Sunday, February 21, 2010

Mystery Shopping Full time, Part time Jobs for Additional Weekly or Monthly Income

Mystery shopping provides companies a method to quickly yet efficiently evaluate their business practices, employees and deliverables from an unbiased customers’ perspective. Secret shopping, performance evaluation, service checks and frontline evaluations are some of the other names of mystery shopping. Even though the name itself is mysterious, mystery shopping is a straightforward concept. Mystery shopping is a legitimate tool used by market research companies to measure the standards of retail service.
Mystery shopping is useful in a range of industries like retail, financial institutions, gas stations, restaurants, service providers, manufacturers, department stores, travel and entertainment. Mystery or secret shoppers are given instructions to make the transaction atypical to make the test of the knowledge and service skills of the employees more specific to a particular scenario. Then, the mystery shopper needs to submit the data collected to the research company in question. The data is then analyzed before reports on the data are returned to the client company for final decision.
Mystery shopping does not demand anything to pay except for a certain level of responsibility and professionalism, which too are offered as training by companies. Training, tips for improvement and shopping opportunities are provided to mystery shoppers once they register themselves with the mystery shopping companies. There are paid pre-arranged fee for a particular shop, a reimbursement for a purchase or a combination of both. Mystery shopping can be a second income but not a sole living.
The registration process of mystery shopping involves an online form to fill in and once registered, the companies start informing of the job opportunities on the first come first serve basis. So an e-mail address and a phone number should be necessarily given.
The first step is to build reputation with the company and make the best impression possible. Being impartial and focusing on accuracy can help build a good impression. Mystery shoppers can document employee names and descriptions, and prices and inventory evaluations while creating the evaluation report.
Completing the assignments on time can help earn good reputation for the mystery shoppers. If that is impossible, it should be communicated to the company so that they can reschedule the assignment. The assignment given to the mystery shoppers can be an easy one and rather a two-week job. Once determined to be a mystery shopper, the contender needs to register with a firm immediately with an e-mail address and confirm the professionalism without any grammatical errors. This would help gain the company’s first and best impression.
Potential shopping opportunities can also be obtained through online mystery shopping message boards and forums.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

8 Qualities for being a Mystery Shopper

Numerous individuals have taken up Mystery Shopping as their part time job, but merely some have been successful in it. There is a general concept that mystery shopping is an humorous and a quick way to expand into rich. This is much far away from the truth. Like any other profession, mystery shoppers too have to put lots of efforts to develop into successful professional. If we want to extend into a successful mystery shopper, then we should have or need to develop few of the qualities mention below
1. One should have an excellent surveillance: One should have good observation skill in order to become a flourishing mystery shoppers. A mystery shopper is always on a secret assignment to authenticate the services and products of their clients. We might also have to provide information the behaviour and performance of the staff.
2. Individual should be always ready: One should be the one, on whom the organisation can rely. One should be intellectual sufficient to take up assignment on little notice. We should endeavour to take up as many assignments as we could.
3. Individual should be sincerity And obedience: It is very necessary to be strictly controlled particularly, when one are working from home. It is necessary that one take their job critically and present their information on time. Deferment the assignments usually and submitting fraud reports could ruin our profession.
4. Individual should always have concentration to details: Before one starts any assignment it is necessary to give concentration to the guidelines and therefore we should read the orders carefully before starting the project. Attention to true is also required while we are on the field doing our job.
5. Individual should have excellent writing ability: We should've excellent writing aptitude so that we can converse the exact details to our clients. There are varied online resources that could assist us to enhance our writing skills.
6. Individual should have excellent memory: Individual should've very well nostalgia so that we could recall all the observations we would.
7. Individual should obscurity: While we are on a mystery shopping job, we shouldn't make known our individuality as a mystery shopper to anybody. We should look and perform just like any other client.
8. Individual should have tolerance: We should have endurance. It is not needed that all the tasks would be of our option. There is also lot of itinerant involved in this work, for which we must be capable of.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Effective Product and Service Evaluation through Secret Shopping Market Research Tool

