Mystery Shopper Program

RWHC is pleased to announce the 2026 Mystery Shopper Program! This program aligns RWHC Members to “mystery shop” one another’s facilities to gain insights and strengthen their customer service experience.

The Mystery Shopper Program, exclusively for RWHC Members, evaluates the patient and visitor experience through three methods: an In Person Shopper from a RWHC Member hospital visits your facility to observe staff interactions, signage, cleanliness, navigation, etc.; Phone Shoppers call during different shifts to assess phone interactions and branding consistency; and a Website Shopper evaluates your hospital’s site for ease of navigation, branding, overall appearance, accuracy etc. RWHC monitors and assigns shoppers to ensure that anonymity is maintained, and that any non-negotiables are identified for the hospital. Each participating hospital receives a reporting of the findings.

Participating Hospital Requirements:

  • “Give What You Receive.” If you choose to have this service provided for your hospital, you must provide the same service for another participating hospital.
  • Identify a “Lead Mystery Shopper” from your hospital who will coordinate helpers to complete the in person, phone and website shopping
  • Participate in the Mystery Shopper Orientation Training Webinar on Wednesday, May 27th from 10am to 12pm CT via Zoom
  • Cover travel and other related expenses for your staff to complete the shopping .

RWHC's Role:

  • Work with hospitals to identify which hospitals you are willing to shop
  • Assign and facilitate the shopping experiences between hospitals 
  • Train shoppers on how to provide a comprehensive experience and report
  • Ensure that anonymity for all shoppers is maintained, and that any non-negotiables are identified
  • Act as a liaison between the shoppers and the hospital being shopped
  • Review and provide all reports to the CEO of the participating hospitals

Timeline:

  • March/April: Register for program and submit completed MOU by April 30
  • May: Attend Shopper Training on May 27
  • June: Shopping Assignments to be sent the week of June 1
  • June/July: Shopping occurs (in-person, phone and website)
  • August: Shoppers submit reports to RWHC by August 10
  • September: Final reports sent to hospital CEO
TESTIMONIALS
– Anonymous

“Such a great way to gain perspective from an outside source to highlight what we are doing well and what we can improve upon. This feedback allows us to make changes as needed to ensure we are providing the best experience for our patients.”

– Anonymous
– Anonymous

“We love being part of this program to help us celebrate the great communication and customer service we offer, and also identifying opportunities for improvement that we may not be aware of in our day-to-day activities. It is also a great opportunity for some of our front-line staff to participate in making phone calls to another facility. We are also going to implement our own mystery shopper call program mid-year to help us validate improvements. We will continue to participate in this valuable program with RWHC.”

– Anonymous
– Anonymous

“The MS program has always been a nice program that gives us an impartial view of important customer service issues that we appreciate knowing! A well-done program for sure!”

– Anonymous
– Anonymous

“We've used the information received back annually to make adjustments/changes that need to be made to better address issues that we might be missing. We take the program seriously and put some of our best people on it to make sure that we are giving the same TLC to the facility we are screening!”

– Anonymous
– Anonymous

“We have used the MS feedback in many ways in order to identify our greatest opportunities to positively impact our patients' experience.”

– Anonymous
– Anonymous

“Great to hear positives but also the opportunities for improvement that we may not be aware of day to day. It was great using front-line staff to make the calls.”

– Anonymous
– Anonymous

“This is very helpful information! Thank you very much for sharing. This information will absolutely help us make specific improvements in our operations to better serve our patients. I am grateful for this report.”

– Anonymous

 RWHC is pleased to offer this service at no cost to RWHC Members! 

Registration deadline is April 30. Upon registration, you will be directed to the Memorandum of Understanding to complete and return by April 30.

If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact  Carrie Ballweg, cballweg@rwhc.com, 608-643-2343.