• At Walgreens just now, the clerk asked me, while staring at my belly with a look of complete terror on her face, "When is THAT due?" My mouth said something polite, but in my head I wanted to strangle her.

Did this employee want to enrage a customer? Of course not.

But until we identify moments like this and help the employee understand the impacts of her every word, mistakes like this will continue.

Mystery shopping isn't about punishing employees or getting them in trouble. It's about giving them real-world feedback that helps them improve their service.

Not us.

At 12:30pm last Friday, a retail client called. They were having a big 4^th of July promotion and wanted to know how well sales reps at the distribution locations were representing their products and promoting their specials.

They needed our research, and they needed it immediately.

We sprung.

• Scenarios were scripted.
• Questions were crafted.
• Locations were identified.
• Evaluators were recruited.

Within hours we had an entirely new project up and rolling.

Saturday and Sunday, the evaluations occurred. Monday, we created & delivered the in-depth summary report to the client.

How’s that for a rapid response team? From a blank slate on Friday to a completed project by Monday. Oh, yes we did!

Sure, you don’t want every day to be that intense.

But pulling off the impossible gives us the professional thrill that you can’t get with regularly scheduled programming. So we really appreciated the chance to test & prove ourselves. 

On Tuesday, the happy client called to request more research.

And that’s why we do what we do.

The main point is this:

• When people walk into a bank, they might be asking for information, but what they really want is a relationship.

Tellers who simply sling brochures at prospects are flagrantly wasting incredible opportunities to land new business for their bank.

And we’d like to point out that these training insights are based exclusively from the data collected by Marketing Endeavors’ top-notch mystery shopping services.

Go read the whole piece.



The desk associate at the Louisville Science Center could have just handed us our IMAX tickets and said, “Have a nice day.”

He could have ignored the fact that the movie was seconds from starting and that we were 3 floors away from the entrance.

He could have thought, “It’s not my problem they’re running late.”

He could have done the bare minimum (just hand us our tickets), and went about his day.

Instead, he proactively called a co-worker at the IMAX theater and informed her that there were two more viewers on their way up. He even called us “guests.”

He never told us he was doing this. If I hadn’t overheard his conversation, I never even would have known.

He just did it.

When you start going above and beyond out of habit, you know you’re offering outstanding customer service, and it's clear that this organization has created a culture dedicated to making customers smile.



We work hard to buck that trend and create positive relationships, believing that it creates better research.

Some companies really think that they can be rude to shoppers and still count on them to demonstrate a strong work ethic and provide insightful information.

But as we all know, what you give is what you get.

So we treat our shoppers with respect and good will, and that's what they give us in return.

When we get emails like this from our shoppers, we know we're doing it right:

"Aaron and Ryan both are such a pleasure. I called Aaron's cell phone last night on a whim to see if a particular shop might be available. It was after hours, but he still offered to check for me.  Lo-and-behold, it looked like the assignment was available. He called Ryan to confirm, then assigned it to me. (Apparently, someone else had flaked earlier in the day.)

Thank you, and great work!"

 Thank YOU for sharing, and for shopping with ME.

That's the power of mystery shopping. Constructive feedback from great people. Thank you to all of our excellent mystery shoppers, particularly C&M...]

My family went to your client’s restaurant with our church group this past Sunday afternoon.  

First, they need to know that Elizabeth did a FANTASTIC job keeping up with the entire second floor. We were a group of 10, there was another group of 5 in the front room with us, and several other tables of 4's and 5's.

She was the only one working the upstairs, and though she did get some help when some orders came out, she handled most everything on her own. Drinks stayed full and she delivered our meals without auctioning them off to us. A manager did stop by to make sure everything was OK.

The reason for this email is that my wife and I are both quite disappointed in the kid's "Chicken Finger" meal. For the price we paid, we do not feel we were getting our money's worth. There was not a whole lot of food in that entrée. My son, who is not a big eater, asked for more and we had to place another order.

During a visit here about a month ago, our son had also ordered the kid's Chicken Finger meal and was also given a rather small portion of meat and the side. We thought it was just a fluke and really didn't think anything of it. With this visit, seeing the same serving size, we were disappointed.

The other meals on the kid's menu seem to be priced well, as our son has ordered the corn dog and the grilled cheese before. And our adult meals and our drinks are a GREAT value for the money. We're just surprised by this one item. 

Thanks for listening. Please let me know if there are any additional details I can provide. 

It was a gorgeous day as Ryan and I performed a bartender evaluation for one of our restaurant clients.  The cocktails, appetizers, and company were truly stupendous, and I found the service exceptionally friendly and effective.

As we were leaving the restaurant, I exclaimed, “That shop was great! I loved our server.”

Ryan (a Marketing Endeavors veteran) looked at me, shook his head in amusement, and responded, “Colleen, she didn’t even card you.”

This was a while back when I had only been with ME for a couple of months.

Before working with ME, I was excited about being 23 and not being asked for identification.

To me, it was a welcome oversight, as it saved me the hassle of digging through my purse for my driver’s license.

But what customers find convenient and what clients find acceptable are sometimes very different things.

A bartender neglecting to card a 20-something is HUGE. The restaurant risked losing their liquor license and being hit with a multitude of fees.

That’s when I realized how important our job really is…and how many factors go into customer service.

It’s not merely about meeting the customer’s needs; it’s also about employees implementing their company’s values into everything they do.

The servers and bartenders of the world can’t just smile, deliver food, and hope for success. Their jobs are about knowing how to balance personality with company values.

When this is done effectively, customer service becomes an unstoppable force.

I witnessed this effect first-hand recently. We have a new restaurant client, and I’ve been eating there for years.  

From past visits, I know that the staff of this restaurant is very friendly, but also laidback and somewhat hands-off when it comes to suggestive selling. The service is always decent, but not noteworthy.

But their new mystery shopping program has really changed things!

On my recent visit (for pleasure, not business), our server introduced herself to us, made recommendations for appetizers and desserts, and made an effort to check on us often.

I can’t remember ever seeing a manager in the past, and not only was there a manager circulating throughout the restaurant, but she even stopped by our table to check on us.

The atmosphere was more energized and the servers were on their toes and alert. Every employee was focused on the customers.

And these changes are noticeable after only two weeks of mystery shopping.

I don’t consider myself a typical customer (I’m cursed with knowing too much about customer service), but their typical customer will certainly reap the benefits of improved service brought on by their mystery shopping program.

It’s worth saying again: cheaper things usually end up being more expensive!

When you consider the drop in quality and all of the unexpected additional costs that occur from having a cut-rate provider, it becomes clear that businesses are better off going with a proven, high-quality mystery shopping firm that features a dedicated, in-house team that's going to provide superior service.

And if you've suffered through inferior companies that outsource the bulk of your shopping program, you know exactly how frustrating it can be.

Stop suffering. We're ready to change your opinion about mystery shopping companies.