Mystery Shopping Tips

If you’re a super shopper who loves to pay attention to details you may want to consider becoming a mystery shopper.  Mystery shoppers are hired by companies such as GFK to report on their shopping experiences.  Companies use the information to assist them in improving customer service and in making policy changes that will increase sales.

There are many well-known companies that are clients of GFK.  Chances are that there will be many mystery shopping opportunities in your area.

Start the Process

If you think you’re interested in becoming a mystery shopper for GFK you can start by filling out an application.  The application is filled out online and takes only a few minutes to complete.  Mystery shoppers complete a form when they sign up that includes their address and the distance you’ll be willing to travel to carry out a mystery shopping assignment.

You can determine the area in which you want to complete assignments and can change or expand the area at any time.  Once you sign up you’ll be asked to complete some online training.  This training is essential because it gives you the information you need in order to do the job properly.  You’ll understand what is expected of you as a mystery shopper.
The online training is very fast and easy to complete.  It’s really just a series of informational slides that you must read and understand.  You can take notes or even print it out to have it for later reference.  After you take the online training you must complete an online test.  Applicants must score 100% on the test in order to start getting assignments.

Getting Assignments

Yes, you CAN shop for a living – at least part-time.  Once you’re officially registered and have completed the training test you’re ready to start getting assignments.  When schedulers look for shoppers to fill the assignments they will look for several things including:

• Location
• Shopper profile
• Shopping history

If you’ve proven yourself as a good shopper you’ll likely get considered for many more mystery shopping opportunities.  When you get your assignment you’ll get a list of instructions for the mystery shop.  You must read through and follow the instructions exactly.  If you don’t you may end up not getting paid.

On the downside, if you’re looking for a lot of assignments you may be disappointed.  There are more than 50,000 registered mystery shoppers, many with more experience than you.  You’ll be competing with these people to get job assignments so you may only get one or two a month.  However, if you are satisfied with a few assignments a month you’ll be quite happy with GFK.

Completing Assignments

Congratulations!  You’re a mystery shopper with your first assignment.  What can you expect?  First, print out the instructions that you get from the scheduler.  Assignments always have a deadline.  Typically the deadline is within just a few days of getting the assignment.  This means you’ll have only a day or two to visit the store and write up the report.  By the way, don’t take assignments if you can’t complete them within the deadline.  You’ll end up not getting any more assignments!

When you visit the store you must be sure that you’re identity is kept confidential.  You’ve got to look and act just like any other customer.  You’ll have specific instructions to carry out.  For example you may be asked to shop in a certain department and make a purchase of a particular type of item.  You may be asked to try an item on in the fitting room.

Whatever your assignment is you must carry it out properly.  You aren’t allowed to carry any information with you, refer to any paperwork or make any notes until after you leave the premise.  So, you’ll need to have a good memory and attention to detail.  If you’re asked to purchase an item you’ll need to pay for it yourself and you’ll get an allowance toward the item when you turn in your receipts.

Once you’re done at the store visit the next part is crucial.  You must write up a report and submit it within the allotted timeframe.  A report that’s poorly written or late may not be accepted and you risk not getting paid.  If you had to make a purchase you must submit the receipt.

Remember, though, that you need to be totally unbiased when you take a shopping assignment.  You can’t ever take into account any previous dealings with that particular store or chain.  You must be able to observe and report according to the exact rules of the assignment.  Customers are looking for objective customer feedback and they need to know that your report is reliable.

When a report is submitted to GFK it will eventually make its way back to the client.  This is often done through the parent company, franchise owner or company headquarters.  Since the information is used to help improve customer service and sales the store managers and employees will review the reports.  In fact some companies use these reports as part of the employee review process.

Getting Paid to Shop

After you complete the assignment and submit the report it will be reviewed.  Once it is reviewed it will be accepted as long as there are no errors or problems.  Expect to wait a little while to get paid for your shopping assignments.  Pay can run anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks after the report is accepted.  Pay for any particular assignment will vary but expect pay to be anywhere from about $10 to $25 per shopping assignment.

GapBuster was the first mystery shopping company I ever signed up with. They had thousands of assignments all over the US. They even had assignments in the small town in Ohio I was living in at the time. GapBuster is one of those companies that is very well established, and tends to have large clients across the country — and even the world. A word of warning — if you are NEW to mystery shopping, avoid their fast food assignments! They are very complex. Other than that, GapBuster is a good company to work with. They are reliable and will pay you on time.

