Mystery Visit Service

At EMBED we are passionate about helping organisations to create environments where everyone feels included. This means any place or space used by staff, customers, visitors and communities from retail, hospitality and shopping centres to museums, hospitals and offices.

It is essential that your facility, service or space can be easily accessed and used by people with a diverse range of abilities in order to be fully inclusive. It should also meet a range of requirements for societal subgroups who form part of your customer or service user base.

The EMBED Mystery Visit service uses insights from our experienced auditors to help you understand potential challenges and barriers faced by customers, service users and visitors to your premises. These will include disabled people and those from a variety of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender identities.

Think of a Mystery Visit as being similar to a mystery shop but with a focus on the physical environment and end-to-end visitor experience, not just the shopping transaction.

Typically some of the areas we review may include:

Pre-visit information and guidance (website, leaflets etc)
Transportation routes, drop off and parking
Access and wayfinding, lifts and stairs, and information points and signage
Employee interactions (quality of service, knowledge, approachability)
Purchase and payment (and consumption where applicable) for goods and services
Toilets including accessible WCs, and baby changing facilities
Environmental ambience (layout and space, lighting, sound, quiet spaces)

We define the scope of your Mystery Visit with you, by consulting with key stakeholders to ensure we focus on your areas of interest or concern. We will then provide you with feedback that can help you improve interaction with your visitors.

Read on to find out more about our Mystery Visit Service, or contact us to arrange an informal chat.

How we can help

Expert insight

We conduct a visit (guided by your defined scope) observing how visitors engage with your environment. We explore the end-to-end experience from the perspective of the visitor.

Practical solutions

Working as your constructive critical friend, we identify opportunities for improvement suggesting a range of potential changes you might introduce with the aim of improving the visitor experience.

Value for money

And finally, we offer value for money as we use our passion for people to help you to deliver truly inclusive services that deliver tangible organisational benefit.

The detail

What we include in a Mystery Visit

Our visits are carried out by up to two experienced EMBED Consultants and depending upon the size and scope of the visit we are typically on site for half-day, one day or two days.

Legislation:

Our visits are carried out with reference to existing legislation, good practice and research including (but not limited to):

Equality Act 2010
BSI Standards relating to the design of an accessible and inclusive built environment
Published good practice on designing for accessibility
Published good practice on meeting the needs of minority group visitors, customers and service users

Mystery Visit report

Our report will include:

An overview of our journey experience, covering agreed observational areas
A summary description of findings including identified good practice
Highlighted areas and facilities that do not meet good practice guidelines, with suggestions for improvement including photographs or other evidence where appropriate
Highlight potential training and educational opportunities

Follow-up reviews and interventions

At EMBED we are focused on ensuring we can support you where possible, and to equip you with the information required to embed the changes – and so the report is not the end. We can also schedule follow-up reviews to check in and see how you are doing.

Our Mystery Visit service is just the start when it comes to understanding the needs of your customers. When you are ready, we are also able to offer full and comprehensive Access Audits of the physical, service and digital environments ensuring an inclusion-focused approach to support your disabled employees, visitors, students and communities. And to further support you can benefit from our intersectional inclusion focused support and training and you continue to enhance the service you deliver.