About Us

About Us


Introducing HGEM

Our Story

HGEM are the market leaders in Guest Experience Management. With over 20 years of experience and having worked with most of the brands across UK high-streets throughout the years, you can be sure HGEM are the experts in helping hospitality businesses grow through actionable guest insights.


HGEM - Hospitality Guest Experience Management

HGEM has always been a pioneer. We created the term ‘Guest Experience Management’ (GEM) in 2016 as part of our mission to empower hospitality businesses through adopting GEM as a core business discipline. We wanted to go further than just monitoring feedback by actively managing the experience of guests and generating a culture of continuous improvement within teams.

Fast forward a few years, and we can proudly state our mission is flourishing - Guest Experience Management is now considered a common business practice across the industry. Many businesses are employing ‘Guest Experience Managers’ that use our original GEM framework and award-winning platform - The Hub.

But the pioneering spirit goes back further than that. In our original guise as The Mystery Dining Company, back in 2003, we created the term ‘mystery dining’ as a specialist form of mystery shopping. It reflected the deeper and longer experiences that are typical in hospitality, as compared with retail. Hot on the heels of the dot.com explosion, we were the first to use the internet to provide next-day reporting.

Throughout our story, we have valued working with clients that have a similar pioneering spirit. Together, we drive each other forward, always striving for innovative ways to achieve the ultimate goal of giving guests a great experience that they talk about, in order to build future sales. Some of our larger clients include wagamama, Pret a Manger, Brewdog, Lounges and Heineken’s Star Pubs & Bars. But we also enjoy working with many smaller businesses, sometimes with only a handful of sites but with bagfuls of ambition and creative ideas. Altogether, we support over 10,000 restaurants, pubs, hotels, cinemas and caterers.

Our service includes designated Client Success Managers, who ensure our clients get the best value out of our products. Most of the Client team have hospitality backgrounds, which enables them to understand the operational challenges and the factors that lead to success within a hospitality business.

We believe in developing close partnerships with our client contacts, helping them become the heroes of their team and leading the business to success.


Our People

Many of our people have joined us having worked in the hospitality industry and so it truly has shaped who we are and the way we behave. We understand the pressures and challenges of your teams because we have been there, and we’re passionate about supporting you to deliver a great guest experience every time. We were also crowned Employer of the Year at the Bath Live Business Awards.

Paul Watts

Paul Watts

Technical Lead

Leading the technical team to design and build fantastic software to help our clients have the very best insight into their business.

Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis

Infrastructure Manager

I really enjoy identifying the scope for enabling greater innovation and collaboration for internal teams and our clients and working together to deliver new value.

Sari Fenne

Sari Fenne

Mystery Guest Advisor

I really enjoy reading about all the different places our diners get to visit and feel lucky to be working in such a supportive friendly team.

Lloyd Williams

Lloyd Williams

Senior Business Intelligence Developer

Our Business Intelligence solutions are inspired by translating your needs into technical specifications. Our data drives actions through insight, allowing you to focus on what matters to you.

Ben Edwards

Ben Edwards

Mystery Guest Advisor

I really enjoy working to improve and empower hospitality amongst such a friendly and supportive team.

Olivia Charlton

Olivia Charlton

Client Success Manager

I like the opportunity to help provide solutions for our clients by mystery dining and evaluating their standards of service through Hub data.

Blanche Chivers

Blanche Chivers

Business Analyst

I adore my job, seeing such great results from all our hard work, all whilst working in such a positive & friendly environment!

Samantha Grimes

Samantha Grimes

Assessment Quality Manager

I love working in such a friendly positive team and speaking with our mystery guests about their dining experiences.

Nick Nikolenko

Nick Nikolenko

Software Engineer

I like being part of a team that solves complex problems and has fun doing it.

Lauren Gould

Lauren Gould

Head of Operations

I enjoy engaging with our clients and learning about what they are trying to achieve, then in partnership with them, building a solution that can support and help them reach their targets. I’m proud to work in such a fantastic industry.

Jess Ward

Jess Ward

Assessment Technical Coordinator

I love helping others and solving problems, every day is different and there’s always a chance to learn something new and improve the experience of all users

Charlotte Fisher

Charlotte Fisher

Client Success Manager

I enjoy diving into the data on the Hub to understand customer habits and dining experiences to support our clients to be the best they can be – all while working with an amazing team!

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Our Mystery Guests

At HGEM we are fortunate to have a fantastic community of mystery guests that we try hard to nurture and support as stakeholders in 'empowering hospitality'. In return, they go the extra mile to provide detailed and practical feedback on their experiences.

If you are interested in becoming one of our mystery guests, please go to mysterydining.net.

Learn more about what we do