GAPBuster Worldwide was established in 1994 under the direction of the company’s current Group Managing Director, Phil Prosser. Eager but unable to find a retail company with a successful means of monitoring its customer service, Prosser decided to launch GAPBuster in New Zealand. The idea behind the company is geared at eliminating the “gap” between the company’s service goals and the actual service customer’s experience on the sales floor – hence the company name GAPBuster.

The company transferred its corporate headquarters to Melbourne, Australia in 1996, and continued expanding its market throughout the Pacific area. Within a few years, GAPBuster began serving clients throughout Asia and into Europe, and still working hard to “bust the gap” between the sales floor and the client’s service goals.

Today, GAPBuster serves clients in more than 35 countries, and employs a full-time staff of 250 employees. GAPBuster’s mystery shopper force tops 250,000 mystery shoppers around the world. In addition to the corporate offices in Melbourne, Australia, GAPBuster also operates regional offices in the following locations: Cumming, Georgia (USA & Canada); Hampshire, United Kingdom (UK and South Europe); Copenhagen, Denmark (North Europe); and Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo (Japan).

The company maintains at “Quality Philosophy” aimed at provided clients with the same quality the clients themselves are seeking through the use of GAPBuster’s mystery shopping services.

Here’s some more information about them:

URL:

http://www.gapbuster.com

Mystery Shopper Application:

http://www.gapbuster.com/mysteryshopping/globe.htm

Corporate Headquarters:

PO Box 7205

479 St Kilda Road

Melbourne, Australia 8004

Countries Served:

Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States

I recently had the opportunity to ask Jodi Paul a few questions about her mystery shopping company. If you’re looking for a great company to work with, I highly recommend signing up for Consumer Impressions.

Please give a short introduction to your company:

Consumer Impressions, Inc. is headquartered in Plano, Texas.  We have been providing mystery shopping services since 1991.  We focus mainly on fast food, but also do fine dining surveys as well.  We have worked with many different types of service oriented businesses over the past 20 years.

What types of assignments do you offer?

Currently we offer Fast Food and Fine Dining surveys.

What is your typical pay range?

$8.00 plus reimbursement for the meal for a daytime fast food shop.
$12.00 plus reimbursement for the meal for a late night fast food shop.
$10.00 plus reimbursement for a meal including appetizer, entree, beverage and dessert at fine dining restaurants.

How can mystery shoppers sign up with your company?

Go to our web site, www.consumerimpressions.com, and click on the Link to Shop with Us.  Fill out our application on line.  There is no fee to join our shopping team.  We do ask you to do a quiz as part of the application, which insures that you understand the requirements and expectations we have for our shoppers.  We also ask you to choose the locations that you would like to shop for us.  We only schedule you to visit locations that you choose.

How can shoppers get assignments after signing up with your company?

Our computer selects the shoppers initially.  As the month progresses, and shoppers return shops, we make them available on a listing that shoppers can select from.  Each week, we send out an email which lets a shopper know if we have a shop available at a location that they have on their preferred locations to shop.  The shopper can then log into their account and choose the survey themselves.  If we do not get response from the Available Shops email, we will then call shoppers.  The best way to assure you receive shops is to check the available listing often.  Shops are always coming back throughout the month.

What qualities do you look for in a mystery shopper?

We need reliable shoppers who are willing to provide a detailed, well written report.  We need shoppers who take the program seriously and take pride in their work.

What sets your company apart?

We do our best to schedule our surveys so that they are convenient for our shoppers schedule.  We appreciate our reliable, detailed shoppers and know that our business would not survive without them.

To get started with Consumer Impressions, click here.

Written By Valerie L: Bare Associates is a global mystery shopping company that provides services in the United States and more than 100 other countries, including India, China, Brazil, England and France. As a mystery shopper in the U.S., you will find that they offer a wide variety of interesting mystery shops such as motorcycle dealerships, financial institutions and post offices. They also frequently offer telephone shops.

Mystery shoppers who work for Bare Associates are paid well, and you can count on receiving your pay on-time. In their system, you can view your “Shop Log” and quickly see the status of payment for jobs you have performed. The compensation you receive for mystery shopping jobs with Bare Associates varies, but it is generally in the $15-$20 range. They are a great company to work for because they pay fairly and they have efficient and straightforward reporting processes. Also, their schedulers are very responsive to any inquiries or emails.

