Mystery shopping is not a new field. Newspaper advertisements have been listed for years requesting individuals to cover such jobs. Some such postings still turn up in the print press under classifieds.
Today, however, most mystery-shopping assignments are handled online, including the applications, assignments, and final reports. Shoppers may occasionally receive calls at home when another shopper drops an assignment at the last-minute or when a position hasn’t filled, but most contact is online.
Getting Started as a Mystery Shopper
As with any job, it takes some time to research and find jobs in the mystery shopping industry. It can be slow going in the beginning, but once you begin to land some missions and become known for being reliable and effective, offers increase both in volume and often in appeal.
There are services available offering secret shopper job postings for a fee, but it’s not necessary to subscribe and pay for such information. There are a number of forums online where schedulers (those who set up the assignments) and fellow mystery shoppers share information about various companies and job openings. Run terms like “mystery shopping,” “secret shopper,” and “customer service evaluations” through an online search engine, and you’ll find a heap of links.
Review various customer-evaluation companies by visiting home pages and and also double check chat/message boards to see how other shoppers rate or feel about specific mystery shopping organizations. If possible, check and see what types of assignments are typically available and the locations. For example, if most of the postings are in a major city, and you live in a rural area, you’re unlikely to get much work unless you’re willing to drive, which takes both extra gas and time. In some cases, it’s difficult to get the specific details until accepted and given login data, but most sites include enough data to determine if you would be interested in working for the company or not.
You can also check with the Better Business Bureau online where such companies are generally listed under the category “Service Intelligence.” There are an estimated 500 companies currently involved in the mystery-shopping service business, and most are professional and fairly easy to work with, but there are always a few clinkers in any industry.