by Sean Bennett

Created on: January 24, 2010   Last Updated: January 28, 2010

Although some may know what mystery shopping is, many have never heard of it.  Mystery shopping is an evaluation of services provided by an independantcontractor, a mystery shopper; contracted by a mystery shopping company that was hired by a commercial or retail business.  What this means is a restaurant, retail store, movie theater, bank, and so on; hires a mystery shopping company to send in a shopper to make sure their establishments are being maintained and employees are following company policies. 

Getting started with mystery shopping is easy and free.  You should never have to pay to be a mystery shopper.  Finding legitimate companies is the problem, however.  Searching online can bring millions of results and finding which ones are real can be time consuming.  Some of the more popular companies are Bestmark (www.bestmark.com), Beyond Hello (www.beyondhello.com), and Intelli-Shop (www.intelli-shop.com).  You can find lists of many other mystery shop companies at www.surveymoneyguide.com and www.mysurvey123.com.  A good way to know if the company is legitimate is to look on their site for any affiliation with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Mystery Shop Providers Association (MSPA), or if they use the SASSIE system.  SASSIE is a scheduling and data collection program used by many legitimate mystery shopping companies.  These affiliations are displayed on the main page of their websites.

The actual performance of a mystery shop is very easy to complete. You are given an assigned date and location by a shop coordinator for which you are to evaluate.  Be sure to read the guidelines before you arrive at the destination.  These guidelines will explain exactly what you are to look for, who you may need to interact with, a specific scenario you are to act out, and so on. They are all set up by the client to make sure their employees follow policy on how services are to be performed and professionality standards are being met.  After the shop is complete, the shopper is to wrap up with a detailed report on what happened.  The report forms are on the mystery shop website and have a series of yes/no questions to be followed up with written details.  Check these out, as well, before you complete the shop.  They willgive you an idea of how you're going to need to answer the questions.  An important piece of advice

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