. The poster is right, they are only out to catch a freebie. We could always spot a shopper on site it isn't like they were smart enough to fly under the radar which is why we always tag-teamed the table to compile first hand witness accounts of the incidents. After subsequent documentation for numerous inaccurate reports, we finally let them go. Our company has thrived since then, my employees are happier and my profits are sailing. Besides, I can have one of my fellow restauranteurs report on food, service, cleanliness, and ambiance for free. Erin - Shoreline, Washington U.S.A.