How to Become a Mystery Shopper Without Any Cost
If getting paid to report on your customer experience at the clothing store, warehouse club, grocery store or other place of business sounds good to you, you could be one of many mystery shoppers helping businesses monitor and improve their service levels.
Companies hire third-party vendors who in turn hire mystery shoppers paid to report on specific aspects of the customer experience. How clean are the restrooms? How long did you wait before a sales clerk approached you? How would you rate the employee's knowledge of digital cameras? These are just some of the questions a mystery shopper answers as part of a "shop." After the visit, the consumer fills out a survey or writes a report and is paid for her observations. Sometimes shoppers receive free meals or merchandise.
With no start-up costs, you can earn income while shopping.
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Things You'll Need
- Good command of the English language, including proper spelling, grammar and punctuation
- High school education
- Transportation to shopping sites
- Good attention to detail and excellent observation skills
- Computer and high-speed Internet access
Instructions
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Instructions
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Prepare a brief statement of about 50 words on why you will be a good mystery shopper. In addition to filling out surveys, you might write evaluation reports of services. Employers want to know that any communication you provide will be well-written. A statement with flawless spelling, grammar and punctuation demonstrates your attention to detail, which is exactly what vendors are looking for in a mystery shopper.
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Visit the Mystery Shopping Providers Association website for a list of companies that offer shopping opportunities. All vendors registered with MSPA allow free access to their databases of mystery shopping jobs. MSPA urges you to be wary of organizations that require a fee to access the same information that is most likely offered for free on its website. Certain vendors specialize in particular industries and products, so review several companies to determine which ones you want to pursue.
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Register with multiple companies. Companies pay by the assignment, which in 2009 ranged from $5 to $10. Most shops can be completed within an hour. By registering with multiple companies, you increase your chances of procuring assignments and garnering more income. For most employers, when you register you must indicate that you are at least 20 years old, have a high school education, and can get to job sites. If you want a true no-cost mystery shopping career, save the gas money you'd spend traveling to stores by registering with vendors that evaluate call centers and email service. According to the MSPA, 15 percent of the mystery shopping industry is devoted to examining these types of customer experiences.
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Complete your assignment according to the vendor's specifications in a timely manner. Getting an assignment gets your foot in the door, but to become a mystery shopper, you need to deliver the goods. If you are asked to fill out a survey on the amount of time it took for a clerk in an electronics store to approach you and his knowledge level of digital cameras, take note of that during your store visit. Don't leave an assignment until you are sure you can answer all of the vendor's questions. By meeting the vendor's requirements within its desired time frame, you'll show that you have good attention to detail and are reliable. As a result, you'll go to the top of the list when applying for additional jobs.
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Tips & Warnings
Be realistic about the number of assignments you can take on and your desired income. The more assignments you accept, the more money you'll make. Sounds obvious, but because assignments in 2009 range between $5 and $10, it takes several to fill up your wallet. The more assignments you complete with quality, the more assignments schedulers send your way. Shoppers making $100 a week are usually registered with multiple vendors, while those making $500 a week are scheduling daily jobs and are well-known to assignment schedulers. Plan out your assignments to prevent crisscrossing your town from job to job. The more running around you do, the less profit you'll see. Your assignment fees could go straight to your gas tank instead of your bank account. Be smart about scheduling so that mystery shopping won't end up costing your more than it's worth. Select assignments in industries for which you care deeply about the customer experience. You can do a good job of evaluating any service or products as long as you provide quality feedback on the aspects of service the vendor is curious about. However, caring about the subject can heighten your powers of observation. If you are a clotheshorse and can easily judge good service in a clothing store, the details of your visit will come easily to you. While it's good to care about service in a particular industry, you'll be asked to indicate if you have any conflicts of interest. So if you own a restaurant, you won't receive assignment to evaluate restaurants.
Never pay to become a mystery shopper. A leading provider in customer service evaluation services, Market Force Information, informs its website readers that "Prospective shoppers should never have to pay a fee to become a mystery shopper." Look for shopping opportunities through MSPA, as it requires its members to agree to a code of conduct and only promote legitimate organizations that do not require fees to become mystery shoppers. Run from check-cashing schemes. In May 2009, a Toronto man was convicted of scamming victims who were told that they were assessing MoneyGram's wire transfer services. The scammer instructed unsuspecting mystery shoppers to deposit checks he provided into their accounts, then to withdraw the money and wire it to Canada through MoneyGram. MSPA reports, "When the banks reversed the counterfeit deposits, the victims were left liable for the money withdrawn. Victims reported losses ranging from $2,400 (USD) to $9,000 (USD) each." Don't agree to pay a fee during an unsolicited telephone call offering to provide you with secrets and tips that you can get only by paying the caller a fee. The same goes for email. Unless you can verify the vendor's legitimacy, you are probably just part of a money-making scheme that provides you no value.
