Silent Customer, Berkshire (2026)

20/03/2026

My latest blog is now live via www.silentcustomer.com/do-gms-have-a-parental-role/

If you are a GM, take a look for some useful insights to consider regarding getting the most out of your team.

As always, I am happy to share my insights in understanding behaviours - if this is something your would like some support with, do get in touch.

www.silentcustomer.com

16/03/2026

Guess when the first JD Wetherspoon pub opened?

1979. I know! Yonks ago.

Tim Martin funded his first pub with a loan from his parents, a bank loan and his own savings — around £20k, which is roughly £100k in today’s money.
Not peanuts, I grant you. And it took 10 years before his concept of large pubs selling cheaper food and drink really took off.

Today there are over 800 Wetherspoon pubs.

One recently opened in very posh, new monied, Marlow in Buckinghamshire. Despite much moaning from those who consider themselves above such a “low-brow” venue, it has been a huge success.

Martin has seen and survived it all: The Black Monday crash and subsequent recession, the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, Brexit, COVID-19 pandemic… and now — well, its certainly tough times again.

What I find incredible is that despite Whetherspoon's steady, strong growth and filling an obvious need in the market, I can't think of any direct competitors.

During the casual dining boom of the mid-2000s, everyone else chased the same middle market and borrowed as if money grew on trees… which, in a way, it did.

Now we are seeing leaner times, the existing casual dining market is contracting, Yet, new casual dining concepts are still being bankrolled by huge parent companies, putting even more suppliers at risk. The reinvented Jamie’s being one example.

Recently I’ve heard “social dining” concepts being talked about. I hope they succeed, because eating out or even going for a drink in many places has become something only the wealthy can comfortably afford.

Wetherspoon may now be one of the few places where the average earner can go for a meal or drink without worrying about whether they’ll still be able to pay the rent.

04/03/2026

What do public spaces still get wrong about accessibility?

One of our clients is working incredibly hard to make their museums more inclusive and accessible for everyone.

But the truth is, it’s difficult to fully understand the daily challenges people face unless you experience them yourself.

And accessibility isn’t only about wheelchair users or visible disabilities.

Many people live with invisible disabilities that others may never see. When challenges aren’t visible, organisations can struggle to understand how best to support people.

That’s where real lived experience becomes incredibly valuable.

At Silent Customer, we’re looking for people with accessibility or inclusivity challenges to act as secret shoppers, visiting some of our client’s sites and sharing honest feedback about their experience.

Your insight could help highlight what really matters — and where improvements could be made.

If you experience accessibility challenges, or support a close friend or family member who does, we would really value hearing from you.

👇 What are the things venues often overlook when it comes to accessibility?

Please share your thoughts in the comments, or email [email protected] if you’d like to get involved.

Janet

23/02/2026

Sometimes I wish I could be blind to needlessly terrible customer service 👀

It hurts my eyes, my ears and my soul.

In every establishment I visit, our customer engagement surveys cruelly play out in my mind’s eye, and too often I want to scream:

🔺 “LOOK UP!”
🔺 “LOOK AROUND!”
🔺 “LOOK AT YOUR CUSTOMERS!”

And for the love of God… COMMUNICATE! 📣

Usually, I swallow it. No one likes unsolicited advice, but I couldn’t help myself this weekend.

I saw £1,000s of pounds leaving a busy Space NK because the till server was busy chatting to a customer and didn't look up to notice the queue forming. I pointed it out to her but despite this, she still didn’t ask for help, nor applogise, nor speed up. Customers left the queue or didn’t bother to join it, and one woman just put the stuff in her bag and walked out without paying. There were three other shop staff just standing around. Space NK is NOT cheap!

I started www.silentcustomer.com in 2008 after an experience as a customer watching people literally Mexican waving for attention 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️🙋.

BUT STILL, I see the same total lack of awareness. And don’t tell me it’s costs, etc. It’s not.

Teach your teams to see 👁️

PLEASE — for all our sakes, for sanity and for profit!! 📈

And if you don’t know how... get in touch 💬

06/02/2026

The days of soliciting a gazillion Google reviews for SEO are over.

Google are removing reviews—and what can you do about it?

We’re seeing a huge increase in restaurants having 5-star Google reviews removed.

