Employing Effective Mystery Shopping Methods to Improve Business Competence

In this age of competition, business owners try out every fair means to attain the best brand names. They leave no stone unturned and pay millions of dollars to employ the best methods available to know about their brand competence and thereby work on making them even better. All these wouldn’t have been possible without the modern day market research techniques. They have branched out into several beneficial trend analysis methods that have helped companies a great deal in discovering how their brands are perceived by the consumers. Paid online surveys, focus groups and mystery shopping are some of the most popular market research techniques employed by big companies.

As far as online jobs are concerned, though they are good sources of additional income, there are several scams associated with them. Mystery shopping jobs, however, have been reported to be free of scams and also provide companies with a live and accurate evaluation of product conditions and employee performance. Hence many companies employ mystery shopping methods for accurate brand assessment. Companies hire individuals and provide them with thorough training regarding the mystery shopping procedure. Further, they give detailed instructions to the shoppers before the commencement of each secret shopping assignment. Throughout the assignment, secret shoppers need to carefully observe the store atmosphere, store maintenance, product preservation, employee conduct, etc. and later create a detailed report on the entire shopping experience. Some companies allow secret shoppers to carry audio or video devices and secretly record the happenings of the store. The reports prepared need to be precise, error free and easily understandable.

For brand owners, it’s not just product freshness that they need to evaluate; they need to take equal care in maintaining the stores and upgrade the staff’s performances – only then can a brand be overall judged and considered to be good brands by the consumers. Accordingly they need to provide adequate and up-to-date training to the hired mystery shoppers so that they can find out the underlying or unattended issues. Following are a few factors that need to be considered for better business competence:

Analysis of employee conduct

An employee’s conduct matters the most in creating a feel good factor about the brand in the minds of the consumers. Mystery shopping not only helps find out the flaws in their conduct but also helps recognize some outstanding performances. Therefore, it’s not only about finding the drawbacks but also about getting to know the good performers and rewarding them for their valuable contribution. This also motivates other employees to improve their performance.

Analysis of the competitor’s performance

One of the biggest advantages of mystery shopping is that a company can send a mystery shopper to a competitor’s store to gather ideas on the latter’s implemented strategies. This does not imply that a company would copy the same strategies, rather, it can find out strategies that would be more effective than that of its competitor’s.

Analysis of consumer’s expectations

Most consumers do not speak of their opinion whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied. If they tend to be dissatisfied, they are likely to stop using a particular product and switch over to a different one that appears to be more promising. Companies need to keep an eye on such typical consumer behaviours through effective secret shopping methods. During their assignments, secret shoppers can interact with the customers while themselves posing as regular customers and find out what they opine about the products, the store ambience or the conduct of the staff. This way they can provide the companies a clear picture of what exactly consumers have to say or expect from the brand.

Effective Mystery Shopping Methods, Secret Shopping Assignments to Judge Brand Competitiveness

The success of every business lies in the gratification of a delighted customer and needless to say, this is what every business owner aim at. They always have the fear of lagging behind in the fierce competition of the brands and hence strive to perform better. With the various modern market research methods, the analysis of the current trends and business performances has become easy and quick. One such popular method that companies rely on is mystery shopping or secret shopping. Mystery shopping is nothing but a simple, yet infallible method applied to evaluate product conditions and employee performance.

Mystery shoppers are the ‘hidden cameras’ that help companies know their overall businesses competence. As mystery shoppers, they need to disguise as regular customers and visit a particular outlet as assigned. The qualities that companies want the mystery shopper to have are good surveillance and writing skills. The surveillance skill is necessary to minutely observe the happenings in a store right from the store ambience to product conditions to employee conduct. Good writing skill, on the other hand, is necessary as mystery shoppers need to write down their shopping experiences in detailed and honest reports. Employers expect flawless, unbiased and grammatically correct reports since they base their major business decisions on the same. The reports help find out the problem areas that can be immediately rectified and improved.

