Mystery Shopper's Manual

Mystery Shopping On the Road

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A shopper asks:

I am getting ready to retire and my spouse and I want to hit the road and travel across the country. Is it possible to mystery shop while we are on the road? Anything we need to watch out for?

Sure, you can mystery shop on the road, whether you are on a one-week vacation, you regularly travel for your job, or you have become a permanent road warrior.

There are a few things you may have to do differently to make mystery shopping while traveling work for you. Here are some things to consider.
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How Should I Dress for Mystery Shops?

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Mystery shoppers need to be professional in appearance and attitude, so how should we dress when we are doing mystery shops? Should we dress in business attire, or is it fine to wear jeans and a t-shirt? As with so many of the other questions surrounding mystery shopping, the answer is “it depends.”

The most important consideration is how other customers dress. Mystery shoppers need to look and act like other customers of the business. We need to blend in and not stand out because we are very under- or over-dressed. Let’s look at a few examples.Continue Reading

Scammers Send Credit Cards Instead of Checks

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credit-card-scamI have written more times than I can count about the mystery shopper scam where scammers send fake checks to people who believe they have been selected as mystery shoppers. The victims are told to cash the checks, evaluate local businesses, then wire money to other “shoppers” or back to the scammer. Some time later, the victim discovers that the check they deposited was fraudulent and the bank expects them to return any money they received from the bad check. Individual victims have lost thousands of dollars to these scams, and the total stolen is in the millions.

Now there is a new twist on this scam. A Georgia woman received a package that included several credit cards. She was instructed to use the cards to make purchases at WalMart, Target, Home Depot and the Apple store, then ship her purchases to an address on the west coast.
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Your Mystery Shopping Business

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mystery-shopping-businessMost mystery shoppers do not think of themselves as business owners, but that is exactly what we are. As business owners, we are responsible for our profitability. Don’t like the shops you are doing, the people you are working with or the amount of money you are making? It is up to you to change those things.

Start by having a business plan. That’s right, a business plan. No, you don’t have to have a binder full of spreadsheets, charts and graphs. All you really need is about a page that describes your vision for your mystery shopping business.

  • What types of shops do you want to do?
  • Will you take on other types of work, such as audits or surveys?
  • How much money do you want or need to earn?
  • Where will you work?
  • How many days or hours will you work in a typical week?

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Should a Mystery Shopper Complain About Bad Service?

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Questions such as this one come in often:

I was on a mystery shop and had really bad service. If I had been paying my own money, I would have looked for a manager and complained, but I wasn’t sure if I should do that on a mystery shop. Instead, I am going to write a letter to their corporate office. They need to know how bad this was!

Although mystery shoppers need to, for the most part, act like “normal” customers, there are some things we need to do differently. One of those things is not to make ourselves memorable or do anything that would make us stand out. That usually means no complaining to the manager.

But what about after the shop? Should you write a letter, fill out a comment card or call corporate to let them know how bad your visit was?
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Too Much Mystery Shopper Email?

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too-much-emailSecret shoppers who are registered with several mystery shopping companies may get dozens to hundreds of job offer emails every day. The flood of email can seem overwhelming.

How can you deal with all of the email, while still having time to mystery shop and have a life?

One good first step is to have an email account that you use exclusively for registering with secret shopping companies. This way you can deal with you shopper emails separately from others. You might consider setting up an account with Gmail or another free service for this.

Be sure to associate this email account with your PayPal account, so that payments from mystery shopping companies reach you. Also, if you have an MSPA shopper certification, you will need to get a new certification code. Your certification code is tied to your email address, so when your email address changes a new code is required. Continue Reading

Being a “Top-Ten-Percenter”

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Several years ago, when I was developing the MSPA Gold Certification, I spent a lot of time talking with executives, schedulers and others at mystery shopping companies. As we talked about what they needed shoppers to know, I discovered some shocking and disturbing truths about mystery shoppers.

The biggest problem was that of shoppers who accept assignments then do not complete them. Sometimes the shopper cancels at the last minute and other times they simply do not do the shop. It happens more than you might think. In fact, many companies have told me that it is typical for 25% of mystery shopper jobs to be reassigned because the shopper “flaked.” That’s right, it happens so often that there is an industry term for it.

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Secret Shopper Resolutions

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Did you make any New Year’s resolutions this year? How many of them have you kept so far? Uh-oh. Maybe it is time to make a few simple resolutions that can make you a more successful mystery shopper this year. Why not give some of these a try?

Communicate more. Mystery shopping companies want shoppers to keep them informed. Let them know if there is a problem scheduling an appointment or something goes wrong on the shop visit or a location no longer exists or… One shopper told me that she discovered a major problem with the scenario for a shop: Shoppers were supposed to tell the salesperson the amount of their budget, and there was nothing in the store for anything close to that price. Oops. Letting them know about the error immediately helped them fix the problem before other shoppers did their assignments.
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What to Check Before Accepting a Mystery Shopper Job

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Whether you are a brand new mystery shopper or you have been shopping for years, there are a few things you should always check before you accept a secret shop assignment.

What is the location? Do not assume when you see the name of the client or a street name that you know where the location is. Verify the address to be certain you know where you will be going on the shop. For example, I live in the Houston area. If all you know is that the client location is on “Westheimer,” it could be anywhere in a 20-mile stretch of that road. And many companies have more than one location on Westheimer.
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The Mystery Shopper Weight Loss Plan

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It is once again time for New Year’s resolutions. And, after lots of holiday celebrations, many of our resolutions will include losing a few (or many) pounds. Here are some tips especially for mystery shoppers who want to lose weight while mystery shopping.

Park farther from the door. This is kind of obvious, but walking burns calories. When you arrive at a mystery shop location, do not look for the parking spot closest to the door. Park down the street or at the far end of the parking lot and walk. This has the added advantage of giving you a better look at the condition of the parking lot and building exterior. And when you leave, you will not be observed if you sit in your car and make a few notes about the shop. Make it your goal to walk at least 10,000 steps a day, and use a pedometer to track your progress.
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