In January, Google’s AI algorithms became much stricter about reviews that look “unnatural,” including:

⚠️ Reviews from users with no history (these can look like "bot" or fake accounts).

⚠️ Reviews mentioning team members by name (Google may flag these as incentivized or written by team members).

⚠️ Star-only reviews with no written content.

⚠️ Multiple reviews submitted simultaneously while customers are still at the venue.

Many hospitality businesses are simply asking for reviews at the table—but to Google’s bots, this can look like owner-generated or coordinated activity.

How you collect reviews matters just as much as how many you collect.

✅ Stop incentivizing teams for name-mentions. Instead, have staff introduce themselves at the start of service or reintroduce name badges to build a natural connection.

✅ Encourage genuine, detailed feedback. Try: "We want to know the truth about your experience."

✅ Follow up post-visit. Use SMS or email booking follow-ups to get reviews once the customer has left the premises.

✅ Focus on long-term trust. Aim for realistic, detailed feedback rather than chasing quick 5-star spikes.

For more detailed info on these changes take a look ay my blog.
👇
https://www.silentcustomer.com/q-why-are-my-google-reviews-disappearing/

For support on how to encourage genuine feedback that attracts and retains customers, get in touch.

Janet - www.silentcustomer.com

18/01/2026

My friend Meghan, did take a photo of me with a glass of wine to illustrate this post but then this heart-stealer came in!

Anyway- this is Coppa Club in my home town of Henley-on-Thames. It’s a notoriously difficult town to run a profitable restaurant in. I know first-hand, albeit many years ago now. Old money, deep pockets, difficult to find staff… I could go on.

BUT this place is magic and my 'go-to' for cocktails and warmth — literally and metaphorically — in its lighting, décor, and professional, friendly staff, who actually appear to be having fun and enjoy working there. It’s a fast, efficient machine, and the food exceeds my expectations, especially for what the brand appears to present itself as, which is a bit beige. Which is a shame, because it’s bloody brilliant!

It wasn’t always as good as it is now though. There’s a manager there called Livia. She’s been there a little while now, and my goodness — if only you could clone her and her team!

Just wanted to say thanks to Livia Viveiros and the team there! What you do is very much appreciated. 👏 😊

Janet x

12/01/2026

Our briefs and question guidance notes are deliberately detailed. This isn’t over-complication — it’s how we ensure every team is assessed fairly, consistently, and against a clear set of professional standards.

Mystery shopping is often misunderstood. While it may look simple, delivering a high-quality report takes skill. Great mystery shoppers are highly observant, detail-driven, and able to write clearly and objectively. Their reports don’t just describe an experience — they bring it to life, accurately capturing what really happened so teams can see exactly what to improve next time.

If you’re a mystery shopper looking to achieve higher grades with our agency (and others), our tips will help you sharpen your approach and stand out.

And if you’re a manager responsible for coaching and developing your team, these insights will help you turn feedback into meaningful improvements.

👇👇👇👇

https://www.silentcustomer.com/top-tips-for-secret-shoppers/

08/01/2026

What is complex feedback and why do I need it?

Machine learning (AI as it has been branded) has been around for 20 years. It just didn’t have the funding or commercial focus to make money until recently.

Currently, it tells us stuff that we tell it. It certainly speeds things up, and I, as someone with the attention span of a gnat, love its convenience. But let’s keep it real: it isn’t going to negate the need for service-led businesses, not yet.

There is a thing called cybernetics, which is how both living things and AI learn.

Cybernetic means relating to cybernetics — the science of control and communication in complex systems, whether living (like the brain) or artificial (like machines). It focuses on how systems self-regulate using feedback loops to achieve goals. Essentially, it studies “steersmanship”: how systems steer themselves toward a purpose, whether it’s a thermostat adjusting temperature or a robot learning.

Dogs learn that wanted behaviour gets them positive feedback in the form of a certain tone of voice and a treat, and that unwanted behaviour gets a stern ‘NO!’ After a while the positive voice alone is the learnt reward.

As humans, we are driven not just to survive but to thrive, and we too react to feedback.

When we go to the gym, win competitions, buy stuff, drink alcohol, eat sugar we get feedback in the form of dopamine. The dopamine is a reward so we want more.

