In this post, we offer you the top 34 best mystery shopping companies. If you are among those looking for a list of legit mystery shopping companies, you have come to the right place.
Is it possible to earn money by just having dinner with someone, or checking out a new store? All at my own pace? What companies can I work with to achieve this goal?
If these are the questions you are asking yourself at the thought of the term “mystery shopping”, then you have come to the right place as this article has everything in terms of information and direction that you will need to get started. In this article, you will learn what mystery shopping is, how it works, what you needed to get started and also the different companies you could send applications to if you want to start mystery shopping to earn a few extra bucks.
The goal of this article takes the mystery out of mystery shopping. So, let’s get right into it.
There are a lot of mystery shopping companies out there that you could sign up with and here I have listed out thirty (30) that you could safely sign up with. As you will soon see, these companies work with different companies and the assignments could range from shopping at very expensive jewellery stores to just going to the movies. Each of these tasks pays differently as you will get to know in the detailed description of each one so, sit tight and have a good read.
TOP 30 Best Mystery Shopping Companies:
1. CORPORATE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL
Corporate Research International (CRI) is a mystery shopping company that is legit that has a lot of companies as their clients. The companies they work with include those in the retail industries, gas station companies, restaurants and a couple of other companies. All their shoppers are known as independent contractors and these are the people that visit the stores and take the observations needed.
They have a lot of shops in up to 50 states and presently they are looking for mystery shoppers in different countries like Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mexico, India, Spain, Singapore, Russia and Malaysia. They allow online scheduling for their shoppers so you can just log on to their site and check out eh mystery shopping assignments that are available close to you.
They also organize training and presentations in their Auditor University areas where each company gets to instruct and train all the mystery shoppers that they have hired to do a particular job. This is very important especially if they want to ensure that the mystery shoppers know exactly what to do when they visit the shops.
Immediately after all the training, they always have a quiz ready and you must be able to pass the quiz before you get approved for the shop. Some of these shops will require you to purchase something and some other times, you will be expected to take pictures and submit them.
The reporting system of these shops sometimes requires that you fill in a questionnaire and some of these questionnaires can be completed and submitted online. The answers expected from you in these companies could either be in a few sentences, in the form of receipt information or could be from a choice from a multichoice question.
If you have negative answers, then you would need to explain why and how you had that bad experience. These reports take about 5 minutes to 10 minutes to complete if you remember to take notes while you are observing details in the shop.
That way, you don’t have to sit down to start remembering all the details when you want to fill in your feedback reports. CRI gets to pay all their shoppers quickly the next Friday after you complete the shop you were given so as opposed to other companies that would rather wait a full month or even more before you get paid. You also get prompted to correct your mistakes by their staff if you make a mistake in your reports.
2. ANONYMOUS INSIGHTS INC.
Anonymous Insights is a company that was established in 1992 in Columbus, Ohio. It is a mystery shopping company that is totally owned and operated by two females, Patti Lengel and Suzy Baker. They have clients their clients as companies in different industries like the retail industries, banking industries, hospitality industries, grocery and gas stations industry, automotive industries and also airports industries.
They presently have over 80,000 mystery shoppers in different locations right now and they claim to provide actionable and comprehensive data gotten from the customers of their client companies.
They have their offices in the states of Ohio and Virginia. And signing up is completely free. All you need to do is sign up on their website and you will start getting emails about available jobs.
3. KERN SCHEDULING SERVICES
Kern Scheduling Systems is not really a mystery shopping company in the actual sense of the word but it is a company that connects different mystery shoppers to the other different mystery shopping companies available. It was first established in 1998 and from that time up until 2001, it was known as Kern Scheduling Services and after then, it became known as KSS international.
The business was founded by Lori Kern and he became the president and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This company is well known as the oldest and the largest scheduling services that have ever existed. They take care of shops and assignments in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Latin America, Canada and the Bahamas. They have been responsible for most of the scheduling of a lot of shops in their different locations way more than other scheduling companies as they have stated in one article at one point that they scheduled more than one million assignments in 2010.
They have a lot of assignments from different companies in different industries like the retail industries, banking industry and also the alternative financial services industry. All the payments made through this company is done through PayPal. They do not support payments via bank checks or bank deposits. TO sign up with KSS international, all you need to do is visit their website at www.kernschedulingcom and click on the “New Shopper Sign Up” which would lead you to a sign-up form where you will have to fill in your personal details. You don’t have to pay for anything as the sign-up process is totally free.
After signing up, you can now start receiving emails about available assignments. No shops are actually posted on the KSS website so you cannot just login and go through the lists of available shops that they have there. What they do is get information about the shops that are available and send mails to their shoppers so that they go to the website of the hiring company and apply for the job.
KSS has had some complaints about the length of the application process and also a couple of inconsistencies with the different schedulers that they have owing to a lack of understanding between the shoppers and the schedulers. Apart from these complaints and drawbacks, KSS International offers very effective and professional mystery shopping interactions and services. Their support representatives are very professional and understanding and they would gently walk you through any challenge you are having with the platform at any time.
4. COAST TO COAST SCHEDULING SERVICES
Coast to Coast Scheduling services is a scheduling company that was launched in 2001. They have their headquarters in California and what they do is basically schedule shops for the companies that they have as clients. Examples of these companies include Goodwin, Customer Perspectives and Customer First. The company in itself is not a mystery shopping company but they work closely with the mystery shopping companies to help in the hiring of mystery shoppers that will do assignments and perform shops for the companies in need of them.
Coast to Coast Scheduling services does not put up all the jobs that they have available for shoppers to do on their website and wait until someone logs in and claims it. instead, they put up these offers on their social media platforms and also send out mails and in some other cases, they make phone calls to inform interested shoppers of the available assignment. These guys also do shops in Nevada and all the states in the country because of the partnership that they have with the Global Intelligence Network and their membership with the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA).
Most times when they send you listings for available assignments, you can always go the website of the hiring client directly to apply for the assignment. As always, you could do shops in a almost any business location from restaurants to banking halls and also hotels. Every time you spend your own money in the completion of a shop, you will always get reimbursed but be sure to note what the reimbursement fee is so that you don’t over shoot on your spending and have to cover the rest of the cost by yourself. Most of the times, you get your rewards and reimbursement in form of a check in the mail.
Signing up with Coast to Coast Scheduling services is also completely free and you don’t have to pay anything to become a mystery shopper on their platform. All you need to do is just visit their website, create your account and confirm it and you can start getting notified when there are available shops in your area. Chances are that any company that is asking you to pay before you become a mystery shopper on their platform wants to just get you scammed after taking your money.
Coast to Coast Scheduling services is a great company that even helps the shoppers in the event of challenges by giving them answers on their forum. They also supply all their shoppers with all the information they would need to complete a given assignment including the contact information of al their schedulers, company officers and editors so that they are easily assessible when you need them. This has made their company-shopper relationship really strong over the years.
5. MARKET ANALYTICS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Market Analytics international is a company that helps businesses gain insight into how they are perceived by their customers and how well their organization structure and culture is sold out on their customers. They claim to assist their clients in growing and improving their businesses by creating a culture that is service driven that meets the needs and expectations of their clients and even exceeds it.
