So what is a mystery shopping company?
It’s really no mystery! A mystery shopping company is a firm specializing in providing retailers, restaurants and other businesses with secret shoppers – also called mystery shoppers.
The reason? These shoppers get the benefit of experiencing a visit to the firm that an upper level management employee would never see on an official visit. Let’s say that you’re a district manager of a convenience store chain. You visit your stores weekly or maybe every other week. And you have a set day for visiting each store.
You know that the manager – if he values his job – will have every employee on his best behavior that day, the store will be immaculately clean for you and every clerk will smile at every customer, say please, thank you and attempt to up sell. It’s just human nature.
However, a mystery shopper is treated just like every other shopper on any day you – as the district manager – aren’t present. And because of this, these shoppers get the true insight of how the employees in this store are really treating customers day in and day out, how clean the store is and what the placement of products really are.
Mystery shopping has been around for more than 35 years. It’s an effective way to get a true “snapshot” of a store or restaurant.
How can you tell if a mystery shopping company is legitimate, given all the scams that seem to be out there?
Before you even make an initial commitment, discover whether the firm you’re looking at is a member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association. To be a member of this organization, a mystery shopping firm must undergo an approval process. And then it must agree to uphold a set of ethical standards.
If you’re in doubt about the status of the company you’re considering working for, go to this organizations web site at http://www.mysteryshop.org/. Here you’ll find a listing of its membership. If the company you’re considering isn’t a member of this association, that doesn’t mean they’re not honest and legitimate.
When you’re considering a job as a mystery shopper, just keep one idea firmly in place: no legitimate firm will ever ask you for money to work for them. And no legitimate company will ever ask you to cash a check for several thousand dollars and mail it off to some unknown address.
Mystery shopping is a great way to get paid doing something you love. But you’ll never become insanely wealthy from it. If you keep those two thoughts in mind, you’ll have a great time as you mystery shop.
And we’ve just taken the mystery out of mystery shopping!
