Making Money at Home: Mystery Shopping

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I have been asked to write a post about mystery shopping for a while now and am finally getting around to writing it. I have been a mystery shopper for a little over 5 years now. I think it is a lot of fun. I always hate it when I get bad customer service so this helps the customer service industry make the customers feel a little more at ease.

Many, many different stores hire mystery shoppers. I have done a variety of stores including banks, video gaming stores, grocery stores, outlet stores, bowling alleys, fast food, up-scale restaurants, even apartments and new home builders. The list can go on and on. One way to really bring extra income into your home is doing mystery shops at places you usually shop in the first place. Many shops do not require anything out of pocket, such as the banks, but some will require a small purchase in which you will be reimbursed for. Why not do the shop for 'Albertsons' buy $10 worth of grocerys you would normally buy, visit the required departments and talk to a few employees. Then go home fill out your report, and wah-la you are reimbursed $10 and paid $15 for your time. ($$ are estimated)

Here are a few tips:
*Never pay to become a mystery shopper! - 9 times out of 10 it will be a scam. You will pay $50 out of pocket for them to get you jobs and you will never see any. All legit companies are free to sign-up.

*Sign up for as many as possible - This seems pretty logicial but when signing up it is a pretty monotonous task. But the more companies you sign up for the more chances you have for getting a job. Also if a company says they do not have any in your area, that doesn't mean they won't have some in the future.

*Get a separate email account for mystery shopping - Once you get going, you will get anywhere from 50-100 emails a day offering shops. If you use your personal email it gets your inbox filling up very quickly. Yahoo, hotmail, gmail are just a few that offer free emails.

*Listen to other shoppers - Shoppers cannot disclose what company shops which store, but they can tell you which companies are good with paying you your fees.

*Get MSPA certified - The Mystery Shopping Providers Association offers a silver and gold certification. Both of which can now be done online. I think of the silver certification as an Associates degree and the Gold Certification as a bachelors. Some companies look to see if you have extra qualifications. Many times you can get more shops if you have the extra qualifications.

*Go to Mystery Shopper Forums - Visit Volition.com and see the list of companies that are shopper approved. They will give you extra insight if the company is in your area and if they shops 'big box, restaurants, hotel, etc'

Remember this is not a 'great rich quick' sort of thing. It will take a while before you are able to get your monthly income up. After shopping for a while, you will start to have companies contact you directly about doing a shop rather than putting it on the boards. I will start to do spotlights on different companies I have shopped for.

Happy Shopping

3 comments:

Chels said...

Great! When I get around to it I'm going to do a post on my blog with your link! Thanks! I'm afraid to say I'm still trying to push myself to just do it and get started!

beth said...

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try it. Do you have to watch your email closely to snag a shop before it's gone?

Kristine said...

Yes, you want to check your email a few times a day. I do know of some shoppers that literally wait on their computer for the email to go out with some companies at 2am. But I just check in the morning.

 
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