The Super Bowl is not only the championship game of the National Football League, it is a major television event. An estimated audience of nearly 100 million Americans watch the annual spectacle. That means that lots of people are at home in front of their televisions, not in the stores and the restaurants.
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.Continue Reading
You always do your best as a mystery shopper…until that one day. Maybe you didn’t get an important bit of information for the shop, or you went on the wrong day, or at the wrong time or to the wrong place. Or you completely forgot to do the shop.
Dumb mistakes? Yeah, but every shopper has probably made a dumb mistake or two somewhere along the line. So what do you do now that you have really messed up on a shop?
Some mystery shopping companies have a “one strike and you’re out” rule, and if you make a major mistake that would cause the client to reject the shop report, they will deactivate your account. Others will consider your history with them and other factors. Even the companies that will automatically deactivate you may reconsider if you take the right approach.Continue Reading
The holidays are just around the corner. Your children have probably presented you with their list of demands…uh, gift ideas, and you are preparing to start buying the gifts, foods, cards and other holiday trappings. You may be wondering how much of your holiday spending you can cover with mystery shopping assignments.
Here are some ideas to help you make your time and money go further this holiday season.
Whether you are a brand new or experienced mystery shopper, proper preparation is a critical part of completing your assignments correctly.
Download and review the shop guidelines as soon as you receive the assignment. Even if you have done a particular shop many times, always read the guidelines and report form before doing the shop. Clients make changes from time to time.
Use a highlighter to identify key issues of the shop. If you have questions, this is the time to ask them. Don’t wait until the day the shop is due. Most companies prefer that you contact them by e-mail, but the shop guidelines will tell you the best way to contact them. Give your scheduler time to respond.
In rare situations, you may discover requirements that make it impossible for you to do the shop. If you have to cancel an assignment, do it immediately, but only if you have a good reason. One male shopper told of having to cancel an assignment because he didn’t think he could convince the employees that he was pregnant, a requirement of the shop. Because he immediately read the instructions, discovered he couldn’t do the shop as required, and notified his scheduler, the shop could be reassigned right away.Continue Reading
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.
Of course, you should be subtle about reading name tags. Don’t stare or make a big deal about it. Just look at the name tag, then make eye contact with the employee.
So what can you do when the employee is not wearing a name tag? You may be able to get his or her name in another way. The best method to use depends on the circumstances, and it is important that you do nothing that would seem suspicious or draw attention to you.
Here are some ideas that can help you get the names you need.Continue Reading
Question from a secret shopper:
Do businesses that we shop tell their employees that they will be mystery shopped? I have heard that they do, but that doesn’t make sense to me. If we are supposed to be checking up on them, why tell them that they will get shopped? Do they tell them what we will evaluate them on? And doesn’t that mean that we are more likely to be spotted if the employees know to look for mystery shoppers?
Most businesses that use secret shoppers tell their employees about the program, and there are some very good reasons to do so.Continue Reading
Question from a mystery shopper:
I did my first shop the other day, and the hardest part was getting the timings. This was a fast food shop, and they wanted times down to the second! My watch has a second hand, but it was kind of hard to see without staring at the watch. Do other shoppers use stopwatches, or digital watches or what? I think there must be some secret way to do this that I do not know about.
There are many ways to get accurate timings. Some secret shoppers use digital voice recorders. They record the shop, then use cues in the recording to verify the times. Some shoppers use small stopwatches they can conceal in a pocket. If you want to use a wristwatch, there are many that will make it easy to get the timings you need for your report. Your best choice will probably be a digital sports watch.
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There are lots of things to remember during a mystery shopping assignment. Remembering to get names, take timings, ask the right questions, etc. can be difficult enough, but we also have to do these things in a natural way that doesn’t draw attention to us, and without influencing how the employees do their jobs.
It’s a tough job, but it becomes easier with practice. In fact, you should be practicing your mystery shopping skills all the time, not just when you are mystery shopping.
Here are a few good habits you can cultivate that will help you to remember to do all of the necessary actions on mystery shopper jobs, will make secret shopping easier and more natural for you, and will make sure you complete all of your mystery shopping assignments accurately and completely.Continue Reading
Fine dining restaurants typically have high standards for service. If you have ever done a fine dining restaurant mystery shop, you know how detailed the questions can be.
The four-star Le Bernardin restaurant in New York City has exacting standards for service. In fact, they have a list of 129 “sins” that staff are to avoid when serving customers.
Many of the these will be familiar to mystery shoppers, as they are the kinds of things we are asked to evaluate in our reports:
This is one in a series of posts on mystery shopper best practices.
This week, in the last of this series, we examine four points in the MSPA Code of Professional Standards and Ethics For Mystery Shoppers that address responsible behavior. All secret shoppers who achieve MSPA http://www.mspa-na.org/certification commit to uphold this code, and they are standards that all mystery shoppers, whether certified or not, should follow.
I will not use any MSPA media to publish complaints against vendors, clients, shoppers or mystery shopping providers.Continue Reading