Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Be a Secret Shopper, Secrets Revealed


This page is about getting mystery shopper jobs. For more detailed information on how to break into this profession please visit www.mysteryshopperguide.org

Mystery shopping jobs are all important nowadays for modern businesses. More than 50% of customers are lost due to poor customer service rather than because of poor product quality. Every businessman knows how hard it is to lure back a disgruntled customer. Not to mention the negative publicity such a situation generates. A mystery shopper helps by evaluating the quality of customer service in an establishment. He does this by anonymous evaluation. Some applicants to the job are attracted to the idea of espionage-like activity, or the promise of a fee for doing what does not seem like work at all, such as shopping, dining out, watching a movie, staying overnight at a hotel and ordering room service, or watching trains go by.

Training is minimal, mostly involving a trial evaluation and a detailed description of the experience. Because of the gaining popularity of this method, plenty of mystery shopping companies are in operation nowadays. Luckily for interested applicants, these companies now hire freelance shoppers online.

A secret shopper could choose their projects online, get their instructions there, make a trip to the store, a hotel, gym, restaurant, fast-food joint, or even just visit an e-commerce store and evaluate it. Within 24 hours, the evaluation questionnaire could be accomplished and emailed back to the mystery shopping company. On-the-job expenses from your own pocket such as for gas, meals, airline reservations, movie tickets, or hotel overnights must be kept track of and submitted to the company. They shall be reimbursed within about a month or less after project completion. Some of the projects, like the aforementioned online evaluation or service complaints, do not require transactions or expenses from a shopper.

However, these jobs are usually part-time and freelance. They are not career jobs. In order to earn more, one must get more jobs. Some do this by applying to a lot of different companies at one time, since online transactions have made this process quick, easy, and hassle-free. Particular evaluating jobs have specialized requirements such as owning a dog or a pet for veterinary clinic evaluations, being a girl for lingerie shop evaluations, wearing glasses for optical shop evaluations, and having kids for nanny or pre-school services. In general, skills such as good writing and reporting, a good memory, a descriptive style of writing, and a little bit of acting come in handy.

Finally, when applying online the legitimate companies must be determined from the scam. These companies are easy enough to spot. The industry has been around since the 1940’s, long enough for the legits to have built a solid foundation and a strong reputation among their clients and peers. A worldwide association also exists, and you could check if your company is a member company. This little detail is important due to the prevalence of scams all over the internet, and especially since the ever growing popularity of this kind of job makes it vulnerable. A rule of thumb is to not give out money for the promise of more money in return. After all, why spend when you are applying in order to earn?

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