As a mystery shopper, you can attract good karma (high report scores, more assignments, better paying assignments, etc.) or bad karma (low scores, fewer assignments, or even being deactivated.

Maintaining good mystery shopper karma means doing your job well, and being helpful to schedulers, editors and other mystery shopping company representatives. Here are some of the ways you can keep good mystery shopper karma flowing.

Communicate. Let your scheduler know if there is a problem on a shop, or just keep her informed of the status. For example, if you are doing a targeted shop (such as many apartment mystery shops, where you are to speak with a specific agent), let her know that you have made calls on the last three days and been unable to reach the agent, but that you are going to continue calling. The scheduler doesn’t have to worry that you have forgotten the shop, or that you are waiting until the last minute to try to get it done.

Pick up those last-minute shops. When you see a scheduler looking for someone to do a shop due tomorrow, that is probably because the mystery shopper who was supposed to do it flaked on the shop. It still has to be done, though, and if you can do it you get extra-good karma.

Have a positive attitude. Remember that the schedulers and editors do not make the policies or set fees. Be polite and positive in your dealings with them. They are people, too, and they are under at least as much stress as you are.

Be willing to help. Take a shop that is a little out of your way, or one that you might not usually do to help a scheduler out of a spot. That doesn’t mean that you take every shop that is offered or that you spend hours doing a $10 shop. It does mean taking the occasional assignment that you would not normally consider because it has to be done.

Be reliable. When mystery shopping companies know they can count on you to read and follow the guidelines, do the shop visit as the client expects, and get a well-written report submitted by the deadline, they are happy as can be. And that happiness translates to more and better assignments for you.

Be responsive. If there is a question or problem involving your report, get it resolved immediately. When an editor contacts you for more information, get back to her the same day with the answer. She has deadlines, too, and needs your answer so she can release the report.

The bottom line in all of this is that good mystery shopper karma comes from doing your job well, take pride in your work, and treating others as you want to be treated. That’s not so hard, is it?

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.

The scam? Sometime after the money has been sent off by the victim and claimed by the scammer, the check is discovered to the a forgery. The victim’s bank demands that they pay back all of the money, plus fees for the returned check and any checks the victim has now bounced because their account was debited for the amount of the bogus check.

We refer to mystery shopper scams, but in fact this is a check/wire transfer scam.

Mystery shopping is just one of many disguises used by the scammers. One version involves the scammer buying something through eBay or CraigsList, then sending a check for thousands more than the purchase price and asking the seller to wire the difference back to them. Scam.

Now the scammers are targeting lawyers. According to a story in the ABA Journal, two Hawaiian law firms were swindled out of half a million dollars with this same scam. A “client” retained them, then sent a huge overpayment and asked them to wire back the difference. Same song, new verse.

Folks, the bottom line on this is: NEVER WIRE MONEY TO SOMEONE YOU DO NOT KNOW. Ever. Even if you think you know them, even if they claim to be giving you money or a job, or buying something from you. Even if they claim they are a friend of your grandson, and he needs the money to get out of jail. (Another common variation on this scam.) Even if anything.

Once more: NEVER WIRE MONEY TO SOMEONE YOU DO NOT KNOW. It is always a scam. In every case. Always.

If you print a lot, you know how expensive replacing ink and toner cartridges can be. This is a guest post from Steve McDowell about saving money by buying remanufactured ink cartridges.

In today’s world, it’s good to pinch every penny that you can, especially on things that aren’t a necessity. People are now learning that it’s a good idea to buy used and that it’s a good idea to purchase the generic brand of items that they used to purchase the name brands of. One way to save money is through purchasing remanufactured printer cartridges.

Ink cartridges are extremely expensive, and many people are surprised to learn that it’s not the cost of the printer that kills your wallet, but the cost of the printer cartridges. The printer companies know that they have you right where they want you and that they can charge whatever they’d like to for their printer cartridges, as you can’t print anything without a printer cartridge. But there is a way to purchase a printer cartridge a great deal cheaper.

Remanufactured printer cartridges are cartridges that have been reused and refilled. They’re less expensive because they don’t have to be made from scratch. There are, however, many companies online who try to sell remanufactured ink cartridges that are not anywhere near as good as the original. If you find the right company, the quality will never be in question. If, however, you find a bad company, you could be put off of remanufactured cartridges for life.

Here are a few tips that you can use to help you to purchase a remanufactured ink cartridge online successfully.

