Our Mission
Better Service Through Better Measurement
Reality Check is celebrating over 30 years of helping companies evaluate and improve their customer experiences. We believe that successful companies care deeply about their customers, and we want to make it easy and efficient for those companies to see themselves through the eyes of the people they serve.
We provide mystery shopping and other customer experience evaluation services throughout North America and around the globe. Our clients include retail stores, grocery stores, call centers, restaurants, property management, internet retailers, casinos, and hotels.
We believe in creating long term relationships. As such we are committed to providing responsive, personal service, and customized evaluation plans based on a deep understanding of your unique needs.
What We Do
Social Media Monitoring
Monitor all of your Social Media activity. Easy tools to manage, respond and track online reviews.
Mystery Shopping
A comprehensive, unbiased evaluation of company standards and service techniques
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Capture the specific events that make or break customer experiences and track performance over time
Audits & Internal Scorecards
Track compliance and performance with easy to use tools for your team's internal scorecards or checklists.
Our Team
Our dedicated management team is committed to ensuring your relationship with Reality Check is valuable, personal and drama-free.
Ross Thomas
Co-founder & CEO
Ross is a University of Washington graduate with over 27 yrs of customer service & research experience. He enjoys working closely with clients to develop tailored strategies to increase levels of customer service and profitability. Ross served on the Board of Directors for the MSPA, a professional organization of mystery shopper companies, from 2004-2007.
Bret Stewart
Co-founder & Director
Bret develops customized plans to apply real world solutions based on gathered data. In addition to his role at Reality Check, he is President of CenterTwist Inc, a multi-unit owner/operator of restaurant franchises. Bret is a University of Washington Business School graduate, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Restaurant Association.
Angie Harkleroad
Project Manager
Angie brings 18 years of customer service and project management experience to her role at Reality Check, where she oversees collaboration & communication between clients and the RC team to ensure project effectiveness. Angie is a master coordinator, able to connect the dots between QA, scheduling and strategic development.
Rebecca Johnson
Editing Partner
Rebecca is the founder and owner of RJ Editing. She brings over 17 years of Mystery Shopping and customer service expertise to her role coordinating and managing our editing team. She ensures all reports and programs adhere to rigorous and customized client standards. Rebecca is a graduate of Western Washington University and has been a Gold Certification Test Editor for the MSPA since 2008.
Barbara Akst
Training Partner
Barbara is the founder and CEO of Training Unlimited of Virginia LLC, with over 30 years of experience in developing and presenting personalized training programs based on customer needs. Barbara has Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration, and she is a nationally recognized trainer and motivational speaker.
Our History
Based in Seattle, WA, Reality Check was founded in 1994 to address the needs of both large and small companies and provide them the tools to measure and improve customer service. We began as a regional mystery shopping company covering the western U.S. By early 1998, we had begun developing one of the first online Mystery Shopping platforms, enabling us to expand our business to cover all of North America as well as global accounts while still maintaining the “small company” feel.
We draw from one of the largest databases in the industry, containing over 75,000 active mystery shoppers. Our company has been featured in numerous business publications and programs on MSNBC, ABC, National Public Radio, Chain Store Age, and many local network affiliates.
Reality Check is a proud member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, a professional organization of mystery shopper companies adhering to commonly held business values and standards.
