Mystery Shopping Tips That Can Help You Save Money

If you heard of mystery shopping, chances are you love the experience of it altogether. For starters, mystery shopping is all about checking the quality of products, sales, and services, or gathering specific information about the market and the competitors around. Besides the real purpose, it’s a great way to enjoy extras like nice hotels, high-quality drinks, and trendy new restaurants. Even offers for kids, women, or certain occasions are attractive enough! Now the industry has certainly witnessed a series of changes over the years, and that includes no shift in the pay. But not everything’s bad. It would work great for those who look forward to the game called mystery shopping if the below-mentioned tips are kept in mind.

Make Small Beginnings

Just in case you’ve registered for a mystery shopping site and have wide-ranging choices of assignments before you, the first assumption is you would opt for the most impressive, and expensive task. But, it would be easier and less risky to start with a small task that would simply help you get the initial feel of the business. You can try going to a fast-food shop, or visit the shopping mall and do some customer servicing or simply audit an apartment tour. No upfront costs, these are great ways to begin. Plus if you don’t like the experience, you wouldn’t regret putting in so much effort, time, or energy.

Take The Job Seriously

You need to have a set of skills beforehand before embarking on this role. If you happen to be someone who doesn’t remember a name, cost, or size of the product or even take running notes while being on the move, we hate to break this to you – but you should move on. And yes, don’t make the mistake of carrying five kids along who you need to maintain a strict vigil over. You can’t multitask by checking out what the needs of the client are and if those are addressed well or not, as per the form. Distractions are better-kept home unless of course the shop is meant for kids or pets. So the intelligent thing would be to not bring them.

Do Not Pay To Play

A recognized mystery shopping company can never charge a fee because you decided to sign up with them, or accessed the available jobs, or even required a valid certification. Now certificates are present within the MSPA that charges a certain fee, but these are mostly optional for several entry-level shops. Besides this, you must purchase the exact product or service for which you’ve been hired, like the hotel stay or meal and so on. This expense is reimbursable that would be returned to you and the fee after the task is over. But be wary about paying just to be a part of a job or when handing out cash outside of the expected costs – they’re never legitimate.

Keep A Contingency Plan Ready

Being a procrastinator can help you at times, especially when you’ve to think about forsaking some bad habits, ahead of mystery shopping. A maximum number of shops choose to stick to a pre-set deadline that you’re expected to meet, which includes the time to study all such instructions, print the forms, complete shopping, get back home, fill-up the form, and then file for payment, before the due date of course. Be careful that you’re not very close to the deadline, or else you can risk yourself. It would be wise to tell you that late shop reports are often not paid, and that can pose trouble for your effort, time and money spent.

Retain Your Patience

Even when the money from the mystery shop takes longer than usual in returning, don’t lose hope. Industry averages exist anywhere below 30 to 120 days and if you receive your reimbursement plus fee within that period, then it’s great. But few companies can take even longer, so don’t fret. Its understandable hanging on for an endless period makes no sense, but also remember not to ask for the payment before the time frame stated.

Mystery shopping sounds great, but there are a couple of challenges too. Like any other job, focus on mastering the tactics to get ahead. Remember that the biggest benefit of taking up the gig is that it’s a flexible and paid opportunity. You lose nothing. Plus it’s all fun.