We’ve all seen the ads – “Make $80 an hour,” “Furnish your house for free!” or “Never pay for meals again.” Of course, they’re usually accompanied by a hefty fee for information. Information that’s often out of date and always available elsewhere free. Don’t fall for it. The number one rule in mystery shopping is Never Pay To Shop.
Mystery shopping is a legitimate business, measuring customer service and letting companies know where they’re doing well and which areas need improvement. The pay is pretty much commensurate with the skill level. In plain English, you’re not going to get rich from it. Some people do shop full-time, but for the overwhelming majority, it’s a side business. I’ve been doing it for more than ten years, adjusting my level of shops depending upon how busy my life is and how much extra income we need.
That’s one of the biggest benefits of mystery shopping- the flexibility. As an independent contractor, you choose which stores to go to, how much and when you want to work. I rarely take shops that pay less than $10, no matter how simple they “appear”. The key word there is appear. It’s not worth getting in the car for that. But other people snatch up low-paying shops as soon as they show up on the websites. You have to find the cash point that works for you.
Is mystery shopping for you? If you can’t answer the following questions with “yes”, it’s probably not the best way for you to earn money.
Is your car reliable? Are you able to live up to commitments? You’ll be dropped pretty quickly and blacklisted if you back out of shops repeatedly. Everyone has an emergency once in awhile, but dropping a shop at the last minute leaves a scheduler having to pay a hefty bonus for another shopper to pick it up on the QT.
Are you on the Internet a lot, and are you web-savvy? Almost every company has moved to reporting over the Web. Mystery shopping takes a lot of computer time, searching for jobs and entering your results. After awhile, you’ll figure out which companies post when, and your search time will diminish. There are usually several shoppers waiting for jobs to post, and it’s often first-come, first-assigned. Having an email that gets messages instantly (like Gmail) rather than being cached (like AOL) can mean the difference between finding open jobs and ones that are already filled.
Are you comfortable pretending to be someone you’re not? Some shops require you to pose as a pregnant woman, a single mother, a computer neophyte, or pretend you’re new to the area, or have inherited a large sum of money. For others, you’re simply observing. You have to be able to maintain anonymity regardless of the scenario. It gets easier the more you do it.
Still interested? Good!
Click here to go to How to Get Started in Mystery Shopping