subject: Mystery Shoppers - 5 Tips To Create a Great Relationship With Your Mystery Shopping Employer and Get Lots of Work [print this page] During any mystery shopping assignment, the one constant is that a shopper must remain undercover and anonymous. That's the whole idea. If someone is spotted as a shopper, it prejudices the entire experience.
As a mystery shopping company owner, I have to trust that shoppers will not do anything to "blow their cover" during a shop. This has happened to our company, and more than once.
Being spotted as a shopper can run the gamut from simply staring at a watch too often to doing something completely outrageous. While 99.99% of shoppers conduct themselves in a professional manner, every once in awhile there's a loose cannon.
Our company has had a few incidents over the past 25 years that I wish never happened.
- Shopper goes into an assigned restaurant. The restaurant is crowded, and there's a wait to be seated. Shopper gets impatient, too impatient. Tells the greeter he's a shopper and needs to get seated quickly to complete his assignment. The manager comes over. They get into a fight (this is for real!) I get a phone call from my client. I want to crawl under my desk and hide!
- Shopper is assigned to be seated at the restaurant bar and eat dinner there. Bar is crowded with no seats available. There's an elderly couple nearly finished with their meal, but ... they were not moving quickly enough for these impatient shoppers. Shoppers try to literally kick the couple out of their seats. Bartender hears the ruckus and comes over to try to protect the elderly couple from these over zealous shoppers. Bartender gets into a verbal exchange with shoppers and, as it was explained to me, some choice words cut through the peaceful atmosphere of this restaurant. Guess what happened next? You guessed it. I got a call from my then "ex" client. I wanted to crawl under my desk and hide!
- We start off with a new client. This client was not happy with their prior shopping service. We post the job (in general terms) to get shoppers. One application is filled out particularly well, and under occupation, the individual states they are a legal assistant. Sadly, that was not true. This individual actually was the mystery shopping company owner who was losing the account. She did not know this until she received the assignment from us. She called the client. The client called us. Even though I could not have known this individual lied on their application, this still was embarrassing.
Had these incidents happened within a short time, I might have given up the business, but they were spread out - one incident each decade.
Again 99.99% of shoppers are terrific. They want to do a good job, and know how to conduct themselves in a professional manner.
That said, here are some tips from a company owner to remain anonymous and under cover. Though these tips are stated as "do nots", the points they make might be helpful.
1. As mentioned, please refrain from staring at your watch every time a server comes over if you are doing a restaurant shop.
2. Don't stare too intently at an employee's name tag. They'll either think it's creepy or you are possibly a shopper.
3. Don't examine the location you are in such a way that it makes you look like you are a health inspector. The staff might get scared, thinking they are either closing the place down, or ... you could be on a secret mission.
4. Don't take notes in public. Restrooms are very handy for that.
5. Don't look or act stressed out, worried you might miss something. The best way to avoid this is to be well prepared. Read the instructions thoroughly beforehand. This will give you the confidence to do the job correctly, and will remove any stress factors.
Remember with mystery shopping, if you simply act as you normally would (if not on "assignment"), and are prepared, you can relax and enjoy your shopping assignment. If done correctly, mystery shopping can be a fun way to earn some extra money while doing what you would normally do.
Mystery Shoppers - 5 Tips To Create a Great Relationship With Your Mystery Shopping Employer and Get Lots of Work
