Kaufman Enterprises launches mystery shopping to improve McDonald's guest experience

Kaufman Enterprises, the Long Island McDonald’s operator behind 16 restaurants in the region, launched a guest-experience initiative on April 15 built around independent mystery shopping and real-time observation of customer interactions. The program pairs Kaufman with Market Force Information and is designed to track what guests see from the moment they enter the lot or hit the drive-thru lane through the end of the visit.

For crew members and shift managers, that kind of program usually lands in the details that shape a rush: how quickly orders are taken, whether greetings sound consistent, whether food is handed out accurately, whether the lobby and restrooms are kept up, and how well a store handles a dinner surge or a sudden drive-thru flood. Because the model uses outside shoppers to document the customer journey, it can turn everyday floor work into a scored performance measure, which often means more coaching, more follow-up on service misses and, in some stores, firmer expectations around speed and cleanliness.

Kaufman Enterprises said the effort was meant to capture a deeper picture of changing guest expectations while fitting into existing restaurant workflows. That matters inside a McDonald’s kitchen because new measurement systems do not just evaluate managers after the fact. They can shape how openings are run, how drive-thru positions are staffed, and how often leaders pull crew off the line for service reminders during peak periods. If the data are used well, workers can get clearer feedback; if they are used bluntly, they can feel like one more layer of pressure on already tight shifts.

The move also reflects the franchise structure that defines McDonald’s in the United States. McDonald’s says about 95% of its restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business owners, and nearly 90% of its U.S. restaurants are run by roughly 5,000 independent small- and mid-sized operators. The company describes that model as being “in business for yourself, but not by yourself,” and Kaufman’s initiative fits that balance, a local operator building its own quality system inside the broader McDonald’s brand.

The Kaufman name has long been tied to the chain on Long Island. A 2018 profile said Josh Kaufman, his father Jonah and his grandfather Irv Klein owned and operated 16 McDonald’s restaurants across Long Island, and Josh Kaufman had been an operator since 2008. A 2024 report said Jonah Kaufman owned 10 other McDonald’s locations on Long Island and two in Patchogue. With Market Force now watching the guest journey from the outside, Kaufman Enterprises is signaling that the next round of accountability will be measured store by store, not left to anecdote or instinct.