Sunday, June 22, 2008

What is a Mystery Shopper?

By Ethan Hunter

Even though mystery shopping is a big business these days, not many people actually know what it means. However, in order to become a mystery shopper it is actually fairly simple and it could be really rewarding too. As well as earning a little extra money and being able to get products for free, mystery shopping allows you to help out businesses which want to improve. You will usually work for a mystery shopping company and as a mystery shopper you will be assigned various stores to evaluate.

Your goal as a mystery shopper is simple - you are there to ultimately improve the company. As a mystery shopper you undertake assignments which will ask you to evaluate certain aspects of a business. You could be trying to see how friendly the staff are, how they deal with a complaint for example, or you could be evaluating how easy it is to find a particular product. Once you have gone into a business and done your evaluation, you will then have to fill out a form to record your findings. Once you have sent that to the company which hired you, they will analyze the findings and provide a plan to the business owner on how they can improve.

Although the mystery shopper performs that same type of job, the jobs themselves vary dramatically. For instance, if you were to become a mystery shopper with a number of companies, you could end up performing a restaurant, oil change, apartment, and clothing store shop in a single week. The type of assignment the mystery shopper does is dependent on the industry for which the shop is being completed.

The way in which you get rewarded for your mystery shopper work will vary from company to company. Usually if you work for companies in the hospitality industry, you will be reimbursed to a certain amount. Other companies will offer you a flat fee. So you will need to look into this before you sign up. It is also possible for a mystery shopper to be reimbursed and paid a small fee too, however these companies are quite rare.

The most important thing for a mystery shopper to do is provide accurate, honest and beneficial information to the company that hired them. This information will be used to assist a business to increase revenues through addressing specific business issues. Some mystery shoppers are required to use a camera, although it is not always necessary. The most common universal restriction to becoming a mystery shopper is a minimum age of 18 or 21 to join the company.

Having good communication and listening skills is also an important criteria for the mystery shopper. After all, you will be interacting with service people at all types of businesses, meaning you need to present yourself in a professional manner. Many times, you become an actor as a mystery shopper. If you were sent to a jewelry store to look at engagement rings, you might need to pretend that you are going to be engaged, although this might not be the case. Communication and listening are also important in that detailed reports are generated by the mystery shopper so paying close attention is critical to the shop's success.

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