Market Analytics also helps businesses in different stages of their business development from the understanding of the industry stage through the analysis stage and down to the execution stage. They use quite a number of methodologies to ensure their goals are met. These include the quantitative methodologies, the qualitative methodologies, the experiential methodologies and also other methodologies.
One of the major ways that they do this is by employing mystery shopping strategies so that they can gain first-hand insight into the needs and level of satisfaction of the customers of the businesses they work with. This is where you come in as a mystery shopper because they would need all the help they can get in terms of human resources working as mystery shoppers.
They use the mystery shoppers as the ears they have in these stores and businesses listening to the voice of the customer. This company is well known for its ability to think innovatively, the amount of creativity in the design of their research strategies and the level of excellence in the execution of their projects. Their designs are usually tailored to meet the needs of their clients so you need to ensure that you read through their instruction per assignment very carefully so as not to miss out on any detail.
They also hire people from different countries as they work with companies from different parts of the world so they clearly need mystery shoppers that are fluent in the languages of the host country where the shop they would be working on is situated.
Most of the assignments you would be asked to complete are centred around key organizational features like customer satisfaction and tracking, customer loyalty and value, customer complaint analysis, advertising and promotion studies, pricing tracking, website evaluation, concept testing, corporate positioning and also service quality measurements.
They would also expect you to submit your reports and feedback via email using the format they had already given to you prior to the commencement of the assignment. To sign up with them, all you need to do is visit their official website at www.marketanalytics.com and follow the instructions there.
6. AQ SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
AQ Services is a company that offers its clients global business intelligence for their businesses that are outside of the United States of America. This company has a lot of offices in the United States of America, Asia and Europe. This company was established in 2001 and since then they have also engaged in mystery shopping activities.
The mystery shoppers of this company get to visit different client companies to observe, assess and evaluate the quality of the services and products that they offer. They work with companies that cut across a wide range of industries including the transportation industry, the entertainment industry and also the retail industry. Examples of companies they have affiliations with include Etos, Petronas, Adidas, Audi, Triumph, Volkswagen and Vodafone.
They also allow their mystery shoppers to apply for the shops or assignments that they won’t take part in. all the shopping visits are sent across to their shoppers online and they also inform their shoppers about when the assignments would need to be carried out and the location where they would be visiting.
You can also take out time to do your own searches for shops that are available within your area. Every time there is a shop available, AQ Services would always give a detailed description of what the visits should look like with instructions on how to go about it. They will also inform you if you need to make a purchase during the visit and how much you will be reimbursed or if you just need to visit, observe and send in reports. Most often than not, the former is the case.
To go on an assignment, all you need to do is look through the lists of available assignments and choose the one that you will do. You are under no obligations whatsoever to do the assignments that you don’t want to do and you also do not get forced or coerced to do a specific number of shops monthly.
You get at your own decision and pace. You also get to decide when you want to do the shop. This one of the reasons why mystery shopping with this company can be fully combined with your normal full-time day job or part-time job. You could get paid anything from 15 euros to 50 euros per shop that you visit and the amount that you earn depends on the nature of the assignment that you will be completing.
Every time you get assigned to do a visit, you will get all the instructions that you need to do a good job and also materials for reporting. At the end of the job, you have a time frame to submit your reports and after that your payments would be processed. Signing up is free. All you need to do is visit their website and create your new account for free with your email and also verify your account by clicking on the verification link that was sent in by AQ Services International.
7. SECOND TO NONE, INC.
Second to None is another legit mystery shopping company that has been existing since 1989. When it comes to the customer experience industry, these guys are a well-known brand and they provide a host of various services to their clients from customer feedback to mystery shopping to brand compliance.
Let me first spell out that they only accept mystery shopper applications from individuals that are resident in the United States of America and Canada. They have quite a number of companies on their client list and each of these shops has their different rates for payment. The amount of money you get to earn in any of these shops is largely dependent on the particular shop you are working with and the complexity of the assignment you are given.
This company belongs to those group of companies that pay both reimbursements on what you spent in the course of the assignment if you were asked to buy something or pay for a service and also normal payment for your time and effort expended during the shop. They also cover other little expenses like tips and tax incurred during the course of the assignment. Some shops get to pay extra bonuses when you complete the assignments.
Second to None pays their mystery shoppers once every month by sending in a direct bank deposit to your bank account or by transferring your earnings to you via PayPal. You should note that PayPal deducts a fee of $1 every time you get paid using their payment processor.
To claim assignments on Second to None, all you need to do is check your emails regularly for assignments that could be sent to you when there is an opportunity available and also log in to their online platform to check if there are any listings for assignments that you might want to take part in because they might not send you emails every time there is a listing.
You also need to be very quick in claiming the assignments that you want as there are a lot of other people too wanting to claim that assignment and each assignment only needs a limited number of people. It could even be just one person. Claiming an assignment in some cases require that you pass a given test to ensure that you are really qualified to complete that assignment so when you pass the test, you get approved otherwise, you don’t.
Signing up with Second to None costs nothing. You don’t have to pay anything and you also do not have to succumb to the western union plagues or casing requests that might come in the mail from a supposed mystery shopping company. All you need to do to sign up is visit their website at www.secondtonone.com and follow the set of instructions there.
8. ANN MICHEALS AND ASSOCIATES, LTD
Ann Michaels Ltd is a customer experience management company that offers mystery shopping opportunities for individuals to participate in while at the same time conducting research into customer insights and employee observation.
They assist their clients with different forms of insight in different areas including brand awareness, Consumer online sentiment analysis, consumer loyalty, competitive intelligence, customer experience measurement and customer satisfaction. All the programs that they have developed over time give them the opportunities to listen, monitor and engage the customer experience of their clients across different channels like mystery shopping, social media research and also customer feedback.
This company was established in 1998 and it has Kathy Doering as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with their official website at www.ishopforyou.com.
To start mystery shopping with Ann Michaels, you would need to visit their website to get registered. Once you are done with the registration and verification processes, you will now be able to receive emails when they have shopping assignments that are close to your area. All the instruction that you need to apply for and complete a particular assignment will always be provided and sent across to you at the time when the shop is sent to you.
It is very important that all mystery shoppers on the Ann Michaels platform read the Independent Contractors Agreement beforehand to come to terms with the rules and regulations and terms of the contract. All newbies will also need to agree to abode by the terms of the contract before the completion of their registration process.
All payments are carried out once a month via only one payment processor which at the time of writing this review is PayPal. Ann Michaels and Associates also has a Shopper Incentive Program that was developed to show their shoppers how much they value their efforts and their time. This program entails having their account managers nominate the nest shoppers at the end of every month. The shoppers that get nominated will be entered in for a lottery draw and at the end of the day, they could win some amazing prizes.
To get nominated for any of these entries, you need to have an overall score of 10 for an assignment, you need to have detailed and complete reports that have been submitted early and on time and not last minute submissions, you must come through on the last minute shop that you had to collaborate with the account manager to work around the schedule of the client and you also need to promote intricate and excellent levels of communication with your account manager by responding promptly to follow up information that they might need for an assignment. The winner of this lottery every month gets to win a $25 and this bonus will be delivered via PayPal. The winner also gets to use the Ann Michaels and Associates platform as a reference when applying to other mystery shopping companies.
The other aspect of this program is the quarterly draw where all names will be entered for a draw that will award the lucky winner with a $100 prize. This prize will also be paid via PayPal.
