Mystery shopping provides companies a method to quickly yet efficiently evaluate their business practices, employees and deliverables from an unbiased customers? perspective. Secret shopping, performance evaluation, service checks and frontline evaluations are some of the other names of mystery shopping. Even though the name itself is mysterious, Mystery shopping is a straightforward concept. Mystery shopping is a tool used by market research companies to measure quality of retail service.

Mystery shoppers acting as ordinary customers visit business centres and provide detailed evaluation of their experience through replies on questionnaires. Mystery shopping is useful in a range of industries like retail, financial institutions, gas stations, restaurants, service providers, manufacturers, department stores, travel and entertainment. Shoppers are given instructions to make the transaction atypical to make the test of the knowledge and service skills of the employees more specific to a particular scenario. Then, the mystery shopper will submit the data collected to the research company in question. The data is then analyzed before reports on the data are returned to the client company.

Mystery shopping does not demand anything to pay except for a certain level of responsibility and professionalism, which too are offered as training by companies. Training, tips for improvement and shopping opportunities are provided to mystery shoppers once they register themselves. There are paid pre-arranged fee for a particular shop, a reimbursement for a purchase or a combination of both. Mystery shopping can be a second income but not a sole living.

The registration process of mystery shopping involves an online form to fill in and once registered, the companies start informing of the job opportunities on the first come first serve basis. So an e-mail address and a phone number should be necessarily given

The first step is to build a reputation with the company and make the best impression possible. Being impartial and focusing on accuracy will help to build a good impression. It is better to document employee names and descriptions, and prices and inventory evaluations. It would be all the more helpful if mystery shoppers have an access to Internet, e-mail and fax machine or even a digital camera to capture product placement, signage, cleanliness or other focus points.

Completing the assignments on time will earn a good reputation for the mystery shoppers. If that is impossible, it should be communicated to the company so that they can reschedule the assignment. The assignment given to the mystery shoppers can be an easy one and rather a two-week job. Once determined to be a mystery shopper, the contender should register with a firm immediately with an e-mail address and confirm the professionalism without any grammatical errors to give the first and best impression.

Potential shopping opportunities can also be obtained through on line mystery shopping message boards and forums. Even though mystery shopping may not provide income for a full living, it can provide some extra income along with an adventurous career.