Mystery shopping is a popular choice for people looking for a role with a highly flexible work schedule.
Wherever you live, be it a small town or a large city, there will likely be opportunities available in your area to visit businesses and assess the quality of the customer experience they provide.
For people who enjoy shopping, this sounds like the perfect job, being employed to do something you would otherwise pay to do. However, there is more to mystery shopping than simply visiting your favorite businesses, buying their products, and being paid for it.
In this blog, we explain the ins and outs of being a mystery shopper – what the role entails, how much they can earn, how to become one, and what it takes to be a great mystery shopper.
What Is a Mystery Shopper?
A mystery shopper, also known as a secret shopper, is an individual who is hired to evaluate the quality of customer service, products, and overall customer experience given by a company.
Mystery shoppers are tasked with behaving like regular customers and have specific instructions on what to look for during their visit. They may also have particular actions to perform while there, such as asking for an item, or requesting advice on what to buy.
Typically mystery shoppers will be employed by Mystery Shopping Agencies or Market Research Organisations. The agency will, in turn, have been contracted to measure some element of a business’s customer experience. This may be at the request of the business itself, or one of its competitors.
Mystery shoppers are used in a wide range of industries, including retail, hospitality, automotive, and healthcare. Their interactions may involve visiting stores, restaurants, or hotels in-person, making a phone call, or engaging with a company online.
After their interaction or visit, mystery shoppers will provide feedback on their experience, often using a standardized evaluation form. The data can be used to paint a picture of the current customer experience provided by the business.
The company can then use this feedback to identify areas where they can improve operations, train employees, or enhance customer service. Their ultimate goal is to elevate customer satisfaction and loyalty, in order to increase revenue and grow their business.
The value in this feedback is that it is impartial, impersonal data from the perspective of a customer. Decision-makers in some companies can be isolated from the experiences of both front-line employees and customers. Understanding how things stand allows these decision-makers to enact strategic changes with a greater insight into how they will affect both customers and staff.
What Tasks Do Mystery Shoppers Have to Perform?
An in-person mystery shop will involve the shopper physically visiting the brick-and-mortar store or place of business. Once there, the shopper may be required to purchase an item, ask staff for assistance, or take a picture of any area that is unclean.
Online mystery shops involve visiting an aspect of a business that is available on the internet. This can be the business’ own website, or it may be their social media channels. Examples of tasks to perform may be purchasing a specific item from the website, interacting with the chatbot, or sending a direct message to a social media account about a product.
Telephone mystery shopping is intended to evaluate the customer experience provided by a business’ various telephone operatives. This may be a helpline, complaints line, or similar. A mystery shopper’s task could be ringing up the complaints line with a particular grievance, asking for help with an item, or requesting advice.
In addition, mystery shoppers can pose as candidates for a job opening, in order to evaluate the interview process and ensure the company’s values are being represented well by interviewers.
On-site:
- Evaluating Customer Service
- Staff Product and Promotion Knowledge
- Upselling and Cross-selling opportunities
- Making video, photo or audio recordings
- Cleanliness and hygiene of facilities
- Conducting employee satisfaction surveys
- Checking staff following protocols and procedures
- Posing as interviewee to check anti-discrimination procedures
Off-site
- Making online purchases
- Testing website functionality
- Telephoning Customer Service Helplines
- Making a complaint
- Interacting over Social Media
- Product testing
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How Much Can a Mystery Shopper Earn?
The amount you will receive as payment per assignment will vary depending on the client and the task you are assigned. A more complex assignment, or one which demands more of your time to complete, will bring better financial compensation than a simple one.
As a ballpark figure, Brand Agents can expect to earn anywhere between $20-$250 per assignment. Agents who are certified with MSPA (Mystery Shopping Professionals Association) can expect to have more opportunities, and earn more per assignment.
Additionally, some clients will provide you with extra money to purchase products or services as part of a mystery shopping assignment. You may be allowed to keep the products you have had to purchase after the assignment is completed, but this may affect the level of payment you receive.
How Can I Become a Mystery Shopper?
Register
In most cases, becoming a mystery shopper will be as simple as registering with an agency or mystery shopping company via their website. You will be required to fill in a registration form and an agreement stipulating the terms of your contract.
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Register
Research Participant
When you apply to work with Service Evaluation Concepts, you will first become a “Research Participant”. This is the base level and only requires the bare minimum of demographic details about you. Signing up will require you to complete a registration form and an Independent Contractor Agreement. You will then be added to our database.
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Research Participant
As an independent Research Participant, you will only be used to perform mystery shops when a Project Liaison contacts you directly. You will not be able to access job listings and select your own assignments yet, as this is only for certified Brand Agents.
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Brand Agent
In order to progress from Research Participant to certified Brand Agent, you need to provide comprehensive demographic information, and complete your Brand Agent Certification Program training. The program validates your understanding of Service Evaluations Concepts’ market research methodologies, procedures and policies.
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Brand Agent
Once you have completed your training, you will be a Service Evaluation Concepts Brand Agent. You will then be able to view all available assignments in your areas.
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Brand Agents provide much more detailed demographic information than Research Participants, and as a result they often receive more specific assignments. Companies often request that Mystery Shoppers are in the same demographic groups as their target audience, to get a more accurate reflection of their performance.
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Certified Brand Agent (CBA)
Mystery shoppers with the highest level of expertise are called Client-Specific Certified Brand Agents (CBAs). These are agents who have a proven understanding of the policies, procedures, and values of a specific brand.
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Certified Brand Agent (CBA)
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What Makes a Good Mystery Shopper?
You don’t need any formal qualifications to become a mystery shopper, but there are certain skills that make a person successful in this role.
A good mystery shopping agent should be able to make multiple visits to a location without the staff realizing they are there to perform an evaluation. Mystery Shoppers should attempt to blend in with the existing clientele, and act in a way that doesn’t arouse suspicion.
Things that might tip off a store employee include:
- Taking notes in a way that is visible to staff
- Staring at staff name tags
- Asking overly scripted questions
- Using recording devices
A shopper should be able to think on the spot and improvise in order to maintain their cover. In instances where a shopper is identified by the staff at a location, the client will not let the shopper take another assignment at that location, and may refuse to accept their report. In cases where reports are not accepted, the mystery shopping agents are not paid for that assignment.
Mystery shoppers should also be reliable, ethical and trustworthy. They should follow through on the audits they have committed to, carry out evaluations at the correct time and date, follow the objectives they were given, and submit their report in a timely manner.
All reports should be unbiased, and contain accurate representations of what occurred during the audit. Some companies will cross-check the details of a report with video surveillance, to ensure that it is accurate.
Final Thoughts
Mystery Shopping offers flexible employment for people of all ages and backgrounds. Assignments can be selected to fit around your other commitments, the tasks are often varied, and many can be performed within the comfort of your own home.
Brand Agents have the opportunity to experience new places and businesses, work in an environment where their opinion is valued, and develop their own observational and customer service skills.
If you are interested in becoming a Brand Agent then simply click here to start your journey.
Service Evaluation Concepts have over 35 years of experience of assessing customer-focused operations in companies of all sizes and sectors. In that time, we have built up a global network of over 600,000 mystery shoppers. All of our Brand Agents are fully-supported through training and resources, and receive a host of in-work benefits.
