The Truth about Mystery Shopping
There is a lot of fuss these days about mystery shopping as a work at home income. There are some that are unsure about the legitimate possibility of being paid to shop. It does sound absurd. If you are considering this work at home option, you might consider first researching which companies you do business with. There are a lot of mystery shopping companies you can do business with but there are also scams out there that you should be aware of.
If you’re looking for an at home business that is easy, and can easily be worked around your schedule, mystery shopping may be for you. There is a lot of misconception about being a mystery shopper. Over the years there have been some scam mystery shop companies that ask for money in order for you to get shops. That’s not to say that all companies that ask you to pay are a definite scam but always check out how long they have been around and where they are located. Most do not ask for a fee.
Mystery shopping works like this. Mr. Corporation wants to know how his branches, franchises, etc are truly operating on a customer level. The only way the corporation can do this is by asking the customer, or mystery shopper. Mr. Corporation hires a legitimate mystery shopping company (there are hundreds) to set up the shops and hire the shoppers. The mystery shopping company will set up guidelines according the clients needs, decide what the shoppers gets paid, and develop an online form or questionnaire for the shopper to use. There may be brief tests associated with some shops that you must pass 100%. The scheduler would be available by phone or email to the shopper for questions or concerns.
Some shops take 5 or 10 minutes while others may take an hour. The more time you’re required to spend on a shop in most cases, will involve a larger shop fee. There are fees and reimbursements. Some shops have both and some have one or the other. Bonus shops usually come at the end of the month when mystery shopping schedulers are having trouble getting some locations done.
You can even take your family on some of these jobs. For instance, an amusement park shop may pay for 2 or 3 tickets. Each mystery shop is specific to the client they are hired by. Many shops must be done alone though.
The key to mystery shopping is detail. You are hired to reveal the detail of your experience good or bad. If you are a beginner, start out slow with the easier, quick shops. It’s best to build a portfolio of all types of shops as mystery shop schedulers may share information about their shoppers and this may give you more opportunity. Once you build a nice portfolio of shops, you will get more jobs and better jobs. When you have experience these companies will call you with bonus shops if you prefer. You can make quite a bit depending on how much time you want to spend mystery shopping.
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Thanks for the article - do you know of any good mystery shopping services out there? I've seen lots of "scammy" looking businesses that promise easy money, so it would be good to have info on any legitimate services you might know about.
My friend did mystery shopping for years at restaurants. She and her hubby got lots of free meals that way!
Mystery shopping is something that I would love to do. It would be good to know about some reputable services.
I would like to get into as well.
I have been curious about mystery shopping thanks for the information.
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