1. Take a look at the company – the company is at the base of everything, so you will want to make sure that they’re a genuine company. Do a search online through a search engine on the name of the company and see if you find any bad press. A lot of bad press likely means that the company is not a good one. You can also check out the better business bureau, as they have a great deal of information about most companies and will be able to help you to figure out if a prospective company is legitimate or not.
2. Look for a guarantee – does the company offer you a money-back guarantee if the cartridge doesn’t work, or do they leave you floundering on your own? A good company will offer some sort of a guarantee that the product will work correctly. Make sure that the company offers a money-back guarantee so that you aren’t left out in the cold if your ink doesn’t work.
3. Check out their customer service – if something does go wrong with your printer ink, how do you know that you’ll actually be able to get a hold of someone in customer service? Instead of waiting until something goes wrong, try contacting customer service before you purchase a product from the company. If they get right back to you and are courteous, you’ve likely found a good company to work with.

A good rule of thumb when purchasing remanufactured ink cartridges online is to go with your gut. If you feel that a company looks unreliable, they very well could be.

Melinda Brody and Company

Melinda Brody, President of Melinda Brody and Company, Inc, recently answered some questions about being a video mystery shopper for her company. Here is what she had to say:

Describe the ideal shopper.

An ideal shopper is someone who is resourceful, thinks on their feet, very detail oriented, good with technical equipment, open to learn technical equipment and can trouble shoot when on the road and something goes wrong. Also someone who can subtly keep the shop on track and not meander onto a different subject that ends up taking the shop outside our 90 minute limit. Our average shop time is 42 minutes for a home builder shop

What training does a video mystery shopper need to have?

We support video training courses to train our shoppers such as Undercover Essentials, LLC run by Carrie Porhammer. She is conducting workshops nationwide to specifically train shoppers on video. Check out her site at http://undercoveressentials.org/

What types of shops does your company do? What types of reports are used?

Our company does 99% home shops. We do not require a report. Our reviewers score the video.All the shopper does is film and upload. We also have phone, internet , design center and competition shops . Occasionally, the shopper will be required to write a report because we don’t tape comp shops and also some clients are still unsure about video. We do try to convert them and once they try video, they never go back to written.

Are shoppers required to buy their own video equipment to do video mystery shops?

Shoppers need to have their own equipment as Independent Contractors. We lease the equipment and also are currently selling some of our used set ups.

What is the best way for a new shopper to get in the door and get a first assignment?

The best way to get in the door and get a first assignment is to be a trained video shopper or take Carrie’s class and become trained. Purchase equipment and commit to running your shopping as a small business.

How long after a shop are your shoppers typically paid? Do you use/require PayPal? Do you plan to?

Our shoppers are paid 30 days from the time the shop is processed. We offer PayPal but it is not required.

What is your biggest problem/pet peeve with shoppers?

Biggest pet peeve is “flakes.” This is taking an assignment and not following through. Waiting until the last minute to review things. A shopper called me the day of a shop (she was assigned 4) to ask me questions on equipment. She needed to be prepared several days prior to the day of the shops.

Any funny shopper stories?

When I started (1986), a shopper walked in and found a new home salesperson on the floor. She called me and thought he was dead. She went back in and heard him snore as he was FAST ASLEEP! Not a good day to be shopped.

At another shop we encountered a female rushing out to greet us looking very disheveled. We heard a male voice leaving through the back door. They were on a *date*!!

Another was my shopper was with a salesperson who, while demonstrating the rear of the home, fell in the pool. The salesperson jumped out and kept on talking!

What do you want shoppers to know?

Don’t be afraid of video shopping! If you tell yourself  “this is difficult,” it will be. You do not have to do written shops to prepare for video. We have hired friends and people from an ad with absolutely no shopping experience and right out of the gate, they did great.

There is a learning curve involved but they are higher paid shops with no report and once you get the hang of it, you’ll love it.

Thanks, Melinda, for taking the time to answer our questions. If you want to be a video mystery shopper for Melinda Brody and Company, you can apply here.

They are on the right track knowing that they should not pay to sign up with a company. Legitimate mystery shopping companies do not charge you to register.

The companies that charge may be providing a service (which you do not need) or they may just be out-and-out scams. In either case, you should never pay a fee to any company claiming to offer mystery shopper jobs.

So how can you find the legitimate mystery shopper companies that do not charge?

There are several ways. The easy way is to click on this link to my free list of 200 legitimate mystery shopper companies.

Another source of legitimate companies is the Mystery Shopping Providers Association. Companies must meet eligibility criteria, provide references and be approved by the MSPA board of directors in order to join. Companies must sign an ethics agreement which states, among other things, that member companies may not, “charge individuals to become shoppers or to gain access to shopping opportunities.”

