Who Can Become A Mystery Shopper?

Who Can Become A Mystery Shopper_

Are you interested in becoming a mystery shopper? Do you like a flexible work schedule and are comfortable with a variable income? Some weeks are busier than others. Do you thrive on multitasking and are willing to act out a role at times? All these aspects are part of being a mystery shopper. If you like these challenges, you might find mystery shopping interesting.      

Before accepting work as a mystery shopper, research the mystery shopping companies you are interested in, as unfortunately there are some unscrupulous employers. A recognised company will never ask you for start-up fees.

Qualifications And Age     

Mystery shoppers sometimes represent a certain type of person or a specific age demographic. The age requirements for jobs are as diverse as the consumers purchasing products or using services. Most assignments, however, do not have specific demographic requirements. 

While no formal qualification is needed mystery shoppers require both good written and spoken English, as well as keen observational skills and the capacity to offer valuable feedback. It is crucial to have a grasp of what constitutes excellent customer service and the ability to identify and report on it.

As e-commerce continues to expand and technology increasingly plays a role our daily lives, having a fundamental knowledge of how mobile apps or web-based tools function, or at the very least, a willingness to acquire such knowledge, has become essential.

Experience-Level  

Mystery shoppers are expected to have a basic understanding of the subject they are evaluating whether a specific industry, aspects of products and services, or the quality of customer service. To assess a restaurant fairly, you need to have a good idea how restaurants operate. The hotel industry has specific characteristics, and you need to know what the acceptable customer experience standards are within the tourist sector before you can act as a guest and provide quality feedback. 

If you love chocolate, that might be the only experience a client wants when you need to observe how customers engage with a brand in the shops, as they don’t need you to know how chocolate is manufactured. 

Personal Skills

As a mystery shopper, you will be required to do a variety of assessments, defined by the client’s requirements and the customer journey they want you to test. Here are some personal skills that are good to have if you want to become a mystery shopper.

  • Detail oriented
  • Excellent observational skills to see what is not obvious
  • Active listener to hear what is not said
  • Curious about the company or product you are evaluating 
  • Flexible enough to work at short notice and unusual hours
  • Enjoy multitasking
  • Objective and open-minded
  • Good memory, as you might not be able to take notes on the job
  • Willing to act out a role at times
  • Timeliness
  • Efficient and concise during reporting.

Proper Reporting Skills

Good verbal and written communication skills are vital to mystery shoppers. You are expected to give an honest assessment of your evaluation in detailed reports to the company that hired you. If you are unable to make notes while you are doing your mystery shopping, work out a system where you can record or write down information as soon as it is completed, as details are important for a successful assessment. Most companies have a particular format for the report to help you turn your experience into meaningful data.    

We are a credible company with more than 10,000 experienced and trained field researchers, the largest base in Ireland. For Customer Perceptions, our field researchers are the core of our successful programmes. Are you interested in becoming a mystery shopper? Contact us for more information.

What Do Mystery Shoppers Actually Do?

What do mystery shoppers actually do_

Mystery shopping? What exactly is that anyway? There are many people who haven’t heard of the term, and probably misinterpret it when they hear it for the first time. A mystery shopper is a paid consumer who is hired to shop in certain stores and collect data on businesses and their products. They are undercover customers who are sent to interact, observe and report on stores, other customers and store employees. So, what exactly do mystery shoppers do?

What Does a Mystery Shopper Do? 

Mystery shopping providers select and hire specific consumers to make retail transactions at targeted stores and create a detailed record of the experience. They purchase items, they eat in restaurants, they may even return items simply to report back on the experience. They are not so much hired to provide opinions, but rather to generate detailed, objective reports on a business and its employees from the customer’s perspective. They are usually given a list of survey questions to help the market research company assess the performance of the targeted businesses. They may be asked to provide information on matters such as:

  • The number of employees that were on duty;
  • The greeting and service the mystery shopper received from the staff (Friendly? Helpful? How long did it take? etc.)
  • Name(s) of employee(s) with whom they interacted;
  • Type of products shown, and the sales pitch they were given, including whether there were any additional items suggested for you to purchase;
  • If they were invited to return to the store or offered sign-up for mailing lists, credit accounts, etc.
  • How quickly they received service and if the service was satisfactory.
  • The cleanliness and hygiene standards of the store itself, as well as the staff.
  • The personal grooming and appearance of the employees (were they appropriately dressed, were uniforms clean, etc.) and if employees adhered to any store dress codes.

Where Are Mystery Shoppers Sent?

Shoppers are sent to a wide variety of service-based businesses: stores, boutiques, restaurants, fast food outlets, banks, hotels, airports and even apartment complexes – any business whose interaction with its customers needs to be assessed. Generally speaking, the companies in question will contract a provider to conduct mystery shopping for them, so that they can gain some understanding of how well they are performing in terms of customer service and other criteria.

Customer Perceptions are leaders in market research solutions. With 27 years of experience, we have developed bespoke research solutions to help our clients to enhance their customer experience, gain insight into their competitors, increase customer retention, monitor standards and ultimately, increase sales and revenue. Mystery shopping is one of the services we offer to help businesses assess their performance as merchants or service providers. If you would like to learn more about what mystery shoppers do, and see how mystery shopping can help you assess and improve your business, contact us for more information.

How To Tell Your Staff About Mystery Shopping

How to tell your staff about mystery shopping

One of the main objectives of hiring a mystery shopper company is to get honest, detailed feedback that can help you improve your service. In order to make meaningful changes in your services/shops, you need to discuss your mystery shopper’s findings with your staff and devise a strategy to point the way forward. This plan might involve all or some of the following:  further training, instruction to encourage or enforce better compliance and performance, motivation, rewards, and brainstorming new processes or products. If you are wondering how you should go about telling your staff about a mystery shopper, here are some tips that will help.

In-person One to One

One of the best ways to tackle the issues raised by a mystery shopper’s report is to hold one-on-one discussions with your staff members. You may need to talk to your entire team one at a time, or just single out one or two individuals. If an employee hasn’t scored well, you need to explain to them why and coach them to help them improve their work. In the meeting, you can discuss ways to improve the customer experience and also allow the staff member to raise any questions or concerns they may have about the mystery shopper’s feedback.

Email

When you receive your mystery shopping reports, they will clearly show the shift times, staff members name (if they are wearing a name badge) dates and venues, as well as the positive and negative points of the experience. This enables you to know exactly which of your team members was responsible for the experience in question. You can then forward the mail to the relevant person and add your own recommendations and feedback. If necessary, this could also potentially open the way for follow-up, in-person discussions. 

Staff Meeting

Your mystery shopping reports may indicate that the positive and/or negative points are not attributable to individual staff members. You may need to call several team members, or the entire team, into a discussion in which you explain the report and discuss what needs to be done as a collective to address the issues.

Mystery shopper reports reflect your business’s current standing in terms of its ability to meet your customers’ needs. When the results are unfavourable, it is important to use the report as a positive opportunity to gain clarity about your business and take definitive steps to improve it. Use your mystery shopper report as a starting point to improve your customer experience and refine your training practices.   

Customer Perceptions are leaders in market research solutions. With 27 years of experience, we have developed bespoke research solutions to help our clients to enhance their customer experience, gain insight into their competitors, increase customer retention, monitor standards and ultimately, increase sales and revenue. 

Mystery shopping is one of the services we offer to help businesses assess their performance as retailers or service providers. If you would like to learn more about what mystery shoppers do, and advice on telling your staff about a mystery shopper and how to use your report for positive change and growth, contact us for more information.