Ep 3. Promotion Sabotage

In this episode of Mystery Diners, the team gets called in by a new restaurant owner who suspects that his employees might not be working as hard as they should be in promoting the business. The restaurant owner is looking to turn things around quickly with the help of the Mystery Diners team.

The restaurant in question is a barbecue joint that has been open for only a short time, and the owner is hoping to build a strong reputation in the area as soon as possible. He has hired a team of servers and bartenders, along with an experienced head chef, to get things up and running smoothly.

However, the owner is starting to hear negative feedback from customers who have visited the restaurant and felt that the atmosphere was lacking. They didn't see the restaurant fully packed, despite the chef's praise-worthy food. This is where Mystery Diners comes in to help.

At the start of the episode, the Mystery Diners team arrives at the restaurant and meets with the owner. They discuss the issues that he has been having and brainstorm ideas on how to conduct their investigation. They soon come up with a plan to test how hard the employees have been working to promote the restaurant.

One of the Mystery Diners team members goes undercover as a customer in order to fully observe the restaurant's operations. He orders a meal and watches as the servers and bartenders interact with other customers. At the same time, other team members go out into the streets to do their own promotion of the restaurant by handing out flyers and talking to potential customers. Meanwhile, more team members are positioned within the restaurant, pretending to be regular customers and observing the employees' behaviors.

As the day passes by, the Mystery Diners team notices that the servers and bartenders are not being proactive in their promotion of the restaurant and are instead waiting for orders to come in. They are even ignoring potential customers who walk by without making an effort to stop them and provide more information about the restaurant.

In addition to this, the team finds that there is a group of employees who are not contributing to the promotion of the restaurant either. They are instead taking advantage of their time away from work to relax, play games on their phones and chat with other colleagues.

As the Mystery Diners team finally makes their report to the owner, he is shocked to hear about the lack of engagement and effort from his employees. The team gives him a set of actionable steps he can take to turn things around, including training sessions for the staff, better communication, and organization.

In one of the final scenes, the owner gathers all his staff together and shares the feedback he's been given by Mystery Diners. He stresses the importance of teamwork and encourages his employees to work harder in promoting the restaurant. He also provides additional incentives to encourage employees to go the extra mile in promoting the business.

In the end, the Mystery Diners team is able to help the restaurant owner realize the importance of proactive promotion and engagement with customers. Through their investigation, the restaurant owner receives honest feedback that will enable the employees to work collaboratively and effectively in promoting and improving the restaurant in the long run.