I guess my topic name is quite indicating what I am going to share with you today. A lot of people might not know what mystery shopping is basically, and what it can do to us and how we can earn from, whether can we really earn or not? since this has been the thing, let me share one thing that it is quite obvious that you can easily earn from mystery shopping now let’s see what mystery shopping is.
What is Mystery Shopper?
A mystery shopper is a paid consumer who is hired to shop in stores and collect data. Mystery shopping is a method used by marketing research companies and organizations that wish to measure sales and service quality, job performance using mystery shoppers as paid consumers.
The term mystery shopping or secret shopping is used by organizations involved in marketing research. Mystery shopping or secret shopping is used to gauge sales and service quality, regulatory compliance, and job performance. Sometimes, the mystery shopping method collects specific information regarding competing organizations’ products, quality, service, pricing, promotional activities, and strategies.
In simple words, mystery shopping is directed by third parties, and they pay you for shopping in the market of your area and give them feedback about the products and service.
Now, what are the objectives/Goals of mystery shopping?
The major goal of mystery shopping is to identify the potential areas to improve and offer better quality services and/or products upon getting the feedback, how the organization is getting perceived compared to the other competing companies in the same portfolio from the customers end-users’ perspective.
MEASURE AND MONITOR YOUR BRAND STANDARDS
Cleanliness and general appearance of location – both interior and exterior
Cleanliness, functionality, and stock condition of restrooms
Customer thank you and invitation to return
Impact of team training
On-site branding and operational compliance
Overall on-site customer experience
The overall quality of product or service
Product/service selection and availability
Upselling of additional products and services
Emotive and experiential perceptions of the customer
Salesforce effectiveness
Team member appearance, friendliness, and engagement
Wait and service time.
Upon utilizing such valuable information, collected through Mystery shopping, the organizations can enhance their products’ sales, create happier and satisfied customers, eventually, achieve organizational financial and commercial goals.
What Mystery Shoppers do?
A mystery shopper is an individual who is inducted to collect information and data from the various stores by posing him or her as a real customer. Mystery shoppers may be termed as “Undercover Buyers,” who are supposed to visit a real marketplace to observe closely, interact fairly and make and share the report on the way employees deal with the customers. Sometimes, organizations have their own mystery shoppers, who do this job for them, and sometimes, the same services are acquired from third-party sources.
Reputed mystery shopping organizations give a secret list of tasks to them to accomplish. Upon completing such tasks, mystery shoppers must submit a comprehensive report back to their reporting managers. Many tasks including, cleanliness, employees’ behavior with the customers, level of quality of services offered to the customers, and many more, may be given to the mystery shoppers.
Is mystery shopper legit?
Mystery shopping is a legitimate business. However, some mystery shopper organizations use many scams to steal money under a secret shopper program’s guise. The main rule in this business is that mystery shoppers should never wire money or buy gift cards for a mystery shopping assignment or any job opportunity.
How to Become a Mystery Shopper?
To become a mystery shopper, you need to apply using an online application in wished mystery shopping organization. Every adult person can become a Mystery Shopper and make extra money as a mystery shopper if he applies to a mystery shopping website, visits retail stores, follows the secret shopper rules, and creates reports.
Step 1: How to make an online application as a mystery shopper?
Identify and make a list of the reputed mystery shopping organizations in your vicinity.
Mystery shopping organizations are:
- MarketForce the best mystery shopping organization in the USA and worldwide.
- A Closer Look mystery shopping
- Intelli mystery shopping,
- GBW mystery shopping,
- Perstrat Healthcare
- Mystery Shopping,
- Pinnacle Mystery shopping
- Quest for Best Mystery shopping.
Step 2:
Get paid to shop mystery shoppers: create an Account or Signup through mystery shopping organizations’ websites.
Step3:
Start shopping and make reports.
Note The more organizations you signup for, the more chances you to get hired to make money easily.
Skills required to become a mystery, shoppers
The following are the competencies and skills required to become a mystery shoppers, although not a big deal, especially for the students. People can make up to $14,000 in a year as secret shoppers by performing tasks on weekends, during lunch breaks, or while coming back home from work.
- Own transport
- Interpersonal Skills
- Communication Skills
- Time Management Skills
- Comprehensive Writing Skills
- Ability to follow and fulfill the deadlines
- A good memory to retain information collected