The mystery shopping process

The mystery shopping procedure may sound simple but it’s rather elaborate. Companies provide special training to every hired individual so that they can carry out the secret shopping assignments flawlessly. A typical mystery shopping assignment involves shoppers to pose as customers and make purchases as per company’s instruction. During this process, they need to be watchful of important factors, like, the store environment, cleanliness, product maintenance, behaviour of the frontline staffs and assistants, and the aptness of the staff in attending to the customers. They can either secretly record the series of events in audio or video devices or write them down once done with the assignment. The report is then forwarded to the higher management who reviews them and send to the employers for the final decisions. As mentioned earlier, the reports need to be well-written covering every single detail of the shopping experience. There is no need to provide any literary touch to the reports as employers look forward to receiving only comprehensible and point-specific contents with the correct usage of grammar. Accordingly, further improvements are made and the good performances are rewarded. All these collectively count the most to make a brand the most talked about.

Mystery Shttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhopping Jobs, the most Viable Sources of Online and Part time Income

Those who love to shop till they drop dead can utilize this quality of theirs in earning extra money per month while also contributing to the increased sales of products. And when purchases can be made free of cost, who would afford to miss out on such an opportunity? Mystery shopping is a profession that has such ‘hard-to-believe yet true’ benefits in store.
Mystery shopping jobs can be carried out physically in assigned stores or online; it depends on the availability of mystery shopping jobs in a particular area. For online mystery shopping jobs, it is essential to search for the right kind of providers as the web world is full of scams. Those online mystery shopping companies that ask for registration fees should be avoided as they are nothing but phony sites.
Legitimate mystery shopping companies never charge any form of fees to enlist individuals in their lists of mystery shoppers. Companies generally offer mystery shopping jobs to individuals residing in areas that are within the easy reach of their stores or outlets. However, there are provisions for housewives and sit-at-home moms to carry out the mystery shopping assignments and submit the reports online as it is difficult for them to travel from store to store when they have other household chores to take care of.
Like paid online surveys, big companies hire market research companies to design and conduct mystery shopping programs. The market research companies are paid in millions and in turn, they hire suitable candidates for the specifically designed mystery shopping assignments. They provide adequate training to the hired individuals as per the client company’s requirements and accordingly the mystery shoppers carry out the assignments in the assigned stores and outlets. After completing the assignments, mystery shoppers need to create detailed reports on their overall shopping experience and forward them to the higher management. It is only after the review and approval of the reports that the mystery shoppers get paid. Some companies conducting specific product evaluation mystery shopping assignments allow mystery shoppers to keep the products on successful completion of the assignments.
Typically, a mystery shopper’s job revolves around the systematic evaluation of store environment and maintenance, product conditions, employees’ behavior with the customers, promptness of the front line staff and assistants in attending to the customers, and the customers’ extent of satisfaction with the overall brand performance. Mystery shopping jobs are one of the most sought after part-time jobs as are paid online surveys and focus groups. With the introduction of the Internet and modernization of market research methods, these part-time jobs have become the most viable sources of additional income.

Taxes Deductible on Use of Equipments, Travel Allowances, Memberships, in Conjugation with Mystery Shopping Jobs

Mystery shopping jobs are excellent sources of additional or side income. Mystery shoppers are self –employed professionals and are not bounded by any form of contract. They are free to join multiple mystery shopping companies and carry out several mystery shopping assignments depending on their capability. As mystery shoppers, individuals are subject to certain tax deductions based on their income. This is because they fall into the category of self- employed professionals, as mentioned earlier. Therefore, whatever equipments they use relevant to the business, the charges for all are deductible as per the Income Tax slab.

Different companies have different needs and accordingly they design their mystery shopping programs. They hire mystery shoppers, train them as per their requirements and provide them with proper guidelines before they start their assignments. As per company requirements, mystery shoppers can carry out the assignments in person, over the phone or online through the Internet. As such, the cost of gasoline for the vehicle used for travelling across the stores may be deductible when used for a mystery shopping job. In order to deduct the cost of gasoline, it is essential to save the receipts. If a mystery shopping assignment is done using the internet and/or telephone, a part or all of the cost of the computer, internet connection and/or a telephone line, are deductible.

Those mystery shoppers who work from home need to fill in questionnaires and submit them. This can either be a paper work or can be done online. In the former case, the cost of office supplies, like, pens, papers, office furniture or a fax machine, may be deductible.

Though mystery shoppers enjoy a plethora of exciting perks apart from their basic pay, they are deprived of other long term benefits, like the health and medical benefits, provident funds, etc. unlike other full-time job holders. Nonetheless, the benefits they enjoy during their assignments surpass any other privileges. It is imperative to mention here that mystery shoppers get to enjoy dinners with friends and family at expensive restaurants, watch the latest movies in multiplexes, get expensive skin or hair treatments done, go on small vacations with family – all for free!

