Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mystery Shopping Methods for Evaluating Business Activities

Mystery shopping is not mysterious. Mystery shopping or secret shopping is a business activity aimed at improving customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. To carry out the process, a mystery shopper is engaged by the business owner to find out how the customers are being treated by the employees and frontline staff and how well the store and products are maintained. In other words, mystery shopping gives a clear picture of the actual business activities in a business unit. A mystery shopper is required to give his impartial feedbacks in the form of a report to improve product quality, store maintenance and customer service standards. The mystery shopper too benefits either as he gets products or services free of cost for conducting such an inspection.
It is no more difficult to locate good mystery shopping jobs. The Internet is full of mystery shopping job announcements. Companies are always on the look out for individuals who are willing to take up mystery shopping jobs for brand evaluation. One of the several good things about this job is that anyone can become a mystery shopper or qualify for a mystery shopping assignment. A good sense of responsibility and professionalism are all that are required. The rest of the training is provided by the market research firms or mystery shopping companies.
Mystery shopping is more than just buying products. It can involve getting a new haircut, or gambling, or traveling to a place, or dinning in a restaurant or even finding out the customer service offered at an amusement park, hotel, resort, etc. Individuals need not pay any fees to become mystery shoppers since legitimate mystery shopping companies can be signed up for free.
Since there is no fee involved for registration and no contract periods, a person can register with many mystery shopping companies, so that he can get a fair chance to do mystery shopping and get paid for his efforts. Mystery shopping companies provide training and training manuals to all the hired mystery shoppers for free. The companies that charge money for registration and training are scams.
When a mystery shopper gets his first assignment, he must ensure that he performs so well that he is assigned with more mystery shopping assignments from the company. The success in getting mystery shopping assignments lies on the acceptance of an assignment within short notice, completing it within the time limit and submitting the feedback or report in a professional way. Even though mystery shopping may seem to be a fun filled activity, it calls for a professional approach to the whole activity. Commitment to the job is very essential. If the commitment cannot be met within the time frame, rescheduling or extension can be requested.
After completing a series of mystery shopping assignments, if a mystery shopper is recognized for his dedicated efforts, he can have a better prospect in the mystery shopping industry.

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