Mystery Shopping Must Haves

Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 180

Here are some great tips from Mom2 that cover the basics of mystery shopping.

Some very important sites:

1. Mystery Shoppers Providers Association at http://www.mysteryshop.org

MSPA offers:

Shopper Certification Conferences-This is not required to become a mystery shopper, although it is helpful in proving to mystery shopping companies your training and experience.

Search Mystery Shopping Companies-Search By Company Name, Location, Industry Served or Services Provided

Search Assigments-By Country, State, Province

The Forums-Bulletin Boards

The MSPA is the largest professional trade association dedicated to improving service quality using anonymous resources. With over 150 member companies worldwide, their diverse membership includes marketing research and merchandising companies, private investigation firms, training organizations and companies that specialize in providing mystery shopping services.

2. Voliton.com at http://www.volition.com is a great resource for mystery shoppers.

Some of the pertinent content includes:

Mystery Shopping Companies List-Legitimate Companies A-Z-Including International Companies

Daily Checklist

Mystery Shoppers Assignment Log

The Forums-Bulletin Boards

The Forums at Volition can be very helpful in finding out information on a company that you have never heard of, obtain current feedback on a company, network with other shoppers, find job openings, obtain information regarding Independent Contractor agreements and taxes, etc,

How to obtain shops:

DO NOT PAY TO SHOP OR OBTAIN INFORMATION ON SHOPS!

Experienced mystery shoppers will say that you should not pay to shop. Many companies that require payment or membership fees are SCAMS.

Be patient and persistent and the shops will come to you. If they can obtain this information, then so can you!

Apply to as many companies as you can. If you have grocery stores, convenience stores, banks, gas stations, fast food/restaurants in your area, then there is a good chance that you will find some shops.

It is common practice for companies to ask you to fill out a W9, your social security number or bank account/routing number.

DO NOT GIVE OUR PERSONAL INFORMATION UNLESS YOU HAVE VERIFIED THAT THEY ARE A LEGITIMATE COMPANY.

Mystery shopping companies require W9 and social security number, because they are required to provide our earnings to the IRS. Independent Contractors will be issued a 1099 Form for Income Tax if they have earned $600 or more in a calendar year.

Many companies offer direct deposit, so giving out your bank account /routing number information is entirely up to you. Other frequent payment methods include check by mail or PayPal. PayPal is a legitimate payment processing center and an eBay company. You can learn more about PayPal at http://www.paypal.com or check the feedback on Volition in regard to them.

Keep a good record of the websites, usernames and passwords. Many companies will provide you with access to self-assign or request shops right on their website. Many companies will send email notifications that shops have been posted on their sites or emails offering a specific shop. Make sure you donâ€™t have spam filters on your email, since job offers could easily get put into the deleted items/trash folder.

Check the sites daily. Check various hours of the day. Many companies post available shops at the beginning or end of the month. But many companies can post at any time, as clients sign on with them. If you request a shop and do not get accepted, do not become discouraged. Continue to request the shop. Some shops require shopper rotation, so eventually it will be your turn. The more a scheduler sees your name, the more likely they are to remember it the next time.

If you get an email offering you a shop, check the legitimacy of the email. Make sure it is a legitimate company that you have applied to shop with.

In my experience, I have obtained emails from individuals offering mystery shopping at a well-known restaurant, accepted the shop and did not get paid. The individual was in fact representing the restaurant, but was not part of a company. It turned out that the individual was in fact paid by the restaurant to locate shoppers and report information-he was simply keeping the money for himself and never paid shoppers.

Tips, Tricks and Other Information

Do not cancel a shop unless you have a serious reason. Shop cancellations cost companies money and make you look unreliable. Do not repeatedly cancel shops.

Start out small and do not pick up too many shops. Relax and do not worry that the employees know you are a shopper, trust me, they will not know. Just be yourself and pay attention.

Submit shop report on time and with accuracy. Check for spelling errors. Use adjectives. Be specific. Report only facts, not opinions. Keep detailed notes for up to 3 months. Submit additional business cards or receipts on time.

Use caution when taking notes or recording messages for shop details. Notes are best used when shopping a grocery store shop, where a grocery list is common. It would not be appropriate for, say, a cell phone shop. Do not use a cell phone to record messages when completing a casual dining assignment, this makes you appear unapproachable and may affect service timings. Use caution when leaving a cell phone message, later you may find that your message is inaudible due to interference/bad reception.

Do not inform everyone you know that you mystery shop. Not only does this possibly compromise your shopper identity, later you may find that they are competing for the same shops you wanted.

Many shops require specific electronics/equipment, such as a scanner, fax machine, digital camera, digital timer/stopwatch, or printer. You can find plenty of shops that do not require all or any of this equipment. Scanners or fax machines are used to scan and submit business cards, receipts or payment invoices. There are many digital shops available that require a series of photographs. If you own a digital camera, take the time to learn how to download the images to your computer, rename and email them. A digital timer/stopwatch is frequently used for fast food shops to obtain service timings. Sometimes you are required to print a shop report and mail it to the company. It is very convenient to print the location of a shop, time and shop details to take with you on an assigned shop. You can then file this information by date and later verify that you have been paid.

You should not bring anyone with you on a shop; unless your shop instructions clearly state that this is acceptable. Specifically, bringing children on a shop can be a distraction. There are times that it is acceptable, some restaurant shops or daycares. Remember, you are providing a service in which you need to report with 100 percent accuracy what occurred. Many clients are requesting their companies to be shopped to check on regular service and/or service problems, and you wouldnâ€™t want someone fired because you reported something inaccurately.

Remember, mystery shopping is not a full time income. While many shops pay a flat fee, generally speaking, there are more reimbursement shops available. I generally make from $300-$500 or more in any given month, however, much of my *income* is reimbursement for grocery or retail purchases, fast food/restaurant reimbursement, movie theater reimbursement, etc. It really does put extra money in your pocket though, its money you spent on groceries and got paid back for, so essentially, you got those groceries for free. Most reimbursement retail shops are very minimal amounts from $1-$9 or so. Fast food and restaurants are usually from $5-$50, more for upscale dining establishments. There are some really good topics on Volition-I donâ€™t remember the topic, but it is similar to: â€œYou know you are a mystery shopper whenâ€...you have 20 bags of kitty litter and only have 1 cat, you have a glovebox full of ketchup packets, you have public restroom pictures in your digital camera, your child refers to shopping as â€œshopsâ€, etc. Itâ€™s really very funny for those of us who know what they are talking about.

HAVE FUN!

It is not as hard as it may sound. In fact, it is quite rewarding if you do your job correctly. Even if you have not yet obtained shops, start practicing now obtaining names and descriptions of the people you come into contact with at local places you visit. You will be surprised to realize that you never before have noticed someoneâ€™s name or hair color. Pay attention to details such as whether the employee smiled and gave you their undivided attention or ignored you and chatted away with another employee. These are things you will be looking for.

Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 143 Location: Florida

Anybody ever have much success with this? I did it years ago and honestly it wasn't worth my time and now with the price of gas it seems it will be even less.

I still have one company that sends me emails and driving 25 minutes for an $8 shop would probably cost more in gas.