I have been doing mystery shops at the same location of a store once a month for several months now. I think they have figured out that I am the mystery shopper. What should I do?

First of all, they may not have figured out that you are the mystery shopper. You may be misinterpreting a look or a comment, or you may just be a little paranoid! ;o)

You may have heard employees say that they can always spot the mystery shopper. Don’t believe it! Often, the things they pick up on are not things a secret shopper would do, such as being difficult or causing a scene.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine if you really have been spotted as the secret shopper, and what to do if you believe you were.

Were you doing anything that would give you away? Were you openly taking notes, or could you be overheard recording a voice message or talking with a companion about the shop? Did you have the shop report form with you and pull it out during the shop? Were you obvious about making observations, such as staring at name tags?

Is the scenario one that might tip them off that you are the mystery shopper? Even if you believe the scenario makes it obvious that you are the secret shopper, most do not. Real customers do weirder things than we are asked to do. However, there are some scenarios that seem to push the limits. If you have to go to six different departments and ask questions in each one, then ask to use the rest room, then get the names of four additional employees…well, you can see that there might be a problem pulling that one off.

And sometimes a scenario that works in one location makes you seem out of place at another. For example, I used to do some shops where I was required to spend at least 30 minutes in the store. Most of the time that was easy, but there were some smaller locations where spending 30 minutes meant wandering around or backtracking in ways that a normal customer might not. It was do-able, but it took effort not to draw attention.

Were you unprepared? If you have not studied the shop guidelines and scenario, you may forget to do things and have to go back to talk to an employee again, or immediately return to the location to check something you missed. That will make you stand out, and may cause them to think that you are the secret shopper.

Have you done this shop, at this location, several times? They may have identified you after receiving an earlier report. They can pull transactions and even look at surveillance video to figure out who the secret shopper is. Of course, most places do not do this, but it can happen.

If you truly believe that you were identified as the shopper, you should let your scheduler know. If the cause was the required scenario, give the scheduler that feedback. Remember, though, that the client decides what the shop guidelines and scenario will be, not the mystery shopping company.

Something else to consider if you think you were identified as the shopper: How did they do on the report? If, even after you think they figured out they were being mystery shopped, they did a lousy job, then they do not know that you are the mystery shopper or they don’t care. Either way, it does not appear the integrity of the shop was affected.

If you are not into football, it may seem as though game time would be a good time to take care of a few mystery shopping assignments. But you might want to think again.

A few years ago, I decided to do a shop of a casual dining restaurant during the Super Bowl. I had just gotten back from out of town, and Sunday night seemed like a good time to do it. We arrived during the game and there was no one else in the restaurant. No one but a few employees, that is. In listening to them talk, I learned that only one other customer had been there the entire evening. Oops. Not exactly a typical experience, so perhaps not a good time to do a mystery shop.

What would you do in that situation? The shop wasn’t due for a few more days, so I had a few options. One, we could leave and do the shop another time. Two, we could have dinner but come back to do the shop another day. Three, we could have dinner, then I could turn in the shop report and hope it would be accepted. (There wouldn’t be time to ask the scheduler about the situation before the report would have to be turned in.)

I decided that we had to eat anyway, so we had our dinner and completed the mystery shop. I went ahead and submitted the report, but I also sent an email to my scheduler.

In the email, I told the scheduler what had happened and that I had been completely surprised by the emptiness of the restaurant (which was true). Because the due date of the shop was still a few days away, I offered to do a re-shop of the location and submit the new report before the deadline if they could not accept the report I had already done.

What did the company decide? The scheduler thanked me for my offer of the re-shop, but said they decided to accept the report. One reason was that even with the two of us being the only customers in the restaurant, they hadn’t managed to get a perfect score! (They did OK, but not great.)

I have since heard from other shoppers who had similar experiences when shopping during the Super Bowl. In some cases, they were the only people in the business. That can lead to strange shop reports.

So what did we learn from this, boys and girls? We learned not to do a mystery shop when a large percentage of the population will be at home watching television. If you have any shops due around the time of the Super Bowl, I recommend that you not do them during the game.

Would it be okay to return the purchase? I still have the original receipt, as the mystery shopping company just had me input the receipt number in my report.

The answer, as is so often the case, is “it depends.”

Some clients do not want shoppers returning merchandise purchased on a mystery shop for a cash refund. Their reasoning is that your compensation was the purchase reimbursement and any fee. If you take cash instead of the purchased merchandise, their costs go up because the wholesale cost of the merchandise is less than the retail value.

Before returning an item purchased on a shop for a cash refund, check the guidelines to see if they say anything about returns. You may also want to ask your scheduler.

Even if the client does not want shoppers to get cash refunds, it would probably be fine to exchange the defective item for one that is not broken. Take the item and your receipt back to the store and do an even exchange for the same item. After all, the reimbursement is part of your compensation, and if you got a defective item you did not receive all of the compensation you are due.

Before you make the exchange, scan or take a digital photograph of your receipt. Even with an exchange, the store may mark the receipt and you should have a clean copy in case the mystery shopping company requests it for some reason.

Should I have written a complaint letter to a restaurant I was mystery shopping?

In a word, no. You should not have written the letter. Your secret shop report gave them feedback about your experience so the letter was not necessary.

A good company will respond to a letter of complaint by doing something to make the customer whole. Meaning, they will replace defective merchandise, offer a refund or, as in this case, send coupons for free products or services. However, you were already “made whole” by the reimbursement you received from the restaurant via the mystery shopping company.

