What comes to your mind when you hear the name Mystery Guest?
When we talk about this profession, some of the expressions we hear are: “Ah, they are the ones who judge the people who work in hotels”, or “Ah, so it’s a paid holiday…it’s not a serious job!”.
The Mystery Guest is sometimes mistakenly perceived as a person who ‘lives the good life’ in luxury hotels and who purposely creates situations to get the hotel staff into trouble. A sort of “spy”, sent by the big chains or the direction, who wanders around the hotel looking for the smallest mistakes, “enjoying” the failures and shortcomings he encounters on his/her way.
For these reasons, the Mystery Guest is often feared by hotel staff.
Is the true purpose of the Mystery Guest to expose mistakes, creating fear and anxiety among staff? Or does the Mystery Guest and his/her work have another, deeper and more genuine value?
To answer these questions, we think of those who work in the world of hospitality and reception. One of the main aspects on which they focus is guest satisfaction. In order to achieve this goal, hotels and companies make every effort to make the experiences of those who entrust their time and money to them, unique and memorable. Diversified, high-level services, empathetic and knowledgeable staff and, well-kept environment are now fundamental to attracting guests to the hotel and creating a long-lasting relationship. For this reason, it is essential to understand how the guest experiences all these aspects during their stay, in order to have a clear idea of what is working and can continue to be offered and what, instead, needs to be improved. The Mystery Guest is the “tool” par excellence to achieve this, as it provides the organisation and staff with an objective, accurate and measurable analysis of what happens during the normal experience of an average guest.
The Mystery Guest lives all the phases of the Guest Experience (before, during and after the stay) in the shoes of a guest and, thanks to specific and continuous training, provides valuable feedback. Making judgements (as mentioned at the beginning of this article) is different from giving feedback. Feedback is a word that means ‘feeding back’, i.e. giving an improved viewpoint on an act or behaviour, directly to the person who originated it. Going back to our school days, we remember the negative emotions aroused by red pen marks or the expressions ‘no good!’ or ‘serious mistake’ on tests (few of us have memories of an assignment in which what was done properly was also highlighted). Similarly, if the Mystery Guest only judges and highlights the negative aspects in his/her report, what value would he bring to the organisation?
Carefully documenting one’s experience is a great responsibility for those working Alda Merini said:
“I like those who carefully choose the words not to say.”
Writing reports is not an easy a task as one might think. The Mystery Guest has to ask himself/herself the following questions:
- Am I giving feedback on the behaviour or the person?
- Am I making a judgement or describing the facts objectively?
- How much am I being influenced by emotions while writing?
This figure, through his/her work, gives companies and their people the opportunity to embark on a path of continuous improvement. He/She has the professional duty to be a proactive stimulus for improvement oriented to enhance the behaviours and talents of the hotel staff and give objective points of view through which people can improve professionally and humanly. This happens to generate a positive feedback that leads people to genuinely want to take care, with even more passion, of the time guests choose to spend in that hotel or company, and thus create a valuable experience for them.
Francesca Capece, Operations Manager di Hospite S.r.l.