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Mystery-Shopping.org.uk
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| Mystery Shopping Articles | Be a Mystery Shopper | Get Paid to Shop |
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Mystery Shopping - A Typical Working Day: Your instructions might be to visit a specific store on a particular day at an appropriate time or within a pre-determined period. Almost certainly the hiring company will be testing or evaluating something which exclusively occurs at a specific time and place. It might be they want to know whether supplies run short of particular items at busy times, or if checkout operators become harassed, the store overruns with children, trolleys are in short supply, and so on.
Sometimes you will be allowed to choose your own time to shop, based on the theory that dirty toilets and unpleasant staff might be a permanent problem, not restricted to busy times only, in which case the client needs to know just how widespread such problems are or if conditions vary between different shifts, on different days.
Be sure to shop at the appointed time, no sooner, no later. Arrive early and go somewhere quite away from the shop and take a long last look at your instructions. A park or coffee shop is ideal.
Make sure you know what you have to do. You can’t keep on referring to your instructions during the shop, except if it’s quiet or you look to be consulting your shopping list. A small notepad is useful, doubling as a shopping list and reminder of essential features of the shop and for recording important details. Try always to look as if you are checking things you have bought against those you still have to buy.
Note unusual requests such as information which might be required about other shops in the vicinity, whether you have to count supplies of a particular product or number of supervisors in the store at the appropriate time, if you have to record the name of the assistant who served you, and so on.
Here’s a great tip we have used on occasion to avoid your notes being spotted by staff and management in the store. Use a simple code system, such as writing one letter in the alphabet in advance of actual letters of particular names or snippets of information.
For example, imagine you want to record the name of the supervisor you consulted about a particular matter. Say her name was Janet. Rather than record that name in your book, do it like this:
KBOFU
Solution to code: K (follows J), B (follows A), O (follows N), F (follows E), U (follows T) Hence JANET. Or even KBOFU!
Try to remain as inconspicuous as possible throughout the shop. No-one is going to bother you, even if you are highly conspicuous, as long as you don’t give the impression you are up to mischief in which case management and staff might have their eyes on you.
Try not to worry when things go wrong, if you are suspected of shoplifting, for example, or someone asks for an explanation of your ‘odd’ behavior. Just explain you are a mystery shopper and show them your instruction pack.
When you’ve finished go somewhere quiet as before - a coffee shop is ideal - and make sure you have done all that was asked of you. It’s a good idea to complete your questionnaire and report right away, while the events are still fresh in your mind, and while you still have a chance to gather outstanding information. This is especially important if you have a series of mystery shops in one day or you run the risk of confusing one shop with another and alienating the agency that appointed you.
Keep copies of all reports, questionnaires, receipts and notes about a particular shop for personal use as well as for querying payments and preparing your own accounts and tax returns.
Extract from: Be a Mystery Shopper GET PAID TO SHOP … and keep everything you ‘buy’ completely free of charge! byAvril Harper
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Mystery Shopping Facts
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