Mystery shoppers are those individuals who get paid to visit and shop in various stores. Mystery shoppers can be found in large numbers evaluating the stores. It’s been quite some time that mystery shopping has become a legitimate brand research tool. Mystery shoppers are sent regularly on mystery shopping assignments, which require them to pose as regular shoppers just like any other normal customer. The only difference between a mystery shopper and an ordinary customer is that the former gets paid on successful completion of the mystery shopping task. That is why being a mystery shopper is a great way to earn some part time income. Those who love to shop for long hours and have good surveillance skills can easily qualify for mystery shopping jobs.
Companies are always on the look out for mystery shoppers who can perform the mystery shopping assignments effectively. Mystery shoppers are actually hired by market research firms or mystery shopping companies who are hired by other big companies.
Mystery shoppers or secret shoppers are always in high demand by the companies because the former allows them to have a clear view of their brand performance from an unbiased customer’s standpoint. The feedbacks provided by the secret shoppers allow the companies to find out how their businesses are faring, if there are any underlying unattended issues, and whether there is a need to improve the products and customer service standards. That is why companies pay good money to the mystery shoppers.
Completing a mystery shopping brand evaluation assignment is fairly easy. All one has to do is keep his eyes and ears open and remember all that are observed and heard. Companies that hire mystery shoppers want to know every little detail happening inside a store. Mystery shopping is also an excellent way to recognize and reward an employee’s outstanding performance. This in turn boosts the morale of all other employees.
Any individual, preferably above the age of eighteen, can become a mystery shopper provided he is determined to work hard, has good observational and writing skills. Good writing skill is extremely important as mystery shoppers need to provide accurate and grammatically correct contents that are easy to understand. The data presented in the mystery shopping assignment reports are first reviewed by the concerned mystery shopping companies and then forwarded to the client companies. Once the reports get approved, the mystery shoppers get paid for their efforts.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Importance of Secret Shopping Brand Evaluation Methods for Brand Success

Mystery shopping, also known as secret shopping and frontline evaluation, is designed to provide companies with valuable information that can be used improve the business practices, service or product features. A mystery shopper is hired by mystery shopping companies and trained for the assignments, which require a mystery shopper to visit a business location and observe various details, interact with the employees and the customers to find out if they have any complaints regarding the company, check whether the employees follow the business codes and offer good customer service, purchase certain items or products, etc. and finally note them down in a report.
A mystery shopper must have a keen eye for detail and should notice even the smallest aspect of a business. Mystery shopping can either include making purchases or simply evaluating customer service and then giving his/her opinion on whether it is working fine or if there is a need for improvement. A professional mystery shopper should be able to give his sincere opinions and bring about the required change by letting the companies get a clear picture of their business practices.
Since mystery shopping is conducted to get an unbiased picture of how a brand is faring, mystery shoppers are required to pose as ordinary customers and maintain strict confidentiality while performing the assignment. In acting as a customer, the employees do not realize that they are being evaluated and hence would provide a clear picture of how a business truly operates.
Many companies employ the use of comment cards, which are provided for customers to offer their opinions and insight into a store, their shopping experience and how it could be improved. A mystery shoppers too, needs to provide the same information from an unbiased customer’s viewpoint with a professional flair. Because this approach is invaluable, mystery shopping is commonly used in every domain.
Mystery shopping jobs are available in almost every big city. Those who stay in remote places can also participate in mystery shopping online. Individuals can find mystery shopping job opportunities in online job boards. Since this market research concept is growing popular day by day, there are negligible chances of the mystery shopping jobs running dry. Like paid surveys and other online jobs, the mystery shopping industry is also full of scams. One can apply the same techniques in identifying the genuine companies as used in case of other online jobs.
Last but not the least, the mystery shopping method not only helps companies identify the areas of improvement, but also helps recognize valuable services and/or quality. Companies make proper arrangements to reward those employees who perform well and are the key contributors to the success of a brand.