The term ‘mystery shopping’ might imply something mysterious to a layman. It is in fact, a popular market research tool employed by many corporate biggies of present times. Mystery shopping is no more mysterious, neither is a mystery shopper a professional spy. Technically, mystery shoppers are the ‘hidden eyes’ of companies conducting mystery shopping assignments to know their brand effectiveness from a customer’s viewpoint. Companies need unbiased verdict on their products and services so that they can actually learn how well their brand is perceived by the people. This is also a great way to evaluate their market competitiveness.
It has been quite sometime that mystery shopping, or secret shopping as it is often called, has become a legitimate market research method to assess the product or service quality of a company. It is a powerful tool that helps companies learn the flaws in their products or bring the unattended issues of their services to light and thereby improve them. In a way, a mystery shopper proves to be beneficial to both companies and society.
Mystery shopping jobs have become quite popular in recent times due to the uniqueness of the job profile. This job is the only one of its kinds as it involves secret shoppers to remain incognito during their assignments as strictly instructed by the companies. Secret shoppers are required to pose as regular customers, observe the store surroundings and happenings, interact with the employees to check their efficiency, and also with the customers to find out what they feel about the products and customer service offered. They need to either record them secretly in audio or video devices or write them down neatly in a paper. The report thus created is then forwarded to the mystery shopping company for review. Besides, these jobs have great benefits in store for the secret shoppers, which they can enjoy during their assignments. They not only get to enjoy movies, exclusive dinners, small tours, trips to amusement parks, etc. but also get paid on a weekly or monthly basis (depending on the company’s payment policies). Sometimes, secret shoppers might have to purchase some products as a part of their assignment. In such cases, the amount spent is reimbursed by the companies along with their salary. Some companies also allow the secret shoppers to keep the products.
One cannot achieve success in this field overnight. Mystery shopping jobs might appear to be exciting and alluring, but they have a lot of challenges, which cannot be realised unless a person gets hands-on experience in this job. To become successful as a mystery shopper, one needs to possess sharp observational skills, good writing ability, and the determination to face any kind of challenge while on the assignment. Though the assignments are scripted or designed specifically by mystery shopping companies, there might be cases that the shoppers might have to resolve all by themselves. As such, mystery shoppers should be equipped with a good presence of mind. Once an individual attains popularity in this field as a dedicated and consistently good performer, he can land in more assignments, enjoy more benefits, and earn more per week or per month.
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