THE CIRCULAR SECRET SHOPPER PROGRAMME
Thanks for being part of The Circular Secret Shopper Programme.
Your job is simple: visit The Circular as a normal customer, enjoy yourself, pay attention to your experience and tell us honestly what happened.
We want to understand what it's really like to be a guest — what we're doing well, what we could do better, and the little things we might otherwise never see.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
The Circular is a neighbourhood pub. We want it to feel warm, relaxed, welcoming and well cared for.
Great hospitality here isn't about formal or scripted service. It's about noticing people, reading the room and doing the simple things well.
Someone making eye contact when you're waiting. A friendly hello. Clearing the glasses from your table. Making a genuinely useful recommendation. Noticing you need something before you have to ask. Saying goodbye when you leave.
Together, those little things determine whether somewhere simply serves customers or genuinely looks after people.
We're interested in your whole experience, but there are three things we specifically want you to watch for on every visit.
1. EARLY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & THE BEER MAT GESTURE
DID YOU FEEL SEEN?
The Circular has a relaxed pub style of service. The layout of our Main Bar can also be a little ambiguous for someone visiting for the first time — it may not immediately be obvious whether you've walked into a pub, a restaurant or somewhere in between, or whether you should sit down, order at the bar or wait for someone to come to you.
That's our job to solve, not the customer's.
We want every newly seated guest to be acknowledged promptly.
THE BEER MAT GESTURE
We're training our team to use something very simple: the beer mat.
When you take a table, a member of staff should approach with beer mats.
This gives them a natural opportunity to make contact, say hello, establish whether you've visited before, explain how things work if necessary, answer questions and make you feel welcome.
The beer mat itself isn't really the objective.
It's a hospitality tool.
The important thing is what flows from it:
Beer mat → contact → conversation → orientation → care.
We want this to happen consistently, so please make a particular point of noticing whether the Beer Mat Gesture happens during your visit.
Ask yourself:
Did someone approach with beer mats? Did the interaction feel natural and welcoming? And afterwards, did you feel that you'd been seen and were being looked after?
2. VISIBLE CARE
COULD YOU SEE THAT SOMEBODY CARED?
We don't just want The Circular to be clean.
We want it to feel actively cared for.
During your visit, you should see staff moving through the venue, collecting glasses, clearing tables, wiping surfaces, dealing with spills and generally noticing what needs attention.
We're specifically training our team to clear and reset vacated tables within approximately five minutes, where reasonably practical.
But there's another part to this.
When a staff member walks over to clear a table, they're already out in the room and beside other customers. That's an opportunity for hospitality.
We want them to look around. Does the next table need glasses collected? Does somebody want another drink? Is somebody trying to get their attention?
A simple "Everything alright?" can turn a cleaning task into a hospitality moment.
During your visit, notice:
Are vacated tables cleared and reset within roughly five minutes?
Are empty glasses and plates collected?
Do you see staff clearing, wiping and tidying?
Do staff notice and acknowledge customers around them while doing it?
Are spills and obvious mess dealt with?
Are the terrace and smoking areas being looked after?
Ultimately, ask yourself:
Could I actually see that caring for the venue was a priority?
3. TOILETS
Toilets tell you a lot about how well a venue is being looked after.
We also know this is an area where we haven't always been as consistent as we'd like to be. That's exactly why we've made it one of the priorities of the programme.
We're not asking you to hunt for tiny imperfections.
At some point during your visit, simply check four things:
1. FLOOR
Clean and free from obvious spills or litter.
2. TOILET PAPER
Available in the cubicles.
3. SINKS & MIRRORS
Clean and wiped.
4. BINS
Tidy and not overflowing.
That's it.
We want a simple, consistent picture of whether we're getting the basics right.
THE REST OF YOUR EXPERIENCE
Those are our three specific priorities, but don't spend your evening mentally ticking boxes.
Come in as a customer first and a Secret Shopper second.
Notice the things you would naturally notice.
Was it easy to get served? Were the staff friendly? Did they know their stuff? Did someone make a useful recommendation? Did interactions feel natural? Did the venue feel well managed?
Did somebody do something small or thoughtful that made your visit better?
If something went wrong, what happened next? Did somebody listen, take ownership and try to make it right?
And when you left, did somebody notice, thank you or say goodbye?
SERVICE VS HOSPITALITY
There's a simple distinction we find useful:
Service is whether the things that needed to happen, happened.
Hospitality is how the experience made you feel.
We're interested in both.
HOW YOUR VISIT WORKS
1. CHOOSE YOUR VISIT
Select one of the available Secret Shopper dates.
2. VISIT THE CIRCULAR
Walk in or make a reservation and behave exactly as you normally would.
3. ENJOY YOURSELF
Have some drinks, get some food and experience The Circular normally.
4. COMPLETE YOUR FEEDBACK
Complete your Secret Shopper feedback form within 3–24 hours of your visit while everything is still fresh.
5. UPLOAD YOUR RECEIPT
You'll be asked to include your receipt or proof of purchase with your feedback.
6. WE'LL PICK UP THE BILL
You can choose either reimbursement of your spend up to €80, or a €130 voucher for The Circular.
KEEP IT SECRET
Our team know the Secret Shopper Programme exists.
They don't know who our Secret Shoppers are or when they're coming.
That's important.
Please don't take obvious notes, fill in the feedback form during your visit or do anything else that might identify you.
We want you to receive exactly the same experience as every other customer.
GIVING US USEFUL FEEDBACK
We're not looking for perfect scores.
Pubs are busy places. Drinks can take a little longer. Something gets spilled. Mistakes happen.
Sometimes how somebody responds when something goes wrong tells us more about our hospitality than everything going perfectly.
The most useful thing you can give us is specific feedback.
Rather than:
"Service was good. 9/10."
Tell us what actually happened.
Mention particular interactions, things you noticed and staff names where you know them.
Good feedback matters too. If somebody was brilliant, we want to know about it and recognise them.
ONE LAST REMINDER
Enjoy yourself and trust your instincts.
But remember the three things we need every Secret Shopper to specifically observe:
THE BEER MAT GESTURE & EARLY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Did someone approach, make contact and make you feel welcome?
VISIBLE CARE
Could you see staff actively looking after the room and the people in it?
TOILETS
Did they meet the four basic standards?
Then zoom back out.
Did you feel welcome?
Did you feel looked after?
Did the place feel cared for?
Did the staff seem like they cared?
Did you leave wanting to come back?
We're not trying to catch anyone out.
We're trying to see The Circular through the eyes of our guests, recognise what we're doing well and keep making the experience better.