Curious to learn how Intouch Insight's mystery shopping program delivers insights that helped Bushwood Investments create a high-quality experience during every visit, at every restaurant?
Dive into the full story by watching the video below, or keep reading to discover more insights.
About Bushwood Investments
Bushwood Investments LLC is an expert-led franchise group that’s been part of the Jimmy John’s family for 20+ years. With dozens of Jimmy John’s locations across Kansas and Texas, the Bushwood team takes great pride in providing guests with fast service and reliable product quality.
The Challenge: Seeing What Guests See
It’s impossible to be in multiple places at the same time, but that was the issue facing Bushwood Investments Director of Operations Travis Floyd. With continued expansion across two states, the biggest question became: how can the company develop a clear picture of the guest experience without physically being in every restaurant every day?
For years, Bushwood relied on a combination of internal visits and customer feedback to gather information on performance. While those methods were valuable, they didn’t always capture the essence of a location or a complete picture of an average customer’s visit.
“As soon as I walk into a restaurant, the team knows I’m there and that changes the dynamic. We could never get a completely unfiltered view of what our guests see.” — Travis Floyd, Director of Operations, Bushwood Investments, LLC.
The “observer effect” made it hard to correct recurring issues and inconsistencies that might negatively impact the guest experience.
Bushwood needed three things:
- to be sure every visit met the same high standards,
- to reliably quantify intangibles like cleanliness, order accuracy, and hospitality, and
- to incorporate that information into decision-making processes.
Bushwood turned to Intouch Insight and its mystery shopping program to help close that visibility gap.
The Solution: Partnering for an Unbiased Perspective
From the start, the Intouch Insight team completely understood the unique challenges restaurant operators face.
“Intouch Insight knew the restaurant business inside and out, asked all the right questions, and helped us design a questionnaire that reflected our goals.” — Travis Floyd, Director of Operations, Bushwood Investments, LLC
The setup process was simple and collaborative, as the Bushwood team worked with Intouch to design a program that captures the information needed to continually maintain the pulse of what's going on across all their locations.
“The platform itself was a big selling point,” Floyd said. “It’s user-friendly, intuitive, and makes it easy to sort results by date or location. We can see our progress at a glance.”
At last, Bushwood had the ongoing, unbiased data necessary to understand their customers’ daily experiences with the brand. The program highlighted patterns across regions, helping the team identify and rectify issues both at individual locations and system-wide.
“That level of insight helps us coach more effectively,” Floyd said. “We can pinpoint areas that need attention and share best practices across the group.”
One especially valuable discovery was that the crew member behind the register is crucial to the guest experience. According to mystery shopper data, friendliness during that first point of contact shapes the customer’s perception of the entire visit.
“That finding opened our eyes and reminded us how much first impressions matter. We started reinforcing training and expectations around that initial guest interaction, and it’s made a real difference,” Floyd said.
The Result: Celebrating Wins and Inspiring Improvement
The results were immediate. Since adopting Intouch Insight’s mystery shopping program, Bushwood Investments has experienced improvements in both customer satisfaction and operational consistency.
“Our stores are outperforming the chain in both sales and customer count. There are many factors behind that, but improving the guest experience is definitely one of them. When customers have a great experience, they’re more likely to come back, and our numbers reflect that.” — Travis Floyd, Director of Operations, Bushwood Investments, LLC.
Average mystery shopping scores skyrocketed to 93%, with several locations earning a perfect score multiple times. The store team, area manager, and Floyd receive reports after each visit, and each report influences ongoing coaching efforts and future leadership development.
“Our managers are excited to see their scores. When they do well, they celebrate with their crews. When they don’t, they take the feedback seriously and make changes,” Floyd said.
Scores become a part of managers' performance reviews. When combined with key performance indicators like cost of goods sold and sales, the scores deliver a balanced picture of each location’s overall health.
“When a store scores 100%, we shout them out in team emails and at ops meetings. We put their name up on the board and celebrate the win. It’s been a great morale booster.” — Travis Floyd, Director of Operations, Bushwood Investments, LLC.
The scores also provide opportunities to drive improvements at stores that aren't performing as well operationally. Instead of leadership going into a restaurant and telling the manager what they think should be done, the scores are a way to objectively share customer-focused feedback. Managers can understand what a customer saw, heard, and experienced, and those firsthand accounts are impactful for teams, leaders, and restaurants.
"If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” Floyd says. “We’ve always tracked financial metrics, but now we have a way to measure the customer experience with the same precision.”
Floyd further credits Intouch Insight with giving his team the visibility they needed to maximize guest experiences across all 28 locations.
“All the data in the world comes down to one question: Are we delivering a great customer experience?” Floyd said. “Intouch connects that data to the customer’s perspective, and that’s incredibly powerful.”
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Sarah Beckett : May 23, 2025
Sarah Beckett