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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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Tips for Becoming a Successful Mystery Shopper: Mystery shopping can be an immensely profitable career but only if you understand and apply certain factors that turn an ordinary mystery shopper into an extraordinarily successful mystery shopper. Such as:
* Be careful to be seen as an ordinary shopper, not as someone obviously spying on staff or noting prices, selection, store layout, and so on. Try to blend in with the surroundings by dressing like the ‘average’ customer and not spending too long in any particular area or staring continuously in one direction.
* ‘Practice’ being a mystery shopper before applying for work. A friend, now a very successful mystery shopper, shortly to start her own business, offered to mystery shop for acquaintances in various lines of business.
* Give a clear indication of your own likes and preferences when applying for work and increase your chances of gaining valuable items to take home free.
* Your most likely bet for ‘freebies’ is with firms selling perishables and low-value goods.
* Look for work with several companies, thereby reducing the chance of becoming well known and harder to employ. Anyone contemplating a full-time career should approach several recruitment firms and be willing to accept most kinds of assignment in various commercial sectors over a wide geographic area.
* It’s very unlikely that anyone will gain enough work with one company to generate more than pocket money, unlike another person who approaches several potential employers and also offers herself for work in other areas of market research. The exception is where one hiring company or market research bureau provides a contract excluding you from working for anyone else. Treat such offers with caution and consider only if payment is high for regular openings.
* Most application forms ask whether you are working for other companies. This presents benefits and problems for mystery shoppers. Working for other companies shows you are experienced and trusted by other employers as well as, sometimes, indicating you are working for a major competitor, and might possibly be biased in favor of another company.
* Make yourself available at all times, at short notice, and look forward to a hectic and well-paid career as a mystery shopper. In time you can expect to receive plenty of referral business from firms you have worked for previously, as well as through fellow mystery shoppers and their supervisors who are happy to recommend you to others.
* Mystery shoppers are invariably good actors, so to speak. ‘Mystery’ means what it says and anyone who looks ruffled, embarrassed or conspicuous will not receive regular assignments. Practice being a mystery shopper at home on the Internet and in shops and stores. Get someone to ask questions about the shop to check your observation and memory skills.
* Take it all in your stride, study other shoppers in similar environments before accepting an assignment, and just do your best at pretending to be one of them.
* Always maintain confidentiality and never give outsiders details of work carried out for other companies, especially rival firms.
* Consider starting your own small mystery shopping business, beginning with local firms which you visit in person and later expanding into a larger set-up visiting more distant locations and seconding your own representatives. Learn the ropes first as a mystery shopper, take note of all that goes on, retain copies of all documentation and questionnaires, keep a diary of events and compile a database of firms using mystery shoppers. Branch out when you have the appropriate level of confidence and expertise.
* Despite the benefits of accepting whatever work is offered, it is sometimes a good idea to focus on specific areas, such as banks and building societies, restaurants and hotels, where specialist knowledge and experience could make you more desirable to major hiring companies.
* Keep receipts which will be needed to pay you later. Make copies of everything connected with the shop, such as bus tickets, assignment details, rough notes, reports. Keep records of employing and hiring companies too.
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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