Also, the fees paid for travel and memberships in conjugation with mystery shopping assignments are tax deductible. When the date of tax submission nears, it is necessary to have all the receipts organized for quick reference.

Apart from enjoying exciting perks and other benefits, mystery shoppers have ample scope to choose their convenient work hours and have total control over their daily, weekly or monthly income as they are free to choose to do the amount of work depending on their ability.

Evaluating Brand Effectiveness and Increasing Sales through Mystery Shopping

Every business wants to see its customers coming back, which would remain a distant dream if a customer is dissatisfied with the brand. A customer would be delighted only if he or she receives the kind of service that goes beyond their expectations. Because most customers keep mum about their dissatisfaction, it becomes hard for a business to understand what exactly they want to say or what exactly they opine about a product or service offering. This can greatly hamper the overall brand competence as customers would disseminate the information on inadequate services of the former to their friends and family. The fact is that if a brand is good and meets the expectations of the customers, then people would hardly speak about its goodness, but if the brand is not up to the mark according to the customers, then most of them would promulgate its negative aspects to other people.

The main factors responsible for customer dissatisfaction are poor customer service and low quality of the products.

In order to draw the attention of new customers while retaining the existing ones, a business needs to understand the current trends and focus on finding out what exactly customers expect or want from a product. This analysis can be done by applying the invincible market research method of Mystery Shopping or Secret Shopping. It is invincible because it serves the purposes of effective performance check, brand competence evaluation and customer satisfaction survey – all in one shot!

Mystery shopper can help increase product sales by helping companies discover the hidden flaws as well as the unattended issues. Mystery shopping assignments require the secret shoppers to disguise as regular customers and carefully observe the store and product conditions, and the service offered by the frontline staff and the assistants. In the course of an assignment, mystery shoppers can also interact with other customers and find out whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the brand. Not only this, they can also help companies recognize and reward some of the most outstanding performances thereby motivating the other employees to perform better. To top it all, it is a great part-time income option.

Qualities for being a Mystery Shopper

Mystery shopping assignments mostly depends on what is the availability or the type of the market area and the types of the customers that are required for each assignment. Like a mature or elderly people is not likely to get the assignments of mystery shoppers for the shop that have main focus only on younger generation crowd; unless the business specifically asks for it.

Many qualities are required to be employed as a Mystery Shopper. The most significant quality generally organisations look for is honesty. All evaluations must be honest and true based on the experiences seen on the day of the assignment.

A Mystery Shopper should be able to discreet, should have the ability of meet the deadlines, pay attention to details and have the character of a good observant, effective communication, honour to their commitments, ability to deal with detailed instructions. Individuals also need to be 21years of age at least and a reliable mean of transportation. Preferably if an individual has an access to computer and internet is always a added advantage.

The payout generally depends on the sort of assignment that we are required to do. Some assignments might pay less, while on the other side some would only pay us with reimbursement and some do it with both. Always remember to inquire about the pay details before deciding to accept an assignment or not. Companies normally send out the check only after our assignment is completed and the evaluation forms are reviewed and validated.

The best part of the compensation is it includes the price of the item we purchase while acting as a Mystery shopper in an assigned store. It normally does not include mileage to and from the organisation or for your time in performing the assignment itself; unless an organisation offers it in their project details.

Organisations looking for Mystery Shoppers would always train an individual before putting them on the field. They would provide us with the basics of what client is looking for in their evaluations. In addition we would also be briefed about the clients business. They would walk us through the process of how to perform our assignments including entering data and turning in whatever is necessary according to the assignment details.

