How to Be a Successful Mystery Shopper

Mystery shopping is used by many companies as a way to measure the quality of their service. Mystery shoppers pretend to be actual shoppers and they follow preset guidelines for each shopping experience. There are things you can do to be successful with mystery shopping, some of which are quite simple and others that will only take a bit of extra time. Here's to your future success as a mystery shopper!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Read any and all instructions given for the mystery shop. This sounds basic, but many people are excited about the opportunity and they rush through the instructions and forget some of the steps.
2. Ask any questions that you have to your supervisor before or even after doing the mystery shop. Chances are your supervisor will be pleased by your extra care to every detail.
3. Take your time doing the mystery shop. Pay attention to every detail, as this is what the client is paying for.
4. Write down notes immediately after leaving the store location. Capture everything while it is still fresh in your mind to make writing your report easy and quick.
5. Send in reports as soon as you can. Your supervisor and the client will appreciate your attention to deadlines.
6. Fill out reports neatly and thoroughly. Use your best handwriting or fill out the reports online using proper spelling and grammar.

Tips & Warnings

• Sign up for mystery shops for chain stores in different locations, doing the same mystery shop opportunity over and over again. Once you have done the mystery shop at one location, you will feel quite confident doing it a second time.
• Mystery shoppers call their mystery shopping jobs "shops." So if you have a job coming up, it is a "shop."
• Allow for extra time when doing a mystery shop. You never know if it will take extra time to get hold of a sales person or get other information.
• Mystery shopping is also called Secret Shopping, Employee Evaluations, Performance Audits and Telephone Checks.
• Never tell any store employees that you are a mystery shopper. That is absolutely the worst thing you could do, because it alerts the store employees to the mystery shop that is going on today and also mystery shops that could be scheduled for the coming weeks.