Ann Michaels and Associates is a very good place to engage in mystery shopping as you get to gain access to a lot of information that would help you become a great mystery shopper.
9. A CLOSER LOOK
A Closer Look is a mystery shopping company that was launched in 1994 and they specialize in offering retail mystery shops to their shoppers. This goes without saying that they also have a couple of restaurant shops that you could also do. Other shops that they offer their shoppers include motel shops where you get to stay away from home in a hotel service for a night or two for free because you get reimbursed for every dollar spent.
Mystery shopping in itself does not pay as much as a full-time job would pay but you could make as much as 100 dollars to 400 dollars every month for regularly completing assignments and consistently doing shops. The more companies you sign up with, the more shops you are likely to complete and the more money you get to earn. the amount of money you could earn while shopping with A Closer Look completely depends on the shops that you get to do.
All the details for any shop you are about to do will always be provided for you way before the commencement of that assignment so you get to know how much you will be paid for your time and also how much the reimbursement would be so you don’t get to purchase more than you will be reimbursed unless you want to.
To receive your payment, one of the things that you have to do ensure that you get paid is take a picture of your receipt or scan it if possible and send it to them so that you can get your reimbursement money. If you spend more than the stipulated reimbursement amount, you will have to foot the bill of the extra expenses incurred in the process.
To get assignments to complete, all you need to do is log on to the website more frequently during the last week of each month because that is when they do more postings of the listings for assignments that they have available. You should know that these assignments can only be completed by a limited number of people so when you see one that you would love to do, don’t wait an extra second.
Choose it. remember to always to call in time to cancel your plans to complete a given assignment if something comes up to prevent you from doing the shop so that A Closer Look can find someone else to replace you in time. Some other times. You could also receive emails from the company notifying you of assignments that are available near you.
A Closer Look pays all their shoppers once per month on the 3rd Friday of every month and this payment s are delivered in the form of paper checks in your mail. To sign up with A Closer Look as a mystery shopper, you must qualify by passing their age limit of 18 years and you also need to take part in a pre-qualification test that will give the hiring company insight into how much attention you pay to detail and how precise and accurate you are in following directions. You must pass this test to become a mystery shopper here and you need to know that this test is totally written so your written communication skills have to be put into use.
10. TRENDSOURCE
TrendSource is a legit mystery shopping company that pays its shoppers for completing different assignments. The mystery shoppers at TrendSource are also known as field agents. They also have an age restriction of 18 years to be able to register on their site as a mystery shopper. All their mystery shoppers have to be able to take pictures as part of their reporting system. All the aspiring mystery shoppers at TrendSource should be able to have an EIN (Employee Identification Number) as this is one of the major requirements you need to complete before being as a mystery shopper on their site.
The first step you have to take to start your registration process on this site is to fill out the application on their site. This information includes your personal information and demographic information. After that, you will need to confirm your identity by submitting a scanned copy of the ID card and your EIN number. After that, you will need to pass a screening test that tests your skills and finally, you will need to pass the certification program that they have on available. When you pass this exam, then you are now qualified to be called a mystery shopper on their website.
Examples of jobs that you would be faced with completing include Mystery Shopping, taking inspections, audits and also taking surveys. These assignments can be carried out in restaurants, theatres, retail stores and other business locations. Depending on the area where you live, you could make as much $500 monthly.
TrendSource also pays their members twice a month and they do that through direct bank deposits or bank check in the mail for those mystery shoppers that are situated in the United States while those that are in Canada or the United Kingdom could have their payments delivered via PayPal.
11. ABOUT FACE
About Face is a mystery shopping company that pays their shoppers for doing visits and shops for them. This company has an age restriction of 18 years old and you must be able to agree to their terms and conditions of being an independent contractor for About Face.
You also need to fill in your social security number if you want your application to be accepted. If you don’t want to fill in your social security number on the website application form, you can email them to find out how you can submit your application to them in another way.
The Payments in this company are only processed via PayPal and the amount that could earn is completely dependent on the number of shops that you complete in a month but you could earn anything from $25 to $45 and all the mystery shoppers on this platform get their payment 45 days after they completed the shop or assignment. After you have finally gotten accepted as a mystery shopper in About Face, you will start getting emails that will notify you of the assignments that are available for you to take.
Beyond those emails, you can always log in to the site and check out the listings that are available for you to take and apply for them. other ways to find assignments that are available in this company is by following their social media account on Facebook.
Some clients don’t mind when you visit the business locations with children but some others do not want you to bring children on your shop visits. You also need to be able to send in detailed reports on your assignments so that you can get more recommendations to more jobs.
12. ARC CONSULTING
ARC Consulting is a company that also offers telephone mystery jobs to different individuals. In this kind of mystery shopping, you still get to follow the normal rules of mystery shopping except that you don’t have to leave your house at all.
All you need to do was make phone calls to the different businesses under the guise that you are interested in the services that they offer or the products that they manufacture. You also get to make your calls anywhere you want to as background noise is not a problem anymore in this case.
ARC pays their shoppers for every call that they make and these calls could earn you $3.50 for every call that you make. you could earn some more as you could even earn as much as $12 for every call. This is even what you get to earn when you are working this job as a part-time job. When you take the job full time, you could earn as much as $100 depending on the jobs that you get to complete.
When you send in your applications and they approve it, you will get invited to an online training meeting where a couple of people will be listening in on a particular phone call. If your application is not approved, you’ll also get an email from them telling you that they are not hiring.
They have only a few eligible countries to where their shoppers can apply from. Examples of these countries are the United States of America, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, Virgin Islands, United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.
13. BESTMARK
BestMark is a popular mystery shopping company that is among one of the most popular and largest companies in the mystery shopping industry. It has been features on the Oprah show and also on the Essence Magazine plus the fact that it has an A+ rating the Better Business Bureau organization. All of these accomplishments go a long way to show that the site is very legit and safe to work with. In terms of mystery shopping, Bestmark can ask you to visit a store and note different details like how the employees treated you, how the food tasted, how it looked and also how long it took for the waiters to serve you your order. Depending on the shop you are asked to complete, the instructions would be quite different.
Some of the shops you shop with on BestMark could pay you a reimbursement for your purchases which are basically the purchases that you make during the course of the assignment. Other stores would add an extra payment for your time and efforts.
You also need to always look out for all of these specific details before you start any assignment so that you can know what to expect at the end of the assignment. To sign up with BestMark, you need to be above 21 years old and you also need to have a reliable means of transportation with excellent verbal and written communication skills. You also need to be able to pay great attention to details and instructions. Finally, all the shoppers at BestMark need to have constant, active and reliable access to the internet.
Most of all the shops at BestMark if not all are basically meant for residents of the United States of America and Canada and to claim anyone, you will have to log in to your account via their website and check to check out the jobs that are available and close to your location. Sometimes, if you forget to log in and check, you will get a reminder from one of the representatives at BestMark reminding you or notifying you of any new jobs that are available for shoppers in your location.
BestMark is one of the ways you could earn an extra income but trust me when I say that you don’t get to become a millionaire overnight when you accumulate the earnings that you earn over time. It just acts as a supplement to your other streams of income.
