Mystery shopping -- Secret shopping. 

Income potential  

There just are too many variables involved to say how much you can or will make.  Factors such as:  How many companies you sign up for, the pay of the secret shop companies you work for, how active those companies are, where you live, the type of mystery shops you do, if you complete assignments, etc.

What is mystery shopping? 

A mystery shopper is a person who is hired to go into company locations (stores, banks, movie theaters, etc.) and act like a regular customer (without calling attention to themselves).  The purpose of this visit is to see things through the eyes of a typical customer.  And, then rate the service and product.  And, answer questions about your experience. 

The mystery shopper dresses and acts as they normally do.  However, when you mystery shop, you go in even more observant and aware of your surroundings.  And, you try and remember as much as you can about your experience.

But... what about those who don't like to shop? 

Now, some people who don't care to shop shy away from mystery shopping.  Well, the term mystery SHOPPING is a tad misleading.  It's not like you spend hours thumbing through clothes.  In many cases, you just VISIT and OBSERVE.

For example, I used to mystery "shop" a gas station.  I just drove up and went over to the cashier in a booth and paid for the gas.  Then I pumped the gas.  I don't really consider this shopping in the typical sense of the word.

So, if you hate to shop, think of this job not as mystery shopping, but mystery VISITING.  If you love to shop, you should enjoy this.

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Questionnaire/checklist.  Pre-shop.  Just before you enter the store. 

Prior to your entry into the store you're to shop, sometimes you will have been supplied with a checklist/questionnaire (typically about 1 page in length).  You'll receive this checklist by email, fax, or "snail mail".  Or, in some cases, especially if it's a last minute assignment, you may be given oral instructions over the phone.  This can happen if another shopper falls ill, or for other reasons.

The questionnaire tells you what to look for when you're visiting the store. The things you'll be asked to look for are pretty much common sense things (employee attitude to you, cleanliness, time spent waiting in line, etc.).  In some instances you'll be asked to ask a certain question or see if they have a certain item on the menu or in stock.

In time, it will become easy to remember what things to watch out for when you shop.  Many things will repeatedly come up in every questionnaire.  

What do you do with your comments and/or questionnaire?

 You will be told to either fax, send, or email in their comments (or fill in their comments into a form at the mystery shopping company's website).

Try to get it submitted the very day you do the shop.  You don't want stuff piling up.  And, you want to make a great impression.

Type of shoppers sought

In some cases, the mystery shopping company will seek out shoppers who are as similar to the target audience as possible.  This is so the feedback will be more similar to that of the company's market.

How often will you mystery shop?

This is mostly a part time job.  Although, some people do in fact do in full-time.  Years back, one particular company offered me a full-time job as a mystery shopper.

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How Surveypolicy.com helps you become an active mystery shopper.

• You'll receive everything you need to do to maximize your chances of doing this as often as you wish.

   

• You'll receive more than enough mystery shopping companies.  We have over 200 in our database.

   

• Here's a unique feature (which you won't find anywhere else).  As with the survey companies, we provide DIRECT LINKS to the sign up form (whenever possible).  So, you click a link and then you're transported instantly to the registration form. 

   

These direct links will save you a great amount of time, effort, and aggravation.  And, it will make joining far easier and more pleasant.  As such, you'll stay with it.  And, you'll join far more companies.

So, rather than wasting time trying to hunt down the links to the sign up forms, you'll bypass this nuisance and as a result you won't detest the sign up process, and it won't be tiring and boring.  This will make it so you end up joining far more companies.

• All the companies in our list are free to join.

   

• Then to make it go even faster, you can use form filling software that we provide for free.  Now you won't have to type in your name, address, etc. over and over again.

   

With the aid of direct links, form filling software, and the fact that you'll gradually get familiar with the questions asked of you, and it will become a piece of cake.  We'll try our best to help you whiz through the sign ups.

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Form filling software... more about it.

You just plug in your basic info once (name, address, city, zip, email, etc.) and it will fill that stuff in for you whenever you wish.  You can also add a few "custom fields".  This will save you a lot of effort.  So with this form filler you won't have to enter the same information over and over and over again.  This is important since there are a few things you'll be asked by forms fairly often. 

You can change the information you supplied this form filling software at any point.

One common question you'll be asked on mystery shopper applications is:  "Please list the mystery shopping companies you have joined".  Well, you could use Robo to fill this in for you -- sparing you the annoyance of typing it in over and over again. 

You could set up custom fields (they're fields YOU create).  In this example, you could set up a custom field name called "companies".  It'd represent the mystery shopping companies you have worked for previously.  Then you'd enter the names of the mystery shopping companies you have joined (Field Value).  Now, whenever this form tool sees the word "companies" it will enter in the list of companies you have previously supplied it with.

Sure you could copy and paste but there are other questions you'll be asked on forms, like, "Tell us about a recent shopping experience".

A Field Name, in this instance, is the question you're asked on a form.  For example, your education.  If you wanted to have Robo fill in that request for you, you'd just go to Robo's custom field screen and type in education in the Field Name blank. 

Then you'd type in a Field Value -- which is your answer/response -- in this case your education level (high school, AA, Bachelors, etc.).  So whenever Robo sees the education field on a form (the Field Name), it will plug in whatever you typed in previously (the Field Value).

So, the Field Name is the question.  And, the Field Value is your response/answer to that question.

Again, all our mystery shopping companies are free to join.