What’s the Truth about Mystery Shopping, After All?

There’s been a heated rhetoric intended to subdue the marketing hype that certain companies or online marketing gurus create around mystery shopping. However, when taking the middle stance between the pro-campaigning and the outright denunciation of mystery shopping as a legitimate and effective market research practice, we realize that mystery shopping is not bad, after all, because it provides unique product and service insights that no other market research method can produce. For mystery shoppers, it’s not simply a great cash-earning opportunity, but also a way to make a difference in customer service and product marketing.

Certainly, mystery shopping has elbowed its way to proving as a legitimate and smart way of earning extra money. It has many critics claiming that mystery shopping is not profitable, and that quite on the contrary – pays too little for the workload that mystery shoppers take on. However, many of the allegedly experienced critics of mystery shopping were either lousy shoppers themselves, or are simply reproducing comments that they overheard from somewhere. Successful mystery shoppers certainly develop some skills to sift through the shopping opportunities they are offered, but these take some time and practice.

Mystery shopping attracts many job seekers, because it requires no previous experience, while providing an exciting and challenging environment as mystery shoppers are actors, market researchers, and objective evaluators all rolled into one. There’s no monotonous work routine with mystery shopping, but it is far from requiring no effort and time. Successful mystery shoppers develop professional ethics and build good reputation with the companies they work for, and that ensures them regular assignments and higher-paid shops. Mystery shopping is definitely rewarding – not only do you get paid, receive free services and merchandise, but also you leave your shop location with the satisfaction that you have contributed to improving a product or service for all customers that will be using it.

What’s the strategy for getting rich with mystery shopping? First, revise your “getting rich with mystery shopping” goal, and redefine it as “earning well with mystery shopping”. It is possible to earn a good additional income by doing mystery shopping. It is also a good strategy to combine it with other online work-at-home jobs, such as completing paid surveys, or participating in focus groups. That will ensure you a full-time schedule, more cash-earning chances, and a greater freedom to choose the assignments you would really enjoy to complete, rather than having to accept every single offer you get to make ends meet.

As mystery shoppers grow proficient, they operate only in their preferred shopping area. This allows them to do double-shopping, to save on time and expenses by traveling to closer locations, and to become more familiar to the companies in the nearest vicinity. That is the key to something else – getting job offers, rather than spending time looking for work. As the companies in your area get to know you as a reliable mystery shopper, you can enjoy getting invited for particular mystery shops, instead of wasting time searching for jobs.

The Road to Mystery Shopping – Ethical Market Research Pays Well
Have you considered becoming a mystery shopper? Secret, or mystery, shopping is now a widely popular way for companies to obtain quality consumer feedback, while mystery shoppers get rewarded with cash and freebies. Companies are competing to recruit mystery shoppers who pose as real customers on their premises to check the quality of their services and the responsiveness of their staff. more...