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Mystery shopping is another great way to earn extra income. As a mystery shopper, you can select specific covert assignments to complete from mystery shopping companies. The more assignments you complete, the more money you earn. You may even get reimbursed for some of your purchases at stores. You can sign up to work with as many mystery shopping companies as you want, and this is a fun, unique way to earn extra money in your free time.

About Becoming a Mystery Shopper

Many businesses utilise mystery shoppers to help evaluate their services. These shoppers, also known as secret shoppers, consume goods and services as though they are regular consumers and report the details of their experiences to the business. The company is then able to use these reports to determine what areas of their business require improvement.

What Type of Businesses Are Involved in Mystery Shopping?

Any type of business that involves customer interaction can benefit from the use of a secret shopper. Typical clients include grocery and retail stores, hotels, restaurants and service stations. Business that feature public interaction but do not typically refer to their consumers as customers also use mystery shopper services. These companies include car dealers, resorts and amusement parks.

How Does the Process Work?

In order to allow the most impartial consumer reports, companies do not hire mystery shoppers directly. Instead, businesses hire a third party secret shopper company and that company hires the mystery shopping evaluators. Though the businesses make up a list of factors to evaluate, the third party mystery shopper company is responsible for the hiring, training and paying of mystery shoppers.

What Kind of Things Does a Mystery Shopper Evaluate?

The exact types of things that a shopper will look for when they are on assignment for a client depend upon the business’ needs and specific requirements. But businesses commonly ask for shoppers to examine how long they have to wait before they receive a greeting, how quickly they are serviced and how clean the location is. Shoppers may also evaluate whether the employees are following the dress code and following other company policies. During times of heavy promotion for specific products, companies may hire secret shoppers to make sure employers are suggesting that particular product during a greeting.

What Other Responsibilities Does a Secret Shopper Have?

When they accept their assignment, a shopper agrees to perform their shopping at a specific day and time. Some services allow a shopper to purchase whatever they want during a trip. Other companies will want the shopper to purchase a specific product or food.

During their shopping experience, a mystery shopper must take note of a variety of details that may include employee names. While notes should be taken after the shopping trip, the secret shopper risks not being paid for their job if they give away the fact that they are a mystery shopper. This can be tricky in some instances, because the business may require photographs or recordings of conversations with employees.

Following the trip, a shopper has a limited amount of time to submit the evaluation and receipts to the online mystery shopper company that hired them.

What Kind of Pay Does a Secret Shopper Receive?

It can take up to two months after the initial shopping trip for the shopper to receive payment. The payment itself varies depending upon the company and the type of evaluation required. Some companies may only offer a reimbursement of the goods purchased during the shopping trip. Other companies offer both reimbursement and a small pay of $10 to $15.

How Do You Apply For a Mystery Shopper Job?

An Internet search for mystery shopper jobs can be overwhelming for a prospective shopper. One good place to begin a search is this website: Mystery Shopper Jobs. This website researches and reports on shopping companies that have earned a reputation for being fair and have proven not to be scams. Their list of companies comes from experiences of other mystery shoppers.

Once a potential shopper finds a list of potential shopping companies that they are interested in working for, the shopper must submit an online application. The time that the application is approved will vary depending on the company.

Approval of an application will grant the shopper access to a list of the company’s shopping assignments. Successful shoppers will check the list often and will apply only to the assignments that they know they can fulfil. Most companies will limit or reject shoppers who pick assignments and do not finish them.

How Does a Shopper Avoid a Scam?

Some mystery shopping scams do exist. A smart secret shopper will avoid any company that advertises through newspapers or e-mail. Another warning sign of a potential scam is a company that makes their shoppers pay for access to the assignments or makes their shoppers pay for a certification before they can shop. Shoppers should also avoid any company that guarantees an income or certain amount of assignments.

Many reputable secret shopper companies also belong to the Mystery Shopper Providers Association. Potential shoppers may wish to avoid any company that does not belong to the organization as a way to protect themselves from scams.

How Can New Mystery Shoppers Be Successful?

When first starting out, a mystery shopper should apply to multiple shopping companies and check their assignment database regularly to make sure that they have the best opportunity to apply for assignments. In particularly crowded and competitive shopping companies, new shoppers may have to take the less glamorous assignments in order to build a good reputation.

A successful shopper must also pay careful attention to detail, especially when picking and fulfilling their assignments. Not paying attention to details can result in not getting paid.

Above all else, mystery shoppers should be realistic in evaluating whether or not an assignment is worth their time. If you are only getting paid a small $10 fee and it is taking over five hours to complete the assignment, it would be worth your time to skip the assignment and move on to one that takes less time to complete.