Secret shoppers are those professionals who get paid to visit various business locations and purchase products. Mystery shopping is conducted by large number of companies across various domains for evaluating their product and service standards. Companies generally hire reputed market research firms or mystery shopping companies who are into the mystery shopping field for a long time. These companies are given the responsibilities of designing effective brand evaluation assignments and hiring individuals for the same.
Mystery shoppers are required to behave as regular shoppers. The only thing that makes a mystery shopper different from a regular customer is that the former does not shop for his own requirements. In other words, mystery shoppers, posed as regular customers, need to keep an eye on factors, such as, outlet environment maintenance, product maintenance, conduct of the employees, etc. On reporting the observed details to the mystery shopping company, the mystery shopper gets paid. The payment terms vary from company to company. Some companies pay on a biweekly basis while others pay on a monthly basis. The payment policies can be confirmed before an individual finally signs up with a mystery shopping company.
Mystery shoppers not only get paid in cash and other rewards but can also enjoy various other benefits. Some of these benefits include, enjoying free lunch or dinner at restaurants, watching the latest movies in theatres for free, visiting amusement parks, staying in posh hotels and resorts free of charges, evaluating golf courses, apartments, etc. Some companies allow mystery shoppers to keep their product samples for free once the evaluation is successfully done. Hence, mystery shopping jobs are considered great sources of part-time or additional income.
Any individual looking for part-time income and willing to spend a few hours shopping can become a mystery shopper. Though one need not possess prior experience to become a mystery shopper, companies generally prefer to hire seasoned mystery shoppers. Nonetheless, once an individual enters this job field and gradually earns reputation with his dedicated performance, companies would assign him with some of the best and high paid mystery shopping tasks. Companies pay mystery shoppers because they are the ones who provide the former with unbiased feedback (from a customer’s viewpoint) on how their businesses are faring in the market. Mystery shopping not only highlights the business operations in the outlets but also brings forth many unattended issues that can be addressed to in a short time. As mentioned before, a mystery shopper needs to observe the various happenings in a store/outlet and note them down in a report – secretly!
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