14. CALL CENTRE QA
Call Center QA is a company that handles telecommuting. They also hire telecommuters and also individuals that are disabled and even homebound parents to call different clients and evaluate them over the course of the phone call. The phone mystery shoppers here at Call Center QA are called QA Evaluators and their primary role is to call different businesses and pretend to be interested in what they do but the actual reason that you are placing that call is to evaluate the company. At the end of each call, you are expected to do a review of the call and then email the report back to the company.
To become a QA Evaluator at Call Center QA, you need to able to possess an excellent telephone presence, great listening skills, excellent writing skills, strong attention to detail, be objective and also have a desire to provide people with a great evaluation service. You also need a call centre background but this is not compulsory as it only helps you understand more how to work with the company.
You also need to have a working personal computer and a good smartphone to be able to make phone calls, read emails and also make phone calls through applications like Skype and Google Voice. The job with this company is not a full-time job and it is very flexible even though you might need to make phone calls during business hours. whenever there is a phone call for you to make, the company contacts you so you don’t know when the next time for a phone call will be so you also need to get another stream of income.
For each call you make you get about $5 and all the payments are processed via the PayPal payment processors. They are also known for paying really quickly in about 24 hours after the evaluation you sent in has been evaluated.
15. SEE LEVEL HUMAN EXPERIENCE (SeeLevel HX)
See Level Human Experience is a mystery shopping company that was formerly known as Beyond Hello Inc. it was launched in 1991 and it was also founded by Lisa Van Kestern who is currently their CEO.
It is a company that has grown to be known for their services in providing their client companies with the most important information and intelligence that they would need for the growth of their company and customers and also for the improvement of the market they occupy. This company has client companies that they have worked with over the years like Beyond Hello, Mystery Researchers and also Insula.
To sign up with this company, all you need to do is visit their website and sign up with them to get your account started and like all legit mystery shopping companies, this one does not need you to pay for any form of membership.
When you do mystery shopping with them on assignments that you find on their listings on their website, you get paid for your efforts and also reimbursed on what you spent in the course of the assignments. You also need to know that your receipts must be kept in order to receive your reimbursements and this company only pays their shoppers through bank checks or direct bank deposits.
16. MARITZ CX
MaritzCX is one of the largest mystery shopping companies in the United States today and they also measure up to be one of the top 15 custom research companies in the entire world today. The companies they sell their services to could be in the banking industry, the home improvement industry, the retail industry and also the oil and gas industry. They always have a lot of shops for you to complete, the question is if you are disposed to complete them.
This company offers bonuses to their mystery shoppers for completing their assignments and also taking on last minute jobs. The bonuses are also negotiable which bring me to the point that these guys have a very good working relationship and communication connection with their shoppers.
They are very flexible in their program and coercing you to complete an assignment that you don’t want to complete is completely out of the question in this company. You get to pick your own jobs and work with your own schedule without any form of pressure which is why it can be effectively merged with you day job.
They handle all their payments twice in a month and they don’t do the bank checks thing anymore. Instead, they offer direct bank deposits so you don’t have to keep checking the mail for a check. They also have a mobile application which you could try to download to check for compatibility with your device. If you decide to become active and consistent with MaritzCX, you will not regret it and the rewards you could get from shopping with them could go a long way to assist you somehow.
17. INTELLISHOP
Intellishop is another one of the most popular and well-known mystery shopping companies out there. The company was launched in 1999 and it was founded by Ron Welty. This company is very innovative and they have provided their clients with amazing customer experiences since they were launched. All that they expect from their mystery shoppers are to behave as though they are undercover agents in the shopping industry to helpservice evaluation concepts them get some relevant information as it relates to the workings of a particular business.
These guys carry out all their payments via PayPal and they pay all their clients at exactly 30 working days after you completed the shopping assignment. Intellishop also reimburses their clients for the purchases they asked them to make with their own money when they were taking part in the shopping assignment.
You should also read up the details of each assignment so as familiarize yourself with the amount you should spend in each shop. Examples of industries that you could do shops for via Intellishop is the dining industry, automotive industry, luxury retail industry and also in the sporting events industry. You could get saddled with assignments that have to do with ordering pizza or making phone calls.
Adhering to instructions is also pretty important and sending in your feedbacks on time is also a big deal. Remember to always your receipt as it would serve a s a proof that you actually made that purchase.
18. CONFERO INC.
Confero is a mystery shopper company too that is very legit and has built a solid positive reputation for themselves over time. This company was launched in 1986 and from that time up until now, they have over 200,000 people signed up with them to engage in mystery shopping. Confer allows their shoppers to take part in a variety of shopping assignments ranging from food services to retail to banking to automotive to healthcare, consumer products, travel assignments, airport assignments and also assignments that entail visiting entertainment venues.
Some of these shops would require that you show up in person at the required location while others would just have you place a phone call across to the business lines. Different assignments on this platform pay differently depending on how difficult it is to complete or how much time it would take to complete it. all shoppers using this platform get to have their money spent during the assignment reimbursed with an extra little stipend added as compensation for the time you spent taking part in the task.
Confero only pays their members once a month via PayPal. They don’t do direct bank deposits and other forms of payment, the only acceptable way of withdrawing your earnings from this company is through PayPal which goes without saying that you have to have an active PayPal account. This payment that takes place once in a month happens on the 20th of every month so ensure that you have all your details filled in and also completed all the instructions as it was given before that date to avoid not getting paid.
To sign up with confer, you must be at least 21 years old. You also need to be a resident of the United States of America and Canada. If you are a resident of the United States of America, you don’t have to worry about the particular state you are resident in, however, if you are a resident of Canada you need to ensure that you stay in either Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and Mexico.
These are the states that they have need of shoppers from now. You also need to be very observant, dependable, trustworthy and extremely great at keeping to instructions and orders. You also do not need to have prior experience in mystery shopping to be able to sign up.
Once you have successfully signed up, you will be able to see their job board on their website and to get assignments, all you need to do is simply skim through all the jobs they have posted there and picked out the ones that you want to do.
When you have picked out the shop you want to do, you’ll have to follow a number of processes to see if you are qualified to do the shop. Other ways to get assignments to do is to request that they send you emails every single time they have assignments for shops that are close to your area. This will keep you up to date on the latest jobs close to you so you don’t really need to spend much in terms of transportation.
Finally, Confero is completely free to join. You don’t have to pay anything to join up with this site and every time someone or some site asks you to pay some money first in order to become a secret shopper, ignore them as those are the signs of people that want to rip other people off.
19. SENTRY MARKETING GROUP
Sentry Marketing Group is owned by David Aguis and it is a mystery shopping company that provides mystery shopping services and also market research services to their companies that are situated in quite a number of different industries.
Sentry Marketing Group is also a member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) which makes them very legit and safe to work with. They work with a lot of shops in the automotive industry, hotels, retail industry and also hospitality industry. They also use the PROPHET software and most of the reports that they require from their shoppers are in narrative form which means that you need to have great written communication skills to be able to submit good and acceptable reports.
Sentry Marketing Group has great communication lines with their shoppers and they are always very professional. They also have their eyes peeled out for dedicated shoppers who are very reliable, complete all their assignments, are professional and also deliver quality work and reports. To these workers, they give more jobs to do hence giving them the opportunity to make more money. Sentry Marketing Group pays all their members via bank checks in their mails and all the payments are completely processed within 30 days to 60 days after the shop was completed.
