A mystery shopper is not a professional spy. Mystery shoppers are the secret eyes of service companies that need reliable judgment of their market competitiveness. However, earning an income as a mystery shopper is not getting paid to deceive the company employees, but rather a legitimate job to assess the service quality of a company, and help it grow and prosper. In return, you get an exciting job, traveling in your area, using various services for free, even taking your family to amusement parks and bonus vacations, etc. Becoming a mystery shopper is easy, while growing a reputation of a mystery shopping pro gives you huge chances to expand your income.

What does it take to become a mystery shopper?

Everyone will tell you that becoming a mystery shopper is extremely easy, and definitely not to ignore. What do you need to know before you become a mystery shopper? Mystery shopping is about making truthful value judgments of the qualities of the service, the friendliness of the shopping environment, the helpfulness of the frontline stuff, the waiting times, the competency of the shopping assistants, etc. You should be able not only to observe all these and make logical conclusions about your overall customer satisfaction, but also to remember details and watch out for particular signs. In the end, you will be asked to write down your impressions, either on paper or online.

To be a successful mystery shopper, you need to feed the company that hired you with accurate and reliable information about your shopping experience. To do that, you need basic writing skills – the ability to write logically and coherently. You should write in a simple and understandable way, but still reveal both your overall impressions and the details you are asked about. You will not be required to have a high literature style or write complicated sentences – your mystery shopper responses need to be easy to understand and process.

Most of the mystery shopping companies have moved online, saving on times and costs to recruit mystery shoppers. Oftentimes you’ll need to submit paperwork, but also to fill in online response forms. Supplying your mystery shopping feedback online is easy and saves you time. However, it’s always recommendable to have a hard copy of your reports and plan submitting your report in advance. Internet connections today are quite reliable, but you never know when you can have a power cut, a server down, push your reboot button accidentally, or experience any other technical hindrance. With multi-screen response forms, it’s nice to have a copy of your report in a text editor, so that you don’t stand the chance of losing the information you typed in.

What do mystery shopping companies expect from me?

Don’t worry if you are a mystery shopping newbie – the company that contracts you should provide you with instructions how to complete your shopping task. If you have concerns about what you are expected to do as mystery shopper, but the company does not provide you with prior training, you should doubt that it might be a mystery shopping scam. Since the hiring companies rely on your responses, they need accurate feedback. The mystery shopping companies cannot afford to pay you for a response that is irrelevant. Therefore, you should always get instructions about the mystery shopping scenario that you have to follow; about the things you should watch out for; about the way to fill in and submit your feedback; etc. Becoming an experienced mystery shopper pays well, as you are likely to get more invitations, earn greater income, and be contracted by more mystery shopping companies.