Many mystery shoppers spend a lot of time in the car, traveling from one client location to another. That can be lost time or, with a little planning, you can put it to good use. Here are some ideas on how you can use your travel time.Be Quiet and Let Them Talk
Human beings seem to have an aversion to quiet. Too often, we rush to fill up any silence with a stream of words. When you are mystery shopping, that can be a mistake.
As mystery shoppers, we are there to observe and report, not to influence the outcome of the shop. One of the best ways to do that is by talking no more than is necessary.
Obviously, we need to speak on mystery shops. There are questions that need to be asked or answered, and appropriate conversations to hold. Saying too little is almost as bad as saying too much. But saying too much can affect the outcome of the mystery shop.
Here are some ways that talking too much on a mystery shop can make the shop go wrong. …continue reading Be Quiet and Let Them Talk
On a mystery shopper job, there are dozens of details and vital bits of information that need to be collected in order to complete an accurate report. On some shops, it may be possible to make notes or use a digital recorder to capture the shop. However, no matter what, a good memory is an important asset to a mystery shopper. 
Have you ever looked at something on a mystery shop report form and wondered, “Who comes up with this stuff?” Most of us have, at one time or another, seen report questions, scenarios and other shop requirements that seemed unrealistic or just plain weird.
Most of the time mystery shoppers enter businesses as themselves. They use their real names (if any name at all) and they just act like normal customers. However, there are times when, as a mystery shopper, you may have to pretend to be someone you are not. It might mean posing as the mother of a toddler for whom you need daycare, a parent who needs an assisted living facility, as a bride-to-be, someone looking for an apartment or a new bank, a pet owner or any number of possible situations.
Question from a mystery shopper:
A new year (or any time) is a good time to organize the paperwork, computer files and workflow for your mystery shopping business. Being better organized means you spend less time seeking assignments, doing shop visits, completing reports, and calculating taxes. Most importantly, you will not risk forgetting to do shops, or waste time trying to track down your notes to answer editor questions about your reports.
A mystery shopper asks:
Most shops require that you get the names of the employees you observed or with whom you interacted. That can be easy if they are wearing name tags. 
Suggestive selling, or upselling, involves suggesting additional items when a customer makes a purchase, or encouraging a customer to upgrade to a more expensive option. Perhaps the best-known example of an upsell is when the order taker at a fast food restaurant asks, “Do you want fries with that?” However, upselling is used in almost every kind of business.