Signing up with this company is completely free but as you have seen in this short description, you need to be able to deliver quality. Only in that way would you be able to get more jobs and make more money and get more free stuff. Being observant is also a very key and important feature to possess if you want to work well with Sentry Marketing Group.
20. YARDI MATRIX
Do you know how these phone call companies expect that you have to make phone calls in a noiseless background? Thing is, that could prove a little stressful as you have to look at a location that has no background noise to be able to place your calls. In this case, you don’t have to worry about the noise in your background when working with Yardi Matrix. They do not only allow the background noise but they encourage it so that the calls look real and appear genuine.
What you do when you work with Yardi Matrix is to help them get information from these companies. Yardi Matrix used to pay their shoppers about $10 to $11 per hour but recently they put up a statement on their website saying that “Surveyors will be paid $6 per hour and a piece rate of $.60 for surveys marked Done, $.40 for surveys marked Wrong Number, $.20 for surveys marked Part-Done, and $.10 per survey marked Answering Machine or No Answer. You will receive at least minimum wage in your jurisdiction for all hours worked.”
You also don’t have to worry about paying or calculating your tax as Yardi Matrix manually takes it out of your pay before paying you. They also offer their staff benefits like health benefits, dental benefits and life insurance. So long as you do at least 10 hours of work per week, you are good to go with Yardi Matrix and all you need to have to be able to complete these tasks is a high-speed connection to the internet, an unlimited distance plan for making phone calls to other countries and a good phone etiquette.
21. QUALITY ASSESSMENT MYSTERY SHOPPERS INC.
Quality Assessment Mystery Shoppers (QAMS) is a mystery shopping company that was founded in 1984 and it is also a member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA). They have their offices in two locations at Rochester IL and Loveland OH.
They tend to provide their clients with “customer experience mapping and customer satisfaction research” in their own words. The kinds of assignments that you get to complete on this site range from mystery shopping to exit interviews and also compliance audits. They serve a lot of countries in both the United States of America and Canada.
To sign up with them, you can visit their website at www.qams.com and submit your application. They have been around for quite a while and they are older than most of the mystery shopping companies existing now but they still have been able to provide innovative services to both their clients and their mystery shoppers. The word out there is that they value their shoppers and treat them with respect and courtesy.
Quality Assessment Mystery Shoppers pays their shoppers anywhere from three days to three weeks after the assignment has been concluded depending on whether it has been approved or not. Shoppers also get reimbursements for the cash that they spent making purchases as required by their assignments and in most cases, they also get extra compensation fee for the time and effort spent in doing the assignment. Even of the compensation fee is not there, I still it is a pretty good deal as you would have gotten one new product or service for free after the reimbursement.
22. SECRET SHOPPER
Secret Shopper is basically what it sounds like. A company that hires individuals to become secret shoppers for them. Anyone can get registered as a mystery shopper in this company and get paid after completing an assignment for them. Secret Shopper has been known over time to consistently deliver very usable intelligence on the situation and parameter of their customers and they are very trustworthy even to the point of becoming members of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA).
They have carried out a lot of mystery shopping for companies in different parts of the world from Europe to Asia, America and also Africa. They have their online platform located at www.secretshopper.com with their headquarters in Golden Valley, Minnesota. It was launched in January 1990 and presently it is being managed by the president, Paul Ryan. To become a mystery shopper for Secret Shopper, you need to have excellent communication skills both verbal and written, you also need to be able to easily access a computer with an active and constant and reliable internet connection.
You must be older than 18 years old and you also need to be very observant and detailed. When you complete the application form on their website, you will be evaluated with a certification test that will help them assess how much you know and can act like a mystery shopper who is supposed to be anonymous. Immediately you pass the test, you are assigned with an ID and a password so that you can have your own unique login in. you also get to receive jobs via email too when they have a job that is situated in a business location near you.
Secret Shopper pays their shoppers anything from 12 dollars to 25 dollars upon completion of an assignment plus the fact you also get reimbursement on all the expenses made in terms of purchases in the course of the assignment. All the payments from this company get processed via PayPal and it is usually completed on the 20th of every month.
Secret Shopper also has a mobile application in both the Android and iOS version and you can download these applications from the Google Play Store or iOS App Store respectively depending on the version of mobile smartphones that you use.
23. TELEXPERTISE
Telexpertise is a telephone mystery shopper site that hires people to do a number of jobs on their website that cut across a number of different things including taking surveys but the area of concentration in the article is their telephone mystery shopping services. As a new mystery shopper on Telexpertise, you don’t expect to make more than $75 so you should know that this is not a way to make living, it is just a means of making side income.
As a mystery shopper on TeleXpertise, you are expected to place different phone calls to different businesses in different parts of the countries and ask them specific questions. These questions might entail finding out who the CEO is, or what their working hours are or how much they sell their products. Sometimes, you get to ask all of those questions at once.
The catch though is that you have to behave as though you are really a potential customer and you and you want to get that information genuinely. You also do not have to disclose that you are working for TeleXpertise. Unlike most phone call jobs, you don’t need to have a noiseless background as you are supposed to appear real so you can go ahead and make your calls anywhere that you want to make them so long as you can be heard and you can hear the other person on the other line.
On TeleXpertise, you are not paid per hour, instead, you are paid per phone call that you completed and you could earn anything from $3 to $10 and you get to work wherever and whenever you want to without pressure.
24. BARE INTERNATIONAL
Bare International is another mystery shopping company that pays about $5 to $8 to their mystery shoppers to complete assignments for them. they accept mystery shoppers from any country in the world and they also have their age restriction for intending members at 21 years for residents of the United States and 18 years if you are a resident of any other country. This company specializes in mainly projects that have to do with mystery shopping and it was established in 1987.
They have experienced rapid growth as they even recorded an entry of about 50,000 mystery shopping assignments completed consistently per month as at April 5th 2016. They have clients in a lot of different countries numbering about 150 and still counting. These clients include both big brands and small companies as well and to cover this huge clientele base, they have about nine different offices in various cities with a huge employee database including the mystery shoppers that they have scattered all over.
When you engage in mystery shopping with Bare international, you get rewarded with cash for completing assignments based on the instructions you have been given and also filling out the form for evaluation of the experience you had in the course of the assignment. These assignments couls pay you anything from $5 to $35 and even more depending on the nature of the job. You also get to work when you want to and at your own pace without being pressurized to take on Jobs that you don’t want to take.
All payments are processed once a month on the 16th of every month so you basically get paid for the jobs that you completed this month on the 16th of next month. You also get to receive emails whenever there are available assignments in business locations that are close to your location. You should also note that Bare International only sends out one mail per day to all their members so if you are inactive, you will miss out on these opportunities.
You could also check the job board on their website for the jobs that could be available for you to do around your location if you are done with the one you got from the emails. If you go on vacation to another country, you can always take on jobs in that location so long as you can access the business locations.
25. INTELICHEK
InteliChek is one exciting way to make some extra cash. Here, all you need to do earn some money is to sit at home and place a few calls across to different companies then send reports based on your call experiences. These calls are not sales calls, they are calls that require you to ask about something and make some form of random inquiry.