The client and the mystery shopping company might view your attempt to get another free meal (even if that was not what you were trying to do) as double dipping—getting paid twice for the same meal. Of course, they might not notice. But if they do, you could have some ‘splaining to do.

My advice would be to keep the coupon and not use it. If the mystery shopping company questions you about the complaint letter, you should explain that you realized after sending it that you shouldn’t have done so. You can also tell them that you did not use the coupon the restaurant sent, because you had already been reimbursed for the meal.

Whether you have a good experience or a bad one on a mystery shopper job, your report is all the feedback the client needs.

Many businesses have “floating” employees who work at more than one branch or store. This happens in banking, retail, property management (apartments), and other businesses. Sometimes floaters have a regular schedule that moves them from place to place, and other times they may be filling in for an employee who is ill or on vacation or when a location is otherwise short-staffed.

I used to shop a lot of grocery stores, and often did two or three in one trip. One day, a manager was at both of the stores I shopped. Fortunately, I saw him before he saw me, and the store was big enough that I was able to avoid him for the rest of my visit. However, there are times that isn’t possible.

In some situations, it may not matter that you are visiting more than one location of the same business, especially if some time has passed between visits. However, if the visits are close together time-wise, or far apart geographically, it may look odd. As mystery shoppers, we want to be very careful about not drawing attention.

Do you think it would have looked odd if that grocery store manager had seen me buying groceries, half an hour after he had seen me at another store? Um, yeah, that seems a little strange. However, if you happen to run into the same employee at another bank branch several days later, that might not send up any red flags at all. (Of course, if you are there to set up an account, or the branches are far apart, it might.)

Have a cover story ready. Make it credible, and do not be afraid to seem a little dumb. Playing dumb is a mystery shopper’s secret weapon. When they ask why you are in another branch of the same bank asking about their investment account options, you might act like you didn’t realize it was the same bank. Of course, at that point you will probably have to abort the shop and either do it another day or contact your scheduler to see if they would prefer to send someone else now that you may have made yourself memorable.

If you regularly mystery shop in places that are far from your home and far from each other, be prepared to explain why you are there. Keep it simple, such as your work or school being nearby, or that you are visiting a friend or family member.

Do not give too many details in your cover story. If an employee asks, “Didn’t I just see you at our Midtown location?” do not give a long story about why you were at two different stores. A simple explanation, such as, “I can’t believe I forgot to . . .,” is all you need. Looking a little scatterbrained is better than looking like a mystery shopper.

Of course, at times there is just no way around it. You will have no choice but to abandon the shop and contact your scheduler. Do so immediately, so the scheduler can decide what action to take.

What if the employees are not the ones swearing, but other customers? Should that go in your report?

It seems that the language gets coarser every day, and people say things in public that they would not have said even in private many years ago. I am convinced that some people are so accustomed to swearing that they do not even notice when they drop an f-bomb in a public place. Therefore, it should come as no surprise when you run in to employees or other customers cursing up a storm.

Here are some tips on when you should mention the use of offensive language in your secret shopping reports, and what you should say.

Each mystery shopping company, and even each of their clients, may have a different policy when it comes to whether this type of information should be included in shop reports. Because you probably do not know whether they want or need to know about swearing, you might want to ask your scheduler how it should be handled.

If you are unable to wait for an answer from your scheduler because of a tight deadline on the report, I recommend that you include a description of exactly what happened. The editor can then decide if the incident should be included in the report that goes to the client.

There are times when you can not include the information in your report. This may be because there is no section of the report where it belongs, or because you are not allowed enough space to record the details. In that case, document everything in an email to your scheduler so they can decide if the information should be shared with the client and how.

Only report what you know. If you are not sure if someone is an employee, do not refer to them as an employee. If you did not hear portions of the conversation, do not guess at what was said.

If you have the names of the employees involved, use them (unless the client does not want names used anywhere in their reports).

When the offensive language comes from customers, you might want to address how the business handled it. For example, if you or another customer complained, did the manager or other employee deal with the unruly customers? Did they apologize to you but do nothing? Or did they shrug it off and ignore the complaint? (Remember that some clients will not want you to complain about anything during a shop, as that may make you memorable. However, other clients will want to know how complaints are handled. A careful reading of the guidelines before the mystery shop should tell you if they do not want you to make any complaints.)

Be as specific as possible when describing what happened. Use actual quotes whenever you can to put the bad language in context. For example, I once did a restaurant shop where the bartender had a conversation with another customer that was not only laced with profanity, but included many negative comments about the business. I included several sentences, verbatim, in my report. Instead of trying to characterize what was said, quote it whenever possible.

The bad language may not be spoken. You may find something written on a rest room wall or elsewhere. If you saw it, other customers will, too. I would include it in my report.

And what about using obscenities in your report? I do not, but I make it clear what words were used. For example, if you enter just “****” that could be any number of colorful words. Give enough that the editor can figure out exactly what was said. For example, when I found a bad word scrawled in lipstick on a store display, I included in my report that the word was “s**t.” You know what that is, right?

The editor may want additional information from you, so make sure your notes are as detailed as possible. As soon as you can after the shop, write down everything you heard and saw, as specifically as you can.

Even though some people do not think twice about profanity, others are deeply offended. Many clients will want to know if their employees (or customers) are doing something that will harm their reputations and drive customers away. As mystery shoppers, it is our job to tell them—even though the telling is not always easy.