MYSTERY SHOPPER: Dubai burger outlets

This month, Ethos Consultancy’s team of mystery shoppers went undercover at four of Dubai’s top burger joints, and discovered that although the burger may be universal, sadly good service is not...

OUTLETS UNDER SCRUTINY:

• Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Dubai Marina Mall — 1st place
• Fuddruckers, Jumeirah Beach Residence — 2nd place
• Johnny Rockets, Mall of the Emirates — 3rd place
• Fatburger, Dubai Mall — 4th place

The expert analysis:

This month’s Service Spy is all about service delivery at four of Dubai’s most popular and highly-frequented casual-dining ‘burger joint’ concepts.

Burger outlets have come a long way, that’s for sure. In terms of food, it’s all about choice with numerous variations on the classic burger making an appearance — Chilli, Cajun, Mexican and Satay are just some of the choices diners can find, although the ‘no frills’ classic is of course still an option.

In terms of service, it’s a resounding ‘well done’ to Gourmet Burger Kitchen at Dubai Marina Mall. Scoring 95%, GBK takes first place.

It was hard to fault this UK-based franchise, with most staff demonstrating friendly attitudes, great product knowledge and the confidence to up sell additional items to their customers.

Unfortunately, one mystery shopper was not greeted on arrival, or supplied with hot sauce after they were told it wouldn’t be a problem. This mystery shopper’s waiter simply forgot, which is an honest mistake, but it dropped the overall satisfaction level. Otherwise, this was a great report.

American-born franchise Fuddruckers in Jumeirah Beach Residence takes second place, with an overall score of 86%. Again, it was great to see staff who were friendly and engaging. Product knowledge and quality of food were also both of a high standard. Unfortunately, none of the staff were wearing name tags and the tomato sauce at the salad bar was empty during one of the visits.

Johnny Rockets, Mall of the Emirates came in third with 77%. Here, our shoppers had mixed reports.

One was greeted in a warm and friendly manner, whereas another was not greeted at all. Not all waiters were wearing name tags either. However staff were confident about their products and able to suggest meal upgrades. Once ordered, food was delivered at a very efficient rate. One of our shoppers noted they received their meal in 4.5 minutes, which is very impressive.

Finally, in last place, we have Fatburger, Dubai Mall with 42%. Although the food was praised, the service was disorganised and staff weren’t attempting to engage or be friendly towards our mystery shoppers.

In one instance, there was a counter-full of people waiting to be served but no one knew who was next, as there was no number system or even an organised line.

One of our shoppers became quite frustrated when a customer who appeared in line after him was served first.

Good work on wearing name tags and demonstrating sound product knowledge, but not much else.

What could have been better?

• Making an impression is all about attitude and customer engagement. Only 63% of staff across all burger restaurants visited were warm and friendly to their customer; 25% of all staff visited didn’t even make eye contact with the diner!
 

• It’s great to see that most of our mystery shoppers were visited by a manager and asked how their meal was and if there was anything else they needed. This is a nice touch and affirms to customers that they are valued.

However none of our shoppers were 100% sure that it was in fact a manager that visited their table. Why? None of these ‘managers’ introduced themselves or wore a name tag with their designation clearly labelled.

Our shoppers were left to assume they were visited by a manager purely because that particular member of staff was in different dress. If you’re making the effort to personally visit each table, make sure you do the job properly.

Wear a name tag and introduce yourself — leave your customer with no doubt that the manager cared enough to speak with them personally to make sure their experience was exceptional.


 

ABOUT ETHOS CONSULTANCY

Originating in the UK in 1995, Ethos Consultancy relocated to Dubai in 2003, where a team of five has grown to 50 — with an Abu Dhabi office opening in 2008. Our consultants have come from some of the most mature customer service markets in the world, ensuring experience and best practice in everything we do.

Ethos prides itself on being at the forefront of online customer service solutions and was awarded Most Innovative Small Business in the UAE at the 2008 Lloyds TSB Small Business Awards.

Through years of experience, Ethos has developed a variety of services to help clients understand how their business is performing. Our solutions include mystery shopping, satisfaction surveys and a range of benchmarking services. Once clients have a clear understanding of how they are performing, we help them improve via training, consulting and implementation of The International Customer Service Standard.