You get to call these companies that are situated in the different countries in the world from the United States so you need to have an unlimited long distance to be able to complete these kinds of assignments. Unlike other phone call making job opportunities like Alorica and Live Ops, you can actually have background noise going on because it is essentially mystery shopping and it has to appear real. This is a great feature because now, you don’t have to start looking for a soundproof environment to make your calls.
The more calls you able to complete at InteliCheck, the more money you will be able to earn because the beginners get to earn $0.9 for every call they make so depending on the number of calls you are able to make that day, you could earn as much as $50 to $100 every day as the calls do not take more than 3 minutes to 4 minutes to complete. The challenge here is now the fact that you don’t always get as much call opportunities to take so you might have the time to spare but no job at the moment.
InteliCheck has a requirement where all their shoppers should be able to commit at least 20 hours to work every week on their platform and to get registered on their platform, all you need to do is to be above 18 years of age and be a US resident. Once your application is approved, you get trained and you can now start making calls and earning per call.
26. AMUSEMENT ADVANTAGE
This company offers very interesting and exciting mystery shopping experiences as you get visit amusement parks, theme parks and places of entertainment and relaxation in general for free. all their assignments offer a lot of un in the process and these could include visiting golf courses, theme parks, museums and even going karting. They get to pay you a simple flat rate for any mystery shop that you complete and you get to decide how much of that flat rate you would spend in the course of the shop. Sometimes, you will be expected to create certain scenarios or interact with certain members of their staff and at the end of the day, depending on what you were asked to do, you will need to provide detailed reports.
27. SINCLAIR CUSTOMER METRICS
Sinclair Customer Metrics is a very professional mystery shopping organization that was established in 1987. They have been existing since then and it is quite rare to come across a negative review of them from any of their shoppers which is a good thing. It is not a company though that pays you in actual cash for your efforts but they get to reimburse you when you make purchases when completing a shopping assignment.
When you work with Sinclair, you help them in their goal to help businesses grow by helping them participate in On-site mystery shopping where you get to visit the business location of the company in need of the intelligence to observe and report on the employee situation and attitude and also the customer satisfaction levels, Competitor mystery shopping where you get to visit the business locations of the competitor of the hiring company in need of the intelligence to get information that would help in the growth of their business, Telephone mystery shopping which is pretty self-explanatory as per the name, but it just means that you get to make phone calls to the company staff and report on your experience with the telephone staff of the company, Video mystery shopping and a host of other different methods and processes.
As always, signing up is free but you need to be approved to become a mystery shopper here so you should put together a good application and you also need to pay close attention to details and instructions.
28. QUEST FOR BEST
Quest for Best is a mystery shopping company that pays their mystery shoppers for completing the assignments that are given to them and submitting accurate reports about their experience according to the reporting format given to them. Quest for Best has a lot of companies in different industries as clients and they carry out this market and company survey for them so that strengthen their weaknesses and grow their businesses and customer database.
This company has been around for quite a while and they are also very trustworthy so be assured that you will get your payments. Quest for Best also offers reimbursements for purchases that they expected you to make during the assignment which is one reason why you should always keep your receipts handy to avoid having issues with your payments. This company pays its members once every month via PayPal so you also need to have an active PayPal account to be able to receive your payments.
To sign up with Quest for Best, you would need to be above 21 years old and you also need to be very observant, motivated and particular. You even get to enjoy competitive compensation like they have claimed for a while on their website. All you need to do is send in your application via their website and they will guide you through the rest of the application procedures.
Other skills you should ensure that you have before applying are your verbal communication skills because you could be making calls on most shopping assignments. Apart from that, you also need to have good written communication skills so that you send in understandable and accurate reports.
29. DSG ASSOCIATES
DSG Associates is a consulting company that was launched first in 1981. At the time of their establishment, they only focused their mystery shopping activities on the hospitality industry but today, they have saturated a lot of different industries and at some point, when they were describing themselves they claimed to be “A leader in all types of mystery shopping, intercept interviews and speciality field services for a broad range of consumer businesses, manufacturers, agencies, and associations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.” These guys are members of the Mystery Shoppers Providers Association and they have their headquarters in Van Nuys, California. They have grown to have over 300,000 active mystery shoppers working with them and it is said that they complete as much as 12000 shops per month.
DSG Associates also puts up listings on their website and like all other mystery shopping companies, you need to claim these listings as soon as you see them and like them else someone else will do that for you. To start shopping with DSG Associates, all you need to do is visit their website, get registered and you can start getting updates about available jobs from them. when you are given assignments, you have a reporting time of 24 hours for the feedback you acquired from the shops that you have completed and all the payments are made six weeks after the completion of each shop.
This company used to have only positive reviews from numerous sources for a long time up until a few year ago when they started a couple of inconsistencies in their delivery. There were a lot of reports from shoppers about difficulty in understanding the schedulers owing to poor communication lines and challenges like the static on the lines, the office noise on the lines and also the poor command of English of the schedulers. Over time, there were a couple of other challenges that were experienced and a lot of bad reviews started coming up. Point is, this company has had a good history of quality service but in recent times, it has not gotten as much as positive reviews as it used to get all because of the fact that they outsourced their call centers to another company.
30. SHOPPER’S VIEW
Shopper’s view is a company that also offers services that tow along the line of mystery shopping. They get hired by companies to conduct these kinds of research for them. Shopper’s view in turn gets mystery shoppers who would take part in these services by going on the actual mystery shops themselves and bringing back feedback in exchange for some form of payment. As a mystery shopper with this company, you will get to visit different business locations to measure and access the quality of their service or product, the physical appearance of the product, the professionalism and physical appearance of the employees and also the cleanliness of the business environment.
When you go on shops for Shopper’s view, you get reimbursed at the end of the day for the meals you bought, the hotels you lodged in, the games you played and payed for and virtually any other expense that you might have incurred on yourself in the process of the assignment. You also get paid for completing the task in the first place and the great thing about this company is that they give all their shoppers the freedom to either accept or reject the jobs they want to. You also get the liberty to work according to your own schedule.
Shopper’s view pays their shoppers within the range of $10 to $40 per completed assignment and it is possible to even earn more depending on the nature of the assignment at that time. All the payments on this platform are processed using the PayPal Payment processor and they pay their shoppers immediately the shop and report have been approved. To sign up with Shopper’s View, you should visit their website and complete your registration.
You will be asked to confirm your account via email and you can do this by clicking on the verification link sent to your email by Shopper’s view. Once this is done, you will get notified of new shops around you and if you don’t, you can always check their online listings for shops that you can do and apply for them.
Note that, signing up with Shopper’s view is and has always been free. You don’t have to pay anything so always ignore scammers that try to get you to fill in your credit card details or make any form of payment to become a mystery shopper or get more assignments in the name of Shopper’s View.
31. MARKET FORCE INFORMATION
Market Force is one of the mystery shopping companies that is legit and that has consistently kept their shoppers satisfied over the years. This company has been existing since 1972 and they have become a general favorite ever since then because if the kind of assignments they offer their shoppers. These assignments entail stuff that you would otherwise still do on a very good day. Some of these assignments could include going to an eatery, visiting your bank, buying something from a gas station and also buying something from a convenience store close to your home.
The amount of money you could earn from this store is largely dependent on the assignment that you have been asked to complete. Most often than not, you will be expected to visit a business location and spend your own money purchasing a service or a product that would cost a certain amount of money.
