Many people think it is the most beautiful profession in the world, because they have the wrong perception that the Mystery Guest is paid to go on holiday. In reality, this is not really the case and, while it is true that it is a fascinating role that offers many opportunities and advantages, it is also true that becoming Mystery Guest involves a number of responsibilities and a period of specialist training.
Who is the Mystery Guest
The Mystery Guest is also called Mystery Client o Mystery Shopper (depending on the field in which it operates) and is that professional who deals, pretending to be a client or, in the case of the hospitality sectora guest, to evaluate and test services and products offered, in order to maintain the high standards of a facility at all times.
L'expert Mystery Guest goes to various establishments (hotels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, spas, wellness centres) pretending to be a customer and checks the quality of the services received.
Thanks to its analysis, the Mystery Guest identifies an organisation's strengths and weaknesses and offers a careful and thorough evaluation of them, putting himself in the shoes of a demanding average customer.
Specifically, for accommodation facilities, the Mystery Guest assesses the following elements:
- service offered (quantity and quality of service)
- ability to solve a problem
- cleaning
- adequacy of the structure to general standards
How to become a mystery guest? Here are some tips
For becoming Mystery Guest it is not enough simply to be a 'particularly demanding fake customer': it is necessary to have specific skills, which can only be learnt with a appropriate training coursesuch as the one organised by IET (European Tourism Institute).
In fact, the course imparts the following knowledge:
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- Theoretical and practical skills of the Mystery Guest
- Ability to analyse and control the quality of hotel services
- Verification of quality standards
- Institutional and online communication
- Structure presentation
- How Catalogues Should Look
- Reservation services
- Room service management
- Catering and laundry services
- Wellness centre services
- Checkout
- Reporting
The importance of the role of the Mystery Guest
Far from wanting to be a 'spy' on a company, the Mystery Guest plays a very important role in the growth of the organisation. Its task is to intercept or even prevent customer complaints in real time in order to improve services or ensure that they remain of impeccable quality.
Its opinions, reviews and reports should be constructively read as a benefit to the hotel or organisation, they are reliable and objective and give, unequivocally, a measure of the 'health' of the service.
In addition, the work of the Mystery Guest provides an excellent basis for recognising weaknesses and building targeted improvement strategies.
You want becoming Mystery Guest? Discover the Mystery Guest specialisation course by IET.
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