As I am writing this review under the category " General Advice on Mystery Shopping", I will not focus on any particular company here. I will write an overview.
What is Mystery Shopping?
Mystery shopping aka secret shopping is an effective segment of any market research process. Companies engage market research firms to perform mystery shopping work where a shopper is assigned to complete a shopping assignment. The person visits to a particular shop as a ordinary shopper and asks relevant questions and queries to the shop keeper about the product or service before purchasing a product or accessing a service as a mystery shopper with out disclosing the identity.
Once, the shopping is done, the shopper needs to fill in a questionnaire provided by the market research company, based on the shopping experience. Once the audit report is approved by the company, the shopper gets paid for the task.
If you are interest in shopping, you can take up mystery shopping assignments from several market research companies and get paid for your shopping task and evaluation report. It is a popular option nowadays in big cities in India.
Where to start? Google is there to help you out to find mystery shopping opportunity in your city.
You can try out with the following keywords on Google:
mystery shopping india
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Your search will displays some of the leading market research firms to provide you mystery shopping opportunity. Please be sure to check the company back ground before signing up with any of them.
You can again take help of Big G in this regard. Say, you are considering to join XYZ.com as a mystery shopper. Now, you need to know whether the company is real as you will never want to start with a fake company. Just type on Google " Is XYZ.com is spam"? or "is xyz.com is fake"?. with these keywords, you will sure to find some more information about a potential website.
This is very crucial as you are going to register with this firm and also going to divulge lots of personal details on your profile page. Now, as you have done your necessary checking, just register with the site and complete the profile 100%. It is very important. The company needs to know about your background. When all these formalities are completes, just check your city and check if you have any assignment available.
Before saying "YES", to any assignment, please think if you are capable enough to complete the work. Some of the assignments will not pay you anything upfront, so you have to spend the money from your own, though after successful approval of your assignments, you will be reimbursed from the company itself.
Please check all the minute details attentive before taking up a new assignment. If you later say NO to any of the assignment, you will hardly get any further work from them.
Once, you are out for mystery shopping, complete the procedure as best as you can and do not throw away the purchase recipt/ cashs memo etc. You need to scan all the related papers and email to the company.
Be alert and professional while dealing with shop keepers and the employees. Do not be in a rushed state, just be stable and try to explore the place. So, an attentive eye to details is very much important for any mystery shopping assignment. Do not go over board, always be in limit and ask question in a polite and professional manner and behave like an ordinary shopper. Never ever disclose your identity as a mystery shopper as this violates the policy.
If you are street smart and seasoned shopper, you can complete the work hassle free. Nowadays, companies are providing APP to be installed on the mobile device and you can fill in the question sets even in the shop itself.
Take proper time to answer the question banks provided by the company. It should not be very much sophisticated and exceptional writing piece, but try to be honest and real in your approach. Your answers should serve the real purpose for the company.
Once you have completed the questionnaire, just email it to the company along with scanned copy of the purchase receipt/ cash memo as a proof. Now, you have completed your shopping task. Now, it is only an overview of mystery shopping work. There may be special instructions that may vary, in any case, you have to follow the instructions properly and complete your work.
The companies will carefully evaluate your reports and once it is approved, you will be get paid. The approval process usually takes 3-4 weeks and payment is released thereafter. For some of the assignments, you will be paid upfront for your shopping expenditure, but in most cases, you will be reimbursed later.
I hope this review has given you an idea about mystery shopping. If you think you just fit the bill, try your luck with it!