The Mystery Shopper’s Manual

Most mystery shopper jobs require that you include several timings. These may include:

• The time you arrived and the time you left
• How long you were at the location before you were greeted by an employee
• The time between placing an order and receiving it
• How long it took to check out
• And many others.

Timings are vitally important to the client. Many of their standards to relate to client service times. Customers want speed and efficiency, and clients need to know that they are meeting client expectations.

The client may ask for timings rounded to the nearest minute, or they may want them down to the second. How can you get the specific timings needed to make your mystery shopper reports accurate and complete? Here are some of my favorite tips.
…continue reading Getting Timings on Mystery Shops

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Writing is an important skill for mystery shoppers. If you think your writing skills could be better (and whose couldn’t?) there are several ways to get the education you need. You do not have to enroll in a degree program to take advantage of college writing courses. Here, guest poster Alexis Bonari shares some of her favorite resources.

Many college graduates didn’t get to take every class they wanted to try while they were officially enrolled, so it’s common to have areas of interest that might benefit from a little extra instruction. If writing was one of those areas for you, some of the writing instruction available from online colleges and universities might be of interest. The options discussed below include both free instruction and paid college courses that award credit, so you can decide what’s best for you and your writing skills.
…continue reading How Mystery Shoppers Can Improve Writing Skills with College Courses

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There are appropriate and inappropriate ways to handle a poor rating on a mystery shop report. Unfortunately, the manager of a Cape Coral, Florida post office chose an inappropriate way.

Mystery shop reports are supposed to give companies information they can use to identify where they are performing well, and where problems exist. Appropriate ways of responding to the problems identified in a mystery shop might include providing additional training to employees or changing staffing levels to avoid under- or overstaffing.

An inappropriate reaction? Presenting employees with a cake that looks like a pile of poop, in “honor” of their poopy report.
…continue reading Bad Mystery Shopper Reports – What Is an Employer to Do?

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When writing mystery shop reports, there are some words and phrases that are like kryptonite to editors. Although each situation is unique, and there may be times when it is appropriate to use one or more of these words and phrases, you should generally avoid them.

Always and Never. These are extreme words that are probably not true. They may cause clients to question the report if they are used in a negative way (e.g., “Sally never smiled.”)

Appeared and Seemed. “The floor appeared to be clean.” Well? Was it clean or wasn’t it?

Better Than and Worse Than. You should avoid comparisons in mystery shop reports, such as, “The food is better at Joe’s Diner.” This also goes for other comparisons, such as, “The service was slower than usual.”
…continue reading Words That Should Never Be in Your Mystery Shop Reports

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