How To Become a Successful Mystery
Shopper
Mystery shopping is simple and enjoyable, but
it does not hurt to get some helpful advice on how to become more
successful. To be an expert in a mystery
shopper profile, we need not require being only a good actor,
but also be able to follow directions and to perform on possibilities
effectively.
One of the attractiveness of mystery shopping is that we actually
get ready for a real-time experience that is only partly staged.
We cannot foresee all the situations that can occur, but can only
get organized for our major tasks and goals – how to participate,
what to require, what questions to ask, what demands to pose,
what attitude to show, and what to examine. It is absolutely entertaining
to be doing all these things concurrently posing as a real customer
and watching out for all the details included in our task directions.
However, being a mystery shopper is more than just following the
directions or instructions. Once deployed at our shopping location,
we are required to focus not only on the particular details, but
to clutch the whole picture and be an objective evaluator. Some
mystery shoppers tend to exaggerate the methodological part and
may go to extremes that are likely to expose them as mock customers.
There are some situations when mystery
shoppers are so anxious to take photos or ask the right questions
that they end up retiring, turn over pages, walking about excitedly
or acting erratically with their directions given. This can be
a consequence of the stress some secret shoppers may experience
during their shopping task, but such states are likely to compromise
the results of the mystery shopping task, rather than to serve
its purposes. Even though newly mystery shoppers are likely to
get a bit nervous on their first shopping assignment, we should
keep in mind that we cannot give realistic picture of what the
customer service on the specific premises is unless we our self
act as a realistic customer. Therefore, there’s no better
guidance to mystery shoppers than to be natural and realistic,
according to their shopping directions.
Mystery shopping
professions can be tremendously exciting, as shoppers need to
play various characters – some pretend to be very particular;
others pose to have some particular technological or design preferences,
etc. Improvising from our mystery shopping directions is appreciated
when it is constant with informative notes on important aspects
of customer service. For example, if we are at an appliance store,
it may be irrational to ask for a pink refrigerator or insist
on being accessible a fridge that can also dry clothes, unless
the same is specified in the directions or instructions provided.
Also, we can be vigilant for any urgent situation that might occur,
and report it if it is rendered important – a wet floor,
a difference with another customer, lack of cooperation between
staff members or anything that caught by our sight. Even though
we might have never had to monitor such details as a regular shopper,
we need to certainly notice things that you didn’t like
while doing actual shopping. Therefore, it’s not only the
details we were instructed to monitor that are important, but
also the overall ambiance and the customer friendliness of the
shopping environment.
Becoming a mystery shopper is a demanding and entertaining experience
with all the challenges that has important impact on the development
of businesses. Following instructions or directions provided by
the company is important, but we also need to be prepared to both
grab the details and clutch the big picture in order to offer
quality mystery shopping feedback result, while actually enjoying
being a secret shopper.