There are legitimate companies that are not on my list or members of the MSPA. To find even more mystery shopper companies, you can do a search using your favorite search engine, such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. A few cautions when searching for companies:

Search for terms such as “mystery shopping company” or “mystery shopping companies.” Use the quotation marks in your search term to narrow the search. (With quotation marks, results will include pages that have the entire phrase contained within the quotation marks, giving you better results.)

Some of the listings that will be returned in your search are paid listings. That means the company paid to have their ad shown when someone searched for a particular term, such as “mystery shopping” or “secret shopper jobs.” Some of the ads are from legitimate mystery shopping companies, but many are not.

Beware of any ad or listing that says they are a “mystery shopper review site,” or similar language. They want to refer you to a program that charges so they can get a commission. Do not pay to join any site or company.

Legitimate mystery shopping companies ask for a lot of information on their applications, but they will not charge you and they will not ask for your credit card number. Never pay to shop.

Most people know to use ‘a’ before a word beginning with a consonant and ‘an’ before a word beginning with a vowel:

The sandwich was served with a salad and an apple.

Simple, right? Most of the time. But here are some exceptions.

Use ‘an’ with words that begin with a silent ‘h.’ Words such as hour, honest, honor and (in American English) herb begin with an ‘h’ but the ‘h’ is not pronounced.

Incorrect: I waited a hour for the rental agent to arrive.
Correct: I waited an hour for the rental agent to arrive.

Use ‘a’ with words that begin with a ‘u’ that sounds like ‘you.’

Incorrect: An used towel was on the floor.
Correct: A used towel was on the floor.

Use ‘a’ with words that begin with an ‘o’ that sounds like ‘w.’

Incorrect: The hostess said there would be an one-hour wait.
Correct: The hostess said there would be a one-hour wait.

The bottom line? The choice of ‘a’ or ‘an’ is determined by the sound of the word, not the spelling. If the word begins with a consonant sound, use ‘a.’ If it begins with a vowel sound, use ‘an.’

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.

Here are some tips to get—and stay—organized.

Set up a calendar for your secret shopping assignments. When you are awarded a mystery shopper job, immediately put it on your calendar. This can be a paper calendar, or a calendar on your computer or smart phone.

Consult your calendar before accepting assignments. Does this assignment fit with others you have accepted? Are you scheduled to complete other shops in the same area that can be grouped with this new shop? Are you already overbooked for the date of this shop?

Immediately download and print the requirements for the mystery shop assignment. Read them now, and highlight any special requirements that require attention. Are their activities beyond the shop visit that must be entered on your calendar (e.g., a purchase and return shop, calling ahead for an appointment or reservation)?

Set up a filing system for pending and completed assignments. Keep all of the shop forms and guidelines for upcoming shops together by date. When a report is complete, keep the notes, receipt and other documentation on file. One way to do this is to have a set of hanging files and groups of folders numbered 1 – 31. Keep two months of files for the shops scheduled in the current and upcoming month, and three to six months of files containing completed shops.

Make it easy to log expenses. Keep a small notebook in your car to track milage. Or use a note feature or app on your phone to keep track. Put an envelope in the glove box or console and put all of your receipts and other documentation into the envelope immediately after the shop so nothing gets lost.

Save completed reports as PDFs or screen shots instead of printing them. You will save money on paper and ink, and not be buried in piles of paper.

Don’t forget to keep your computer files organized. Give the PDFs or screenshots of your completed reports meaningful names so you can easily find them if needed. Store all of the files in their own directory, separate from your other documents.

Get mystery shopper email under control. If you are not using a separate email address for mystery shopping, this could be a good time to start. Set up an email address that is only used for mystery shopping, then notify the companies with which you work of your new address. If you are MSPA certified, you need to get a new certification code as it will change with your new email address. Making a change to your email address can be time-consuming if you are registered with lots of companies, but it will make it much easier to manage your shopper email in the future.

Taking a little time now to organize your mystery shopping workflow can save you time and money.

What if mystery shoppers evaluated everyday people doing everyday things? Sensors Quality Management (SQM), a Canadian mystery shopping company, has created a series of videos called “Thankfully Only For Business” that show what might happen if mystery shoppers were turned loose to evaluate people in the shower, on a date, in the gym—even while they sleep!

The videos provide a tongue in cheek look at what we do as secret shoppers. SQM is releasing new videos every week for five weeks. Currently, there are two videos in their YouTube channel. Once all of the videos are available, viewers will be asked to vote to choose the top three. For more information, to watch the videos and to vote, go to http://www.sqm.ca/videoContest.jsp.