Monday, April 4, 2011

Mystery Shopping Methods for Effective Brand Assessment

Like paid surveys, mystery shopping too is on the rise. Mystery shopping, also called secret shopping has become quite popular as part-time income sources. However, many novice secret shoppers get confused either by unnecessary hype or by the negative opinions against mystery shopping, which are both unjustified. This article will help clarify the myths regarding mystery shopping and also point few strategies that many smart mystery shoppers apply on the job.
Mystery shopping has been widely accepted as an efficient market research tool. Several companies employ mystery shoppers and train them adequately for mystery shopping tasks that involve the thorough evaluation of products, stores and customer service standards. The feedback thus gathered is used to modify the staff trainings in order to eliminate weaknesses and thereby improve consumer satisfaction. Today, there is cut-throat competition in the product and service area and each day the companies come up with many new quality evaluation practices for the sake of business survival. Mystery shopping is one of the most popular marketing mechanisms that helps provide unparalleled feedback to the companies and delivers accurate data on the prevailing market trends.
Mystery shopping has made it possible for people to make some extra cash that can take care of once additional financial requirements. However not all companies pay in cash. Some companies reward their mystery shoppers with freebies and products that cannot be easily afforded.
Mystery shopping appears to be quite adventurous as a mystery or secret shopper needs to act as somebody else. Generally, mystery shoppers are required to pose as regular customers and in the disguise, they need to evaluate various aspects of the assigned business location. The role of a mystery shopper changes with each mystery shopping assignment. Companies recruit mystery shoppers to pretend as real customers and act according to diverse situations that may occur while shopping. It must be mentioned that the roles of the mystery shoppers and the scenarios are generally pre-planned. That means the mystery shoppers need to follow the scripts prepared by the market research companies. However, there might be situations where the mystery shoppers need to act as per their own discretion.
Although mystery shopping jobs are quite entertaining, they involve lot of challenges. At the same, mystery shoppers need to possess high sense of responsibility as the market research companies rely on their objective feedbacks.
Mystery shopping jobs are open to all individuals above the age of eighteen. Nevertheless experienced mystery shoppers are an added advantage for the companies. Mystery shopper does not require high qualification or prior experience, all it needs is honesty, unbiased outlook, and rational approach to evaluate the products and services of a business.

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