Case studies

Mystery shopper case studies.

Real programmes from golf clubs, hotels, restaurants, retailers, attractions and estates. Each shows the challenge, what RCA did and what the data revealed. Client names are withheld.

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1,600+brands audited

50+golf clubs and resorts

11studies below

Programmes

What measuring the experience looks like in practice.

Programmes marked in progress show where the work stands, and results are added when waves close.

Destination diningCompleted

Benchmarking a waterfront dining precinct

The challenge

A major Cape Town waterfront destination wanted to know how its restaurants compared with each other, not only with their own targets.

What RCA did

RCA ran two mystery guest audits per restaurant and grouped venues into categories, so fine dining was compared with fine dining and casual with casual. Every venue received a score and a rank.

What the data showed

Scores within a single category varied widely, with fine dining venues ranging from 71.5% to 93.7% across the two audits. The smart casual category alone covered 28 ranked venues. The fine dining average moved from 82.8% in the first audit to 85.4% in the second.

Figures are from the 2023 final scores.

AttractionsDelivered October 2026

A first customer experience audit for visitor attractions

The challenge

The same destination had measured restaurants and retail but had never audited the experience of its visitor attractions.

What RCA did

RCA ran its first attractions audit, then delivered summary presentations and a verbatim reporting platform, so teams could read the shoppers' own words next to the scores.

What the data showed

The client's marketing lead called it their first attractions CX audit and proposed presenting the results to the senior managers responsible for the attractions.

Result of the programme will be tracked in the next wave.

Quick-service restaurantsWave 1 completed

Comparing two national quick-service brands side by side

The challenge

A quick-service brand wanted an independent view of how its customer experience compared with its closest competitor, across store types and times of day.

What RCA did

Matched shoppers visited both brands across drive-thru, urban, suburban, highway and mall food court locations, and at five dayparts from breakfast to late night. The scorecard covered speed, order accuracy, cleanliness, staff friendliness and product.

What the data showed

The competitor led overall satisfaction at 8.2 against 7.5 out of 10. The gaps were operational: average drive-thru time of 225 seconds against 285, order accuracy of 94% against 88%, and a cleanliness pass rate of 85% against 72%. The client led on food taste at 88% satisfaction. Afternoon cleanliness was the widest gap in the day, at 90% against 65%.

Brands are anonymised. Wave 1, July 2025.

Personal careThree waves

Finding the commercial behaviours a salon group was missing

The challenge

A salon group with 16 salons wanted to understand why service scores looked healthy while rebooking and add-on sales did not.

What RCA did

RCA measured three waves across all 16 salons and reported the results in a dashboard that separated service behaviours from commercial behaviours.

What the data showed

The service basics scored well. The commercial behaviours were the critical gap: rebooking scored 8.3% and after-care advice 19.1%. That gave the group two specific behaviours to coach.

Training on the two behaviours is the natural next step.

Country clubOngoing

One view of member, guest and staff feedback at a country club

The challenge

A Gauteng country club collected feedback in many places, including surveys, QR feedback, Google reviews and audits, and nobody saw it together.

What RCA did

RCA brought mystery guest audits, QR code feedback live since November 2022, member surveys from 2022 and 2026, staff satisfaction and Google reviews into one dashboard, with a customer journey standards tab.

What the data showed

In the 2026 member survey, interim results showed overall value at 3.90 out of 5 and likelihood to recommend at 3.86, with 71% rating 4 or 5. Course marshals were the lowest-rated touchpoint at 3.38. The top investment priority was improving the clubhouse, restaurant and bar. The survey is still collecting responses.

Interim 2026 survey results, so the figures may move.

Golf clubOngoing

Visitor experience audits that lead into staff training

The challenge

A Cape Town golf club wanted a current reality audit of the visitor journey, free of internal assumptions.

What RCA did

RCA built the audit on its chain of touchpoints framework, from booking to departure, ran mystery guest visits, published the results in a reporting site, and followed with training sessions for staff and a member survey.

What the data showed

Results go straight into the training agenda, so each session responds to what the guests actually experienced.

Shows the Define, Educate, Measure cycle in practice.

Hotel and golf estateScoped September 2026

Setting a baseline during a renovation

The challenge

A hotel on a golf estate was mid-renovation. The rooms were liked, but guests reported that facilities were letting the stay down.

What RCA did

RCA and the hotel agreed to start with a quarterly cadence and an accommodation baseline, leave food and beverage until the renovation ends, and combine Booking.com, TripAdvisor and other review sources with the mystery guest reports in one dashboard. Payment was arranged so staff could not tell the guest was a shopper.

What the data showed

The first audit sets the accommodation standard, and the next audit, after the renovation, measures the full experience against it.

First wave is still to run.

National retailWave 1 under way

One scorecard for three store formats

The challenge

A national food retailer with 95 outlets needed comparable results from very different formats: factory and fresh shops, box shop kiosks and in-store kiosks.

What RCA did

RCA scoped and calibrated the programme, briefed the shoppers, configured the reporting platform and grouped the outlets into three format groups, each with a tailored audit.

What the data showed

Wave 1 is running. Grouping by format means a kiosk is compared with kiosks, not with a flagship shop.

Results to follow when Wave 1 closes.

Wine and spiritsDashboard live

Bringing mystery shopper, online reputation and staff reviews together

The challenge

A drinks company with several tasting-room properties had mystery shopper findings, online reviews and internal staff reviews in separate places.

What RCA did

RCA built a dashboard that blends all three for each property, with staff reviews feeding in live.

What the data showed

Managers can compare a property's mystery shop score with what guests say online and what its own people report.

Client sets the targets for each property.

Lifestyle cityMultiple waves

Measuring service across a large mixed-use estate

The challenge

A large lifestyle estate with many vendors wanted to know how consistently the estate and its tenants served residents and visitors.

What RCA did

RCA ran several waves of mystery guest reports across business units, produced individual vendor reports, and added a service culture wave with a trend dashboard by section and business unit.

What the data showed

Scores are tracked by section and business unit across campaigns, so management can see where service is improving and where it is not.

Vendor reports keep the vendor in the conversation.

Luxury hotelsDemonstrated October 2026

A single view of guest sentiment across hotel outlets

The challenge

A luxury hotel group was adding touchpoints and wanted an overall temperature across all of its outlets.

What RCA did

RCA built a live demonstration of its FeedForward platform using the group's own guest sentiment data, plus a readiness platform for quality assessments that feeds into the dashboard.

What the data showed

The hotel's general manager described it as a fantastic way to pull the data together, and shared it with the marketing team. RCA is now linking in staff KPIs and recommended training.

In progress.

Figures come from RCA reports and dashboards for the programmes described. Client names are withheld at the client's request or until permission is given.

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