Mystery Shopping Revealed

Introduction

It should come as no surprise that a true test of your entrepreneurship with, in and through a guest, secret or mystery shopper/shopping, guest experience, professional customer and business services, services intelligence business and customer feedback type endeavor (Mystery Shopper for short: Mystery Shopping Enterprise), TAKES HARD WORK!

It asks for attention to detail, action and business plans, networking, specialized tools, method and strategy, working deliberately to be successful, regardless of the phase that your business is in, start-up, development, enrichment, expansion, down-turn, sell or closure. You need to set goals, persist, collaborate, network, reach out, build a reputation, get the word out, referrals and testimonies, build a track record, use customized specialist tools, reporting, observation techniques, inquiry and whole bunch of other refined skills put to good use, expertise, experience, work on your feedback and reporting, following and customer service yourself, marketing and managing the business. As the Mystery Shopper business owner/operator you need to focus on BOTH process and outcome in order to make the most of your business.

When it comes to the boundaries and parameters of what Mystery Shopper is and covers, most sources define the mystery or secret shopper type business as

All activity that is happening incognito, with hidden purpose, secrecy, role-play, imitation, observation, covert, under-cover etc.

For example: A store detective hired in-house in plain-clothes walking the store pretending to be a shopper, BUT is really and employee of the business, oftentimes fall into this category as well. They actually have a real job to do and task at hand – protecting the interest of the business and guarding against shop-lifters and thieves for example, while not obviously so. There when they need to be!

Another (the majority) of the field falls within a ‘market research’ type context and roots itself in business process, customer perspectives and outcomes. A mystery shopper’s task and mandate centers around observing, evaluating, recording and reporting process/outcome, experience and quality of employees, customer service, and the like.

Mystery shopping is increasing in prevalence as companies realize that the informed, empowered consumer wants and demands more than just the bare essentials and run-of-the-mill ‘service’ anymore. Most utilize these professional services for a pretty darn good reason – they want to measure and keep, improve and develop the quality of their services.

In this scenario companies often recruit and send guest, secret or mystery shoppers to 'act' in the role as normal shoppers or to actually shop in return for some combination of goods, discounts, compensation, store credits, and more. The so-called ‘perks’ for the service. If you enjoy shopping this is a great way to earn some money, explaining why there has suddenly recently been an explosion of new providers and entrepreneurs (just like us) on the scene. This guide will help you learn and discover MORE about how to succeed in this arena and context.