You would also be expected to provide feedback on various parameter like the friendliness of the staff, the cleanliness of the environment, the level of professionalism and assistance the staff offered and so on. At the end of the day, you always get reimbursed on everything you spent making that purchase in the store and sometimes, you also get paid some extra cash for at least taking part in the shopping experience. The money you would earn here is not enough to make you a billionaire overnight and it won’t also be enough to cover all the bills you have going on but it would certainly take a little load off your back.
Market Force pays all their shoppers once every month for all the mystery shopping assignments that they were able to complete the previous month. The payments are processed either through checks that come through your mail or through direct bank deposits in your bank account. All you need to do is ensure that all relevant details are filled in correctly. You also need to ensure that you follow all the instructions that have been outlined for you to follow else you might just miss out on your monthly payments.
Signing up with Market Force is also a very easy and free process and you can get registered so long as you are 18 years or older with a diploma from high school. You could earn as much as over a hundred dollars per month on Market Force if you are diligent and consistent and if you also get a good number of assignments to complete that month otherwise you could earn as low as 50 dollars or even less. To sign up, you can visit their official website and sign up by filling in your personal details as required or you could send an email to shoprecruit@marketforce.com requesting for the paper work you would be expected to fill for your application, you would have to fill these in and then print them out and fax it back to them.
32. PERCEPTION STRATEGIES
Perception Strategies is a mystery shopping company that specializes in phone mystery shopping but they also engage in the normal conventional mystery shopping that is the in-person mystery shopping. All of the mystery shopping this company carries out are for companies that are within the health care industry. That is one of the reasons why their shop assignments are quite different from the other mystery shopping companies. With this company, you could get assignments like evaluating the websites of various health care companies and their general online presence. You could also get assigned to do shops that would require you to stay in a medical facility for up to 24 hours.
Perception Strategies pays anything from 12 dollars to 17 dollars for one completed assignment. It is not enough to earn you a living but it is definitely something that can support you in the purchasing of your less expensive needs or in the paying of your bills. You could also earn a whole lot more by completing more shops per month. This could earn you as much as 100 dollars in a month. All the payments are processed at the beginning of every month with a bank check in your mail. The majority of the population of the mystery shoppers in this company get to do only a few shops in a week but if you become consistent and diligent and you also do excellent work, you could get assigned to do more and more shops per week.
To work at Perception Strategies, you need to be detail oriented and very reliable. You also need to able to afford active internet access to be able to send emails, receive emails and conduct website shops and evaluation. You also need to have great written and verbal communication skill because you will be submitting a whole lot of written reports that contain narratives on how your experience went during the assignment.
To sign up with Perception Strategies, all you need to do is fill out the registration form that they have on their website and they will get back to you asking for a quick sample of your writing. If the sample is approved, you will be invited for an interview which could be conducted in person or over the phone. You could also be put on a waitlist if you are not accepted and you also did not receive a rejection mail from them. Once you are accepted as a mystery shopper, they start training you on all their details and operational methods so that you’ll be brought up to speed on what they expect from you.
33. Spies In Disguise, INC.
Spies in Disguise is a mystery shopping company that gives people the access to earn some extra money by mystery shopping. Companies hire Spies in Disguise to carry out their research for them and Spies in Disguise also hire normal interested individuals to do the work for them. these individuals get to visit shops and carry out observations that help the original hiring company in question in the growth of their business. These visits could entail the purchase of a product, the answers to questions you asked in the course of a purchase, the reports that you would have to submit and the complaints that you may have concerning that particular shop.
All you need to do basically is reiterate your experiences in these shops in the form of a report and you’ll get paid at the end of the day. This company is also very particular about having their shoppers follow instructions so if you want to be approved for an assignment, you will need to very detailed and attentive and be able to follow instructions down to the last dot.
The reporting system is also very detailed too and everyone needs to be able to provide a comprehensive report else you would keep getting follow-ups until you have it right and that might mean that you would rarely get approved for an assignment. This is where having the right skills come in to play because to be able to send in a right report, you will need to have excellent verbal and written communication skills.
At the end of your assignment, after you have created your report, you will need to submit it via their mobile app or through the internet. At the end of the day you receive compensation for completing the assignment. This compensation could be anything from 8 dollars to 12 dollars and every purchase you made during the shop would also be reimbursed. So, if you were asked to buy a meal in an eatery and you had to spend your money to get that done, you will get reimbursed for it later.
Signing up with this company is also free and you don’t have to pay a dime.
34. Reality Check Mystery Shoppers
Reality Check Mystery Shoppers is another mystery shopping company that engages in helping the businesses of their clients using already pre-determined steps, procedures and programs. When you work for this company, what you do is help them evaluate the employee performance and customer experience of different companies, online contacts and also telephone contacts. You also get to help in the evaluation of in-store employee performance and customer experience.
Examples of the things that you get to observe and report on are the punctuality of the staff, the quality of the product, the processes involved in the operation of the company’s day to day activities. Other stuff that could be looked out for include the appearance of both the staff and the environment, the level of appreciation, the intelligence and also the communication skill between the employees and the customers.
When you work with this company as a mystery shopper, you are expected to behave as though you are a real shopper because you need to get through the assignment undetected. So, the employees of that business should not be able to detect that you are a mystery shopper. Ever been a spy? Or seen a spy movie? Yeah, that’s what is expected of you. At the end of the assignment, you will always get compensated for your efforts and depending on whether you spent extra cash purchasing anything as per the requirements of the assignment or not, you could get reimbursements on anything you bought.
You should also know that Reality Check Mystery Shoppers is part of the Mystery Shoppers Providers Association so you don’t have to be worried about its legibility because so long as you shop with them, you are safe as they are bounded by the rules and regulations of the MSPA which is short for the Mystery Shoppers Providers Association.
What is Mystery Shopping?
Have you ever owned a business, or created a product and in the course of your evaluation, felt the need to know what your customers are saying about that product or service? Or have you ever been in an organization where the priority at some point was to get consumer opinion and feedback? Well, this issue becomes less of an issue when using mystery shoppers. Mystery shopping involves having a shopper or an individual as the case may be, interact with a particular business or company in the pretense of being a potential customer.
This camouflaged spy then uses this cover to observe what goes on in the company or business and also assess the performance based on whatever criteria he or she has already been given to which are basically the constraints that that particular organization is trying to measure. This criterion could be the selling skills of the sales people, the customer service skills of the customer service representatives the adaptation behavior of the employees to a new system, the rate of obedience to organization rules and policy and it goes on and on. It could be anything really including gathering information about different products and services.
Mystery shopping is basically based on the principle of customer feedback only that this time, the customer is one that has the intention of providing feedback. This helps the stores, restaurants and businesses get insight as to what the customer service of their organization looks like when they are not offering biased treatment to the customer because the identity and mission of the mystery shopper are always kept secret. This is also known in some circles as shadow shopping or secret shopping.
All mystery shoppers either get paid for their time, get reimbursed for any purchase they have made or both upon completion of the assignment and the companies responsible for the direct hiring of mystery shoppers are known as mystery shopping companies or agencies. These companies look out for people that match the customer profile of the particular business they want to work on and them get them to fill out a questionnaire that they would use as a guide when recording their experience. A lot of other companies even go as far offering training on how different parameters could be measured.