Mystery Shopping Methods, Part time Mystery Shopping Jobs for Additional Income

Scams have become so infamous these days that people can hardly believe any part-time job offer. Like paid surveys, the mystery shopping field is also a common target for scam artists. This is due to the growing popularity of this paid part-time job. And since mystery shopping jobs allow the secret shoppers to shop and enjoy exciting perks during their assignments, many people confuse them with scams. All mystery shopping companies are not scams. Mystery shopping is a unique profession and a great source of additional income. However, it is vital to know the pros and cons before stepping into this field.
Mystery shopping or secret shopping requires secret shoppers to disguise as regular customers and keep an eye on the happenings in a store, right from the store maintenance to the customer service offered by the employees. The entire assignment is carried out secretly without letting people know of it. A secret shopper is given a maximum of seven days time to complete a mystery shopping assignment. After noticing the important chain of events in a store, a mystery shopper is asked to fill in a questionnaire comprising questions mainly on the standards of customer service offered. The length of the questionnaires varies from assignment to assignment and so companies allow the secret shoppers to have a look at it before they start the assignment. These questionnaires can also be completed and submitted online.
Signing up with legitimate mystery shopping companies does not require individuals to invest money. The sites that ask for money are not genuine. However, during some assignments secret shoppers might have to purchase products for their better evaluation or as an instructed guideline of the assignment. This amount is reimbursed by the companies once the assignments are submitted.
Mystery shopping jobs do not guarantee a fortune. People can pursue this profession for a part-time additional income or a full-time steady income. But there are major challenges in this job. To be a successful mystery shopper, one has to put in a lot of hard work and patience as the job requires one to travel from store to store. Again if an individual is registered with multiple mystery shopping companies to earn more, then his day would be more hectic. Apart from this, companies expect mystery shoppers to have good surveillance skills, and create a detailed and error free report with the correct use of grammar. The report plays the most crucial role as companies get to know their brand competence in the market, the standards of their customer service and also how customers perceive their overall brand. If the companies approve of the report, only then would the secret shoppers get their payment.
Companies generally pay the secret shoppers on a monthly basis. However there are many companies that pay on a weekly basis. These payment policies vary across the mystery shopping companies.

What’s in Store for Mystery Shoppers?

With mystery shopping having become one of the most sought after brand analysis methods, more and more companies are employing it for gathering reliable and accurate output so as to assess the extent of customer satisfaction. That is why they are increasingly hiring individuals every year for their custom-made mystery shopping assignments. The basic concept of mystery shopping is to methodically evaluate various products and services of a particular brand. All consumers do not take the initiative of voicing their opinions openly on whether they are happy with the products or customer service offered. Hence mystery shopping assignments help find out the customers’ ‘hidden’ standpoints or what exactly they expect from the brand. Once the mystery shopping reports are submitted post the assignment, they are reviewed and the flaws and other shortcomings are immediately fixed. In this way, mystery shoppers contribute not only to the increased sales of the brand but also help the business fare better.
Mystery shopping is a unique profession – one that is incomparable to other part-time or online jobs. This is because mystery shoppers need to hide their actual identities and disguise as regular customers. They need to act in such a way that they are able to get all the necessary information as instructed by the company without letting out a hint of the ongoing assignment. In disguise, they are required to assess the store and product conditions, store maintenance, standard of customer service offered to every customer, aptness of the front line staff in dealing with every customer, etc. These need to be recorded secretly or written down in reports after the completion of the assignment. Companies cannot afford to miss out on a single event and hence mystery shoppers should possess good surveillance skills so that they can recollect every event in the store while writing down the reports. Besides, the reports should be neat, unbiased, point-specific, grammatically correct, and above all, easily understandable. Mystery shoppers should stick to the parameters while creating the reports since companies make their major business decisions based on these reports. Any mistake, if overlooked, can severely hamper the decisions and this can ultimately lead to a decline in the brand status.
Apart from a challenging profile, mystery shopping also has a lot of benefits in store for the shoppers. Unlike other part-time professionals, mystery shoppers not only get paid in cash for their assignments but also have the scope to enjoy movies, dine out in restaurants, get car servicing done, go on small tours with family, and so on. And like any other job, performance too, is a decisive factor when it comes to making it big in the mystery shopping career. Though it is a fun-filled profession, it involves lot of patience, hard work and diligence to carry out every assignment flawlessly. Once an individual gets into the habit of completing a mystery shopping assignment quickly and impeccably, he can take up more assignments in a day and thereby boost his additional income along with the other benefits.

The Essentials of Mystery Shopping

The world of a secret shopper is an ideal world for all those who are extremely passionate about shopping. Secret shoppers not only get to do pleasant things on the job, they also get paid. Secret shoppers are people who are hired just to "shop". Apart from that, they have another function that most shoppers can only dream of - they are the complaints section, the suggestion boxes and the potpourri department rolled into one, that really gets the action done fast.

Business competition and the consequent desire of people running customer oriented businesses to get their enterprises into very competitive shapes, and the need of the companies to get an independent viewpoint other than the regular employees report, spurred the creation of the secret/mystery shopper.

