What Makes Pint Insights Different?
Most secret shopping companies send someone to check if your server smiled and the bathroom had soap. That's fine. But if you're in the bar and restaurant business, there's a lot more on the line.
We only shop bars and restaurants. Most mystery shopping companies will send someone to evaluate a mechanic in the morning, a cell phone store in the afternoon, and a restaurant at night. We don't do that. Bars and restaurants are all we do, which means our criteria, our shoppers, and our process are built specifically for your industry, not adapted from a generic service template.
We only hire shoppers who've worked in the industry. Here's something worth thinking about: when someone who has spent years working in bars and restaurants goes out for dinner, they experience it completely differently than everyone else at the table. They notice the table turn time, the suggestive sell that didn't happen, the pint that came out looking flat, the server who disappeared for 12 minutes.
They're not just enjoying the meal. They're analysing hundreds of details automatically, because that's what years in the business does to you.
Every Pint Insights shopper has that instinct. They've worked as servers, bartenders, or managers. You're not getting someone who jumped at the chance for a free meal. You're getting someone who is there to work and who gets paid like it. Our shoppers earn significantly more per shop than the industry standard because we expect significantly more from them. That difference shows up in your report.
Every shop includes a draught evaluation. No exceptions. Our team has poured many tens of thousands of pints. We check the pour, the glass, the head, and the temperature, and whether your server smiled or not. If you're serving draught beer, you're getting a complete picture of how it's being handled.
Who We Work With
You're already getting shopped. Is beer on the checklist?
If you run a chain or a multi-location operation, you've probably used a mystery shopping service before. They check the basics — greeting time, food temperature, cleanliness, service flow. All important stuff.
But here's what most shops miss: draught beer quality is one of the highest-margin, highest-visibility parts of your business, and nobody's checking it. A warm pint in the wrong glass with no head isn't just a bad experience; it's a reason for a guest not to come back.
Pint Insights shops cover everything you'd expect from a professional mystery shop, plus a full draught quality evaluation on every visit. You get the complete picture to understand how your guests experience their pints.
Are servers actually recommending your beer or just saying they are?
You've put together a server incentive program. You're running a contest, pushing a feature, or trying to move volume at a key account. The question is: is it working?
You have no way of knowing unless someone walks in and checks.
Pint Insights gives breweries a direct line of sight into what's happening at the account level. Our shoppers will visit your target locations, order from the bar or a server, and report back on whether your beer was suggested, how it was poured, what temperature it was served at, and whether it was served in the right glass. If there's a problem, you'll know, and you'll have the documentation to back it up.
Stop guessing whether your investment in trade marketing is paying off. Find out.
Improve
Don't Take Our Word For It...
"We've been using Pint Insights at 10 of our Canlan locations every quarter since 2019. What sets them apart is the beer focus — our previous shops never looked at draught quality, and that's a big part of what we sell. Having someone come in with a thermometer and evaluate the pour gives us the level of detail we weren't getting elsewhere.
The shoppers clearly understand the industry, and the reports provide concrete information we can bring back to our teams. It's become a standard part of how we manage our food and beverage program.
Draught beer represents close to 50% of revenue across our 10 full-service restaurants nationwide. Pint Insights allows us to use this measuring tool to set a standard for service and operation excellence."
Rob Smith
National Food and Beverage Manager, CanLan Ice Sports
Simple Clear Pricing
We believe in transparent pricing.
It's frustrating when companies conceal their pricing and require a 60-minute demo to reveal it. Shops can be purchased individually or in bulk and are valid for 1 year.
Choose Your Shop
The Full House puts us in your restaurant as a guest. We work through the full experience. From the moment we walk in to the moment we leave. Server greeting, menu knowledge, food temperature, wait times, washrooms, and more. Over 70 criteria evaluated and documented.
The Pint Check is laser-focused on one thing: the beer. We order a pint, we watch the pour, and we evaluate everything about how that beer is served: glassware type, proper head, temperature, presentation, glassware cleanliness, and whether your staff recommended it in the first place. 20+ checks, all about the pint.
Both shops include a draught evaluation. The difference is scope.
You may find cheaper shops out there. Some companies charge as little as $95 and pay their shoppers $8 to $25 per assignment. At that rate, you're paying for someone to enjoy a meal and fill out a form. We pay our shoppers $50-80 per shop and cover their entire F&B bill because we expect professional-grade work from people who know exactly what they're looking at.
The price difference between a budget provider and us is much smaller than the difference in what you get back.
The Full House
Use of Pint Insights Full House Base Shop
Criteria Changes $3 each
One Time Set Up Fee $199
Per Shop Fee:
$209 plus F&B cost
Use of Pint Insights Full House Base Shop
Criteria Changes $2 each
One Time Set Up Fee $159
Per Shop Fee:
$199 plus F&B cost
Use of Pint Insights Full House Base Shop
Criteria Changes $1 each
One Time Set Up Fee $99
Per Shop Fee:
$189 plus F&B cost
Use of Pint Insights Full House Base Shop
Criteria Changes $0
One-Time Set-Up Fee $0
Per Shop Fee:
$179 plus F&B cost
The Pint Check
Use of Pint Check Base Shop
Criteria Changes $3 each
One Time Set Up Fee $129
Per Shop Fee:
$149 plus Pint cost
Use of Pint Check Base Shop
Criteria Changes $2 each
One Time Set Up Fee $99
Per Shop Fee:
$129 plus Pint cost
Use of Pint Check Base Shop
Criteria Changes $1 each
One Time Set Up Fee $59
Per Shop Fee:
$109 plus Pint cost
Use of Pint Check Base Shop
Criteria Changes $0
One-Time Set-Up Fee $0
Per Shop Fee:
$99 plus Pint cost
Why Pint Insights Exists
I've stood where your staff stands. I know what actually happens.
I spent 12 years in the restaurant business — starting in the kitchen and working my way through every position until I became a GM at 26, leading a team of over 100 people at one of the top-performing locations in a chain of 20 restaurants.
It was in that role that I first lost faith in mystery shopping. Reports would come back quoting menu items we didn't sell and calling out servers who weren't even working that night. The people doing the shops clearly had no idea what they were looking at. I stopped trusting the reports entirely.
After restaurants, I spent five years teaching hospitality at George Brown College. In 2005, I started a draught service company, where in addition to draught system maintenance and repairs, I offered staff training as a service. I've trained thousands of bar staff on upselling and draught quality and I've been working exclusively in the draught beer industry ever since.
In 2019, several of our Better Beer clients came to us frustrated. They were using a mystery shopping company, the shops were cheap, and the reports were unreliable. Sound familiar? They asked if we could do something better. We did, and the response was overwhelming. So we built Pint Insights to make it available to everyone.
This isn't a side project. It's built on 30 years of being in and around this industry, and a genuine belief that beer deserves better.
If you're ready to find out what's really happening in your restaurants, let's talk.
Steve Riley steve@BetterBeer.com (888) 811-2337