Mystery Shoppers

Have you ever wanted a job that combined several of your favorite interests? A job that pays you to get up every morning and do the same things you would do in your spare time? Of course you have!

A job that allows you to do the things you love and get paid for it is perhaps the perfect work scenario. It means never feeling like you’ve spent the day in the office but instead means feeling like you’ve just had the day off. If you are someone who enjoys shopping, interacting with people, flexible work schedules and never sitting in a cubicle, then a mystery shopper job might be perfect!

By becoming a mystery shopper you can combine a love for shopping with the ability to make money all at once.

Mystery Shopping is a process that measures the quality of a certain service. It means that as a mystery shopper you are hired to pose as an everyday person in order to assess the quality of the company or service you are examining. Mystery shoppers attend events, shop in stores, ask questions, file complaints and talk with employees all under the guise of being a regular, everyday person. Mystery shoppers are often given assignments where they pose as a difficult or needy customer.

The mystery shopper then reports back with an evaluation of their experience. They commonly take note on the cleanliness of the store, the personalities of employees, how well they were treated, all in addition to evaluating their overall experience. Put simply, as a Mystery Shopper you get to attend your favorite stores, ask questions about your favorite products, shop new clothing lines and test the level of service you receive as an everyday patron.

— View Mystery Shopper Job Postings —

Mystery Shopping is an excellent way for companies to test how their products and services come across to everyday people. After all, the level of success for some companies is measured in how their customers are treated and how well these customers are able to navigate, use and experience their service. Thus, mystery shoppers might attend restaurants, purchase vacations, go shopping or attend an event. In many cases, how the mystery shoppers evaluate a service greatly determines how companies proceed with their business.

For example, if a mystery shopper is asked to attend an event, and act like a difficult patron, their report might indicate that while the event was pleasant they were not treated well by employees. Thus their overall experience was hindered because of how the employees treated them.

A company uses this information in assessing that customer dissatisfaction isn’t in their product (the event) but in how employees deal with people. This allows the company to focus their efforts in the area that will most effect how a customer experiences their service. Thus, mystery shopping is commonly used by market research to evaluate where exactly, customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction lie.

In the following sections we discuss in greater detail how mystery shopping is used, who hires mystery shoppers, what a day as a mystery shopper entails, salaries as well as becoming a mystery shopper. By reading this material you will gain a greater understanding of the industry, what it means to be a mystery shopper and whether or not you could be the next person to shop for a living.