Secret shoppers are normally assigned three basic tasks:

1. Observation - The mystery shopper enters an assigned store/establishment and follows a list that are usually predetermined, like - Merchandising Price listings, Courtesy and integrity of employees, Order and cleanliness, Telephone and phone-ins handling, Service Performance of duties and competencies, few other points for observance that employers categorize as priorities to improve the over-all standing of their individual firms.

2. Evaluation - The mystery shopper then fills out a form on which evaluations from observations are noted.

3. Filing of a Report - Reports coming from the secret shoppers are then collated for management evaluation aimed to further improve the firm or stores competitiveness in the market.

Other than the report being an evaluation of the business from a customer’s point of view, it also serves as the management’s tool at validating and cross-referencing report coming from its direct employees.

For this service, the secret shopper is usually paid anywhere from seven dollars to fifteen dollars. The pay may not be very attractive for starters but as in any job, secret shoppers get paid better as they become good at it. The normal pay today is about thousand dollars for seventy five businesses that are checked in a month.

The competition is also tough for secret shoppers. Presently, there are more than two lakh mystery shoppers employed by about seven hundred and fifty companies. This profession is gradually gaining popularity with the masses and more and more people are entering this field. Being paid for shopping requires the application sheets to be well filled up to the detail. One should avoid grammatical and spelling errors and leaving blank spaces in the application form as this can diminish the chances of landing assignments. Employers also value short and detailed information without the reporter being critical. When assignments are given, short, concise, detailed and on-time submission of the reports can greatly increase chances at having more assignments. The secret shopper may even get to pick their assignments of choice.

Even as many prospective applicants can find this job interesting, about 70% fail to land more assignments often due to lack of informative details, incomplete reports and failure to file the reports on time.

One condition though is that a mystery shopper signs a confidentiality clause i.e. the shopper cannot reveal the job or disclose particulars of the assignments other than those specified by the employer.

Secret Shopping Jobs FAQs

Mystery shopping jobs have been quite popular with the masses for sometime now. Many individuals are happily employed as secret shoppers while many are still waiting to join the league. Following are some frequently asked questions that will help clarify the doubts of those aspiring to become successful secret shoppers.

Q: How can one differentiate between the terms ‘Mystery Shopping’ and ‘Secret Shopping’?

A: Though both the terms are the composition of different words, they signify the same meaning. A mystery shopper or secret shopper is a professional hired to evaluate a company’s product conditions and employees’ conduct while they attend to the customers.

Q: Are mystery shopping jobs available in rural areas? Can an individual work from home as a secret shopper in case there aren’t any job opportunities in his area?

A: Though the chance of the availability of mystery or secret shopping jobs in rural areas is comparatively less, one can easily carry out mystery shopping assignments online. Many companies have provisions for individuals to fill online questionnaires as a part of their mystery shopping assignment and get paid in return.

Q: How reliable is a secret shopping job when it comes to earning real money?

A: Secret shopping is indeed an excellent way to earn additional income during one’s spare time. Companies hire reliable individuals in order to carry out effective service checks and assess product conditions or standards of customer service for better business performance. At the end of every assignment, a secret shopper is paid a good amount. Again in certain cases, a secret shopper might have to purchase a product as a part of his assignment. In such cases, companies compensate the amount later along with the basic pay and also allow the shopper to keep the product for free.

Q: How much can a mystery shopper earn after completing an assignment?

A: The remuneration of a secret shopper varies depending on a number of factors, like, the type of assignment, amount of time spent during the assignment, and of course, on the company standards. Again, the monthly income of a mystery shopper depends on the total number of assignments he completes each month. For this, he needs to sign up with multiple mystery shopping companies.

Q: Who employs the mystery shoppers?

A: Mystery shopping jobs are generally part-time jobs in which the secret shoppers are independent contractors, i.e. self-employed. Hence, they need to abide by the government’s tax rules as per their income tax slabs. They are also entitled to certain tax deductions, like, health insurance, office equipments’ costs, etc.

Q: How to differentiate a legitimate mystery shopping company from a scam?

A: It’s simple! Those companies that do not guarantee a job that can transform an individual from rags to riches in a day or two are genuine. These companies clearly state there terms and conditions, payment modes, etc. when an individual looks forward to signing up with them. For more information, one can log in to blogs or forums and check out what experienced individuals have got to say about the same matter.