Mystery shopping explained
The Birmingham News
By Stephanie Nelson
Enjoy shopping, new products and good deals? You may want to
try your hand at being a "mystery shopper" for grocery stores.
Mystery shoppers are part-time workers hired by companies to
help evaluate their products and services to improve customer
service, while posing as customers. In exchange for some form
of compensation, mystery shoppers provide a detailed report of
their findings to give useful feedback to these companies.
Companies in virtually all segments employ mystery shoppers,
including most grocery store chains. However, rather than hiring
shoppers directly, they tend to work with mystery shopping agencies
who provide a database of potential shoppers. Restaurants, department
stores, grocery stores, hotels, cruise lines and clothing stores
also hire mystery shoppers.
In terms of compensation, agencies generally pay grocery mystery
shoppers a grocery allowance and a per-assignment fee, ranging
from a $2 to $8 credit on groceries plus a flat fee of $10 to
$15, depending on the company. In exchange for this, mystery shoppers
need to observe and answer specific questions provided by the
company.
For example, the mystery shopper may time how long it takes an
employee in the produce department to offer assistance, how long
it takes to wait in the checkout line, whether particular items
are in stock, and what the overall cleanliness of the store and
its restrooms is. They may need to report whether the cashier
asked if they had a store discount card and if employees made
eye contact and greeted them as they shopped.
If you are interested in learning more about being a mystery
shopper, you should sign up with mystery shopping agencies. As
in any business, there are various types of agencies. Reputable
agencies will not charge a fee to sign up and be included in their
database, although signing up is not a guarantee that you will
be selected. Your best bet is to sign up with several agencies
to increase your chances of being offered assignments. You can
find a comprehensive list of credible agencies from the Mystery
Shoppers Providers Association, which is a national organization
of mystery shopping agencies and a training and educational organization
for mystery shoppers. You can find 150 mystery-shopping agencies
listed on their site: http://www.mysteryshop.org.
Mystery shoppers with a good reputation can receive enough assignments
to make a modest salary and receive plenty of nice benefits if
they want to make a full-time career of mystery shopping. However,
most mystery shoppers do the job on a part-time basis for extra
spending money. New mystery shoppers may start out getting very
few assignments or be offered less desirable assignments, like
evaluating the cleanliness of a gas station restroom at midnight.
Take the time to do your very best job filling out the service
report after your assignment. Make sure the information is complete
and answers the questions accurately. Check for spelling and grammar
accuracy. Sloppy reports are not likely to lead to future assignments,
and many new shoppers submit sloppy reports. Therefore, your status
within an agency will increase immediately if you make sure your
work is top-notch.
Consider taking one of the courses offered by the Mystery Shoppers
Providers Association (MSPA) to become certified. These courses
will teach you the skills you need to be a professional mystery
shopper, and agencies look for certified mystery shoppers.
Register with several agencies because no single agency would
use the same mystery shopper for the same business over and over
again. Increase your odds of getting more assignments by increasing
your visibility with more agencies.
