Just like paid surveys and other work at home jobs, mystery shopping is yet another exciting part time profession. The best part is that this market research tool is one of its kinds and is approved by many big companies worldwide. In fact, it provides companies with exact brand assessment reports and hence many companies of various domains employ this market analysis tool. Again, just like the online job industry, the mystery shopping industry is also targeted by scam and fake companies. Therefore, people need to be careful before joining a mystery shopping job provider.
A typical mystery shopping assignment requires a mystery shopper or secret shopper to pose as a regular customer and interact with other customers as well the frontline staff in an outlet. Their identity is kept a secret throughout the assignment. During the secret shopping task, a secret shopper needs to check, rather scrutinize minute details, like, the conditions of the products, the maintenance of the store, cleanliness, behaviour of the front line staff and their aptness in attending to the customers. Once the assignment is successfully completed and the report is submitted, it is forwarded to the senior authority for review. Only after approving the report, a secret shopper receives his payment. Generally, it takes a week’s time to complete a mystery shopping assignment.
After observing the details in a particular outlet, mystery shoppers might have to fill up some short questionnaires comprising questions on the customer service offered in the store. Mystery shoppers can fill up these questionnaires based on their observations and submit them either in person or online. The questionnaires vary in length and the questions asked too vary according to the products or services concerned.
Before signing up with a mystery shopping provider, one must check whether the company asks for any kind of initial investments or other irrelevant details, like, credit card, SSN or bank account details. Needless to say, such companies should be avoided straight away. Some mystery shopping assignments might require mystery shoppers to purchase a product or two as a part of the task. In such case, the amount spent from their pockets is reimbursed by the companies along with their pay.
Mystery shopping jobs have exciting benefits in store for the mystery shoppers. During his tenure as a mystery shopper, he can enjoy movies in theatres with friends, dine out with family, visit amusement parks with kids and enjoy exciting rides, get to keep expensive products of the employer’s own brand, and so on – free of cost! However, the job of a mystery shopper is not that easy as it seems since it requires rigorous travelling from one store to another, keep an eye on every single happening in a store, create a detailed report on the same without missing out on the important events. At the same time, a mystery shopper needs to ensure that he creates a precise, unbiased and correct report without any grammatical error. The report should be kept simple and easy to understand so that companies can base their business decisions on the gathered output.
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