Bare Associates is one of the first companies that I started working for when I began mystery shopping. They definitely took a chance on me when I did my first shop for them at a motorcycle dealership! Since that time, I have done several more motorcycle dealership shops. Their instructions and forms are comprehensive and clear. I’ve also been fortunate enough to receive calls from their schedulers when they have last minute shops, and they will negotiate equitable fees for emergency or long-distance assignments. However I have also had the experience of accepting a group of telephone shops which I thought would be simple and straight-forward. Unfortunately I found that, for me, it was difficult to keep track of information since I was receiving return calls from many people. So you will want to be careful about the jobs you choose. If you are on-the-go, some of those telephone shops may not be for you.

If you are interested in signing up with Bare Associates, simply go to their website at http://www.bareinternational.com/en/, and in the upper right hand corner you will see a link for “New Evaluator Registration”. Once you click on “New Evaluator Registration” (and choose English as your language!) you can begin the registration process. Make sure you fill out the application completely, and make sure that your email address and phone numbers are accurate. As with many other shopping companies, Bare Associates relies heavily on email communication, and you will want schedulers to be able to contact you quickly by phone if they have an urgent job to be completed.

Once you have signed up, you will receive periodic emails from Bare Associates when they have open opportunities in your area. In addition, you can log on to their site to review the job board directly. Using the job board, you can search for assignments in your state, or based on any distance from any zip code you want to enter into the system. A listing of potential jobs will be displayed, and you can review the requirements and pay before you decide to apply. Once you have applied, you will receive an email confirmation for your assignment. After you have some experience with the company, you may become eligible to “self-assign” shops, which means you don’t have to wait for a confirmation from a scheduler to know that you have been approved.

Although Bare Associates might be the mystery shopping company with a funny name, it is a great company to work for. Some of their assignments may be a bit more complex than other companies, but they pay well and are very professional and easy to work with. Don’t hesitate to sign up and take a look at the opportunities that are there for you!

Here’s more about Bare Associates International on MysteryShopForum.com

Written by Valerie L: Bestmark offers a wide variety mystery shopping opportunities including retail, restaurant, and automotive dealership evaluations. They are a great company to start with if you are new to mystery shopping because they provide very clear directions and guidance on their shops. In addition, their systems and processes are easy to understand and reliable.

Mystery shoppers who work for Bestmark are paid fairly and consistently. Once you complete a shop, you can count on being paid in the following month. The compensation you receive for mystery shopping jobs with Bestmark varies, but it is generally in the $10 – $15 range, with some restaurant reimbursements being higher. Although the pay rate is not high, their on-line reporting is very straightforward and efficient, so you won’t have to spend a lot of time at home on the computer after you have performed your shop. Bestmark is also an excellent choice for new mystery shoppers because they will call and give you some personal guidance before you do your first job. It is great to have that one-on-one time with a scheduler on the phone to help guide you through your assignment.

Bestmark is one of the first companies that I started working for when I began mystery shopping. They were very helpful and eager for me to become successful as a mystery shopper. Since that time, I have done automotive dealership shops, retail store shops, and restaurants. Their instructions and forms are clear and easy-to-use. I’ve also been fortunate enough to work with them to complete some long distance jobs, and we were able to negotiate fair bonus and mileage reimbursements for these special situations. On the other hand, I have occasionally accepted jobs from Bestmark that simply don’t pay much, but I know that they are in a bind, and I can trust that they will remember my support the next a higher paying job comes along.

If you are interested in signing up with Bestmark, simply go to their website at https://www.bestmark.com, and you will see a link to “Become a Shopper”. Once you click on “Become Shopper”, you will click on “Sign Up Now” and be taken to an application form. Their application form is straight forward and easy to use. Make sure you fill out the application completely, and you will definitely want to ensure that your email address and phone numbers are accurate. Bestmark relies heavily on email communication, and you will also want to make sure a scheduler can contact you quickly by phone if they have an urgent job to be done.

Once you have signed up, you will start receiving weekly emails from Bestmark that provide a list of potential assignments. In addition, you can be proactive and periodically logon to their site to review the job board directly. Using the job board, you can search for assignments based on various distances from your home zip code, or any other zip code you want to enter into the system. A listing of potential jobs will be displayed, and you can review the requirements and pay before you decide to apply. Once you have applied, you will receive an email confirmation for your assignment. Alternatively, a scheduler may contact you directly by phone if they have a job that needs to be done quickly, or if they have a deadline to meet.

I think you will find that Bestmark is a great company to work for. They expect their mystery shoppers to be professional, dependable, and conscientious. However, in return, you be paid fairly and you will benefit from working with their experienced schedulers. All of this will help you learn and grow as a professional mystery shopper.

There is more info about here about BestMark.