We find calculus time-consuming, so we invent computers. Et cetera.

Simply put, we all need feedback if we want to achieve our goals. If we don’t ask for it, it will still find its way to us, but it may not deliver the outcome we expected or wanted.

In business we do ask for feedback but not always for ‘complex’ feedback. Google reviews are fine, but by their nature they generate only very basic responses and do not loop back with enough detail. AI can summarise it but it doesn't make it any more insightful. Customer surveys are usually clumsily written with little understanding about human emotion or behaviour.

Humans are complex and fickle, so stop worrying about AI and start worrying about your customer experience. Business has never been so competitive.

Mystery shopping delivers complex feedback so, if you want your teams to deliver a better customer experience, get in touch!

We are a small team who have worked together studying humans for many years, including Bob, the Jack Russell.

www.silentcustomer.com

09/12/2025

A slightly different Christmas message from me… ✨

When Covid hit and Silent Customer shut down within a day, I thought that was it. I resigned myself to its defeat.

After a period of grief, I asked myself:

What else? What do I have that’s valuable?

So I reinvented myself as a gardener.

And funnily enough… it wasn’t that different from hospitality:

✅ Overdelivering on customers’ expectations — the same
✅ Delighting people with something beautiful to look at — the same
✅ Making them feel like you genuinely want to be there — same
✅ Reliability, kindness, warmth, engagement — same
✅ Building knowledge, implementing new trends - same
✅ And, crucially, planting for the changing climate🌱

It’s easy to believe our industry is the only world that matters, or the one hit hardest… but truthfully, many sectors are struggling.

I now run both WeWeed and Silent Customer, and I still garden one day a week — because it keeps me grounded.

So my message is this, for anyone facing redundancy or business contraction:

We can survive this. We really can.

Breathe.
Look around.
Think outside of the box.
Be brave.
And above all: overdeliver on everything you do. EVERYTHING.

If you need survival tactics, give me a call.

Peaceful yuletide to all 🎄

Love a survivor! 🥰

Janet

www.silentcustomer.com
www.weweed.co.uk

hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag

24/11/2025

Great GMs are under your nose — so why can’t you find them?

I often get asked if I know of any “good GMs.” The answer is always 'no'. Even if I did, they belong to my clients, and I’m not likely to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Rachel Reeves, I am not! 🤔

Anyway — where were we?

Oh yes. GMs. Well, you may be surprised to know that nothing much has changed in the last 30 years in terms of this line of recruitment.

People who are hard-working, positive, reliable, organised and great with both customers and team members do exist, but they’re few and far between — so stop trying to steal them and grow them yourselves! 🌳

It’s not easy, but it’s certainly cheaper and less stressful in the long run.

But in order to grow managers, you need to nurture them in an environment that doesn’t scare the bejesus out of them. 😱

If the restaurant, hotel, pub, café — whatever it is — is constantly in chaos with shifts going down, it will be miserable for everyone. No 19-year-old pot wash or waitron is going to look up at the managers and say, “Yes. This job looks fun!”

You need, first, to make sure the site is running smoothly — easier said than done, I know, but ask yourself these questions:

✅ Sound ergonomics – Is your site manageable labour-wise on both quiet and busy nights?
✅ Concrete systems and procedures – Is everyone rowing in the same direction?
✅ Inclusion – Do you get your teams involved in decision-making?
✅ Fun – Are your teams actually looking forward to their shifts?

If you can confidently answer YES to all of the above, then you make being a manager look easy — and you should have one or two seedlings ready to transplant and nurture. 🌱 🎓

If you think a chat might help— call me. I'm not a consultant, I don't charge to chat. 😇

Janet and Bob The dog 👇

www.silentcustomer.com

11/11/2025

We’re excited to launch Sally Says, a new mini-series full of expert tips for mystery shoppers from our very own Sally, Operations Manager. Each month, she’ll share simple, practical advice to help you write better reports, capture key details, and get the most out of every assignment.

This month, Sally reminds us that how you share feedback is just as important as what you share. Clear, constructive observations help the team improve and make your reports more meaningful.

Keep an eye out! New tips will drop every month, so you’ll always have a little Sally wisdom at your fingertips! 💡

Silent Customer

20/03/2026

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