About Mystery Shoppers

Function

A mystery shopper is assigned to a specific shop to see how the staff treats the average customer. The shopper visits the shop, not telling the workers that she is a mystery shopper. She then buys a certain number of items that she was instructed to purchase and watches how the salesmen and women interact with her. Often, mystery shoppers are responsible for checking whether the cashier was friendly, if someone asked them if they needed any help and if the store seemed clean and maintained.

Mystery shoppers are important because they help businesses provide the best customer service they can. Anyone could be a mystery shopper, so the stores have to treat each customer accordingly. For businesses that don't provide adequate service, the company gets written up for bad service and someone talks to the manager or boss about the bad report. The company then needs to step up their performance. This ensures that the public gets the service they deserve.

Mystery shoppers often work from assignment to assignment and are not given a steady income. Most people use this as a job to earn cash on the side. When an assignment appears in her area, a mystery shopper reads the description and chooses to either accept or decline. Often she will be reimbursed for the purchases, assuming she buys what she was instructed to get, and sometimes for the gas to travel there. Many times the mystery shopper gets to keep what she purchased for free. After the shopping experience is over, she writes a report about how the service was and sends it in to be evaluated by her employers.

If your business is trying to figure out who is a mystery shopper, there are few tricks you can use. While a mystery shopper can be almost anyone, they will be over the age of 18. Look for people who are the right age range for your product if it has a specific target age. Often these people will look at their watch a lot if they're on a time limit, or will browse carefully through the store without buying many items. They may buy clothing without trying it on, or only buy something small. Mystery shoppers are also instructed to pay special attention to how they are treated, and to make themselves visible to workers to see whether they're offered help. Shy people normally don't mystery shop.

Mystery shoppers have the ability to change the way businesses are run. They can go in, almost like a spy, and expose companies that aren't being fair or loyal to their customers. The best part is that they get paid for it, so they don't lose any of their own money. Not only does this keep companies in line, but it gives people a way to earn money doing what they love: shopping. The area of mystery shoppers has much room to expand as smaller cities begin to pick up this practice. Anywhere people are selling products has room for mystery shoppers, and they're a big help to society.