Do you like to get form letters? You know, those letters where they try to sound personal, but you can tell the same letter went to thousands of other people?
Most people hate form letters; however, many mystery shoppers like to submit “form reports.” By that I mean reports that all read alike, and appear that they could be submitted for just about any shop assignment by changing a few details.
Each mystery shop experience is unique, and your reports should reflect that uniqueness. When a client receives a batch of mystery shop reports that are nearly identical, they may start to wonder if there is truly any value in mystery shopping. And companies that receive cookie-cutter reports from a shopper may wonder if the shopper really did the assignment, or if they are simply recycling old reports.
Here are some tips to make your reports accurately reflect what happened during your shop visit while adding variety and interest to your reports—and also making it less likely that your reports will be questioned by the mystery shopping company or the client.Continue Reading
This is a guest post from C. McDaniel of 
Incorrect usage of ‘a’ and ‘an’ is one of the things that will mark you as a poor writer. Although some uses are obvious to most native English speakers, there are (as with so many other grammar rules) exceptions to the usual rules.
I got started in mystery shopping back in the “old days,” before the Internet. When reports were mailed, there was not a big rush to get the report submitted within hours of completing the shop visit. Of course, smart mystery shoppers did their reports soon after the shop so that all of the details were still fresh in their minds; however, that didn’t have to mean staying up all night to get the final report completed within six hours of leaving the client location.
When you submit a mystery shopper report, it will be reviewed by an editor. The editor will review the report for proper spelling, grammar and punctuation, but there is much more to an editor’s job than proofreading reports.
The best advice I can give secret shoppers about making their reports better is contained in just four words: Describe behavior, not feelings. This is a reminder to keep reports objective and stick to the facts.
Good narrative writing spells out the facts in a clear, concise way. However, “concise” does not mean using 
Mystery shopping companies and clients love to see accurate, detailed reports that give them a true picture of what happened during your visit. However, there is such a thing as “too much information” in a shop report.
As mystery shoppers, we do not offer our opinions unless specifically asked. Instead, we document the objective story of what happened. Think of yourself as a journalist. Your job is not to affect the outcome or to give your opinion, but just to report the facts.
When you write a mystery shop report, you are giving the client a snapshot of what happened during your visit. Although some mystery shopper jobs include taking digital photos, most of the time we make the picture of our experience appear through our words.