More than 100 Heraklea mystery customers joined in the survey visiting various catering establishments. They paid special attention to the welcome greeting, the appearance and interior design of a place, the cleanliness of rest rooms, the farewell greeting, and satisfaction with the experience.
Appearance and interior design have proved to be the biggest advantages of catering establishments, Heraklea said in a statement earlier this week, adding that 60 per cent of the staff kindly greeted the mystery customers as they arrived and left while even less smiled doing so.
Sixty-three per cent of the mystery customers said they would return to the establishment while 31 per cent said they might return, but only because of the location or the offer.
The mystery customers on average had to wait 2.59 minutes for a waiter to take their order, 4.12 minutes to be served and 3.2 minutes to pay the bill. The most frequent criticism regarded an insufficiently kind staff despite numerous customers.
Broken down by region, a kindly greeting is least frequent in South Dalmatia. The staff in Zagreb will certainly greet the customer, but without a smile.
Floors and tables outside an establishment are least frequently cleaned in Istria, whereas rest rooms should be avoided in South Dalmatia.
Customers have to wait six minutes to pay for their coffee in Istria and a little over four minutes in Dalmatia.
Heraklea said the overall service quality was relatively high but wondered about the 31 per cent of the mystery customers who said they might come back to an establishment, but only because of its location and offer.