This idea was brought to light in the 1940s when different methods of research were being designed to measure and trace the behavioural performance and operational performance of companies. As time went on, it evolved and expanded through the 1990s and eventually became known as “Mystery Shopping”. So, in a heartbeat, mystery shopping entails that a shopper visits or place calls across to a company as though he or she is a potential customer and then uses that guise to observe how the company runs and how the employees behave based on whatever parameters he or she has been given as per what the hiring entity wants to measure. Other criteria that could be measured include product merchandising, cleanliness of the environment and also facility and equipment maintenance. The basic stuff that these shoppers get to measure has one, two or basically everything to do with the feel and look of a business on a general level including the employees.
Some other companies get to use mystery shopping to ensure that the laws and standard of the company is being met for instance, companies that deal on regulated products like alcohol and tobacco could use mystery shopping to make sure that the employees that they have been adhering to the identification and age requirements of their company as a mystery shopper might go into a store and decide to purchase alcohol and check if the attendant or associate at the time would ask to see his identification.
When you want to audit the rate of execution of customer service standards and also operational standards, the best tool to use would be mystery shopping while when you want to measure the present state of the customer attitudes and satisfaction, you could use customer satisfaction surveys. In other words, mystery shopping helps in providing insight and vision that businesses would not have had access to under normal circumstances. It is also a way that is legit to make extra money and get to visit new places and businesses. It is a very flexible job and, in most cases, it would help you to save money off of the purchases you will get to make.
The end point of mystery shopping or the goal at the end of the day is use the feedback provided by the mystery shoppers to improve on the brand positioning, the development of products and also to improve on the customer service of the business. This feedback that the hiring companies require could be sent in in form of mails, emails, text messages, photos, surveys and also interviews.
Different Types of Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping can be used to evaluate any aspect of your business that you want to measure and a mystery shopping program is very effective is one that addresses the touchpoints of your customer and basically reflects the way customers interact with your brand or business. Presently there are about four popular types of mystery shopping and these are: In-Person Mystery shops, Telephone Mystery shops, Internet Mystery shops and finally Multiple Touchpoint (Hybrid) Mystery shops. Let us discuss them in more detail.
In-Person Mystery Shops: this type of mystery shopping is just about the most common type of mystery shopping out there and this is when an individual shopper visits a particular location and evaluates the performance of that business based on the criteria that have already been set by the evaluating bodies. These shops could last for a short period of about 10 minutes or way longer periods that roll into hours but the total period it would take to complete depends on a whole lot of factors like the purpose of the shop, the type of industry and also the nature of the metrics you would need to evaluate.
In this type of mystery shopping, it is easier for the shopper in question to go about his duties without raising any suspicion. Examples of industries that utilize this method of mystery shopping include the banking industry, the retail industry, restaurants, fitness centres, the health care industry, hotels, the automotive industry and also the Petro-Convenience industry.
Telephone Mystery Shops: this type of mystery shopping is most popular in environments populated with call centers or in industries or business that have most of their customer interactions over the phone which means that phone calls constitute a very important part of their consumer or client experience. This method is also conducted by individual shoppers and here, they get to call the business and in the course of the phone call, they would assess the kind of details and service that they are receiving. Examples of industries that use this method of mystery shopping include hotels, travel companies, tourism companies, call centers, the telecommunications industry and the health care industry.
Internet Mystery Shops: this type of mystery shopping is carried out by a shopper that takes out time to evaluate and assess the online presence of a particular company. They measure stuff like how responsive they are online, how responsive their website is, how easy it is to navigate through the pages of their website, how they interact with their followers or customers on social media and also how great their online customer service is.
These guys that take part in this kind of shopping do not have to visit the business in person rather they could work from the comfort of their homes while they still get to provide the required feedback to the companies that hired them. any company or business that have online presence can use this type of shopping to evaluate their online performance but this method is used mostly in industries like the travel industry, real estate industry, E-commerce industry, automotive industry and also the telecommunications industry.
Multiple Touchpoint (Hybrid) Mystery Shops: this type of mystery shopping is more like a combination of all the other types of mystery shopping as in this case, almost every other method mentioned before now is utilized at one point or another. Huge brands and basically any company that is really passionate about delivering excellent customer service to their clients understand that a customer has various touchpoints in communicating with a brand and so they culture every touch point to deliver stellar experiences.
The hybrid mystery shopping entails that the mystery shoppers in question follow the entire customer journey from the first phone call to the last live experience. Examples of companies or industries that utilize this kind of mystery shopping include the banking industry, the travel industry, hotels, the real estate industry, restaurants, the health care industry and the automotive industry.
The Process for Mystery Shopping
The entirety of this article has been outlined specifically to help individuals who want to earn some money by getting involved with mystery shopping but this section is specifically tailored to those businesses who want to incorporate the mystery shopping option as a tool for evaluation of company, employee and service performance.
If you want to execute one of the best mystery shopper program for your business or company, there are four very important steps that you must religiously follow to ensure that your program is very reliable and provides you the insight that you require. These four steps involve strategic assessment, shopper training, the mystery shop and finally the shop reports and analytics.
Strategic Assessment: before you start hiring mystery shoppers or mystery shopping companies, you need to ask yourself a few important questions about what you intend to achieve at the end of the day from your mystery shopping program and also about what your goals are. These questions could look anything like, what is the purpose of this program? What are the specific operational elements that drive this business? What are the specific behavioral elements that drive this business? How will is use the results from this program to enhance this business? All of these questions are very important so that you don’t go off and get involved with something that you would not be able to fully utilize in the growth of your business at the end of the day.
Shopper Training: Once you are done creating your effective strategy, the next step would be to hire mystery shoppers. Now, this is a very important step as a lot of speculation and detail goes int o it to ensure that you are happy with your results at the end of the day. When you get the mystery shoppers you want to work with, it is important to note that you need to train them based on the parameters you want to have them test for you. You also need to train them to give you the kind of feedback you want to receive so that they don’t start reporting in ways that would prove useless to you in the grand scheme of things. Training your shoppers is very important if you want to get high quality feedback from them in terms of results.
The Mystery Shop: your mystery shop could be anything really from calling through telephones or visiting the location of a business center to interacting with the business via the internet. Anything that would help the mystery shopper interact with your business and measure the qualities you want him or her to measure could be your mystery shop. These shoppers then get to interact with your business by acting as real customers and while they do that, they also observe and record all that you have identified previously for them to measure. The results of this observation could be a rating, a score or a written answer but at the end of the exercise, you would have the valid information that you require to improve on the growth and success of your business.
Shop Reports and Analytics: always structure your feedback to be able to provide relevant reports and data. As you engage more and more in mystery shopping, always compare your results over time to check if you are making progress on the efforts you are putting in or not. Remember, customer satisfaction is key and also do not forget to share your results with the members of your team.
Rewards for Mystery Shopping.
The rewards or payment for engaging in mystery shopping could be in one or more of different forms. For example, some companies could pay in form of free gifts while others would reward you in form of cash. Some others, which is the most common form of rewards involve paying for the particular service or product for which you would be reporting on anyway. This could mean going on a vacation under the guise of a real person going on vacation and observing the functionality and customer service of the place. Now, while you get to have fun and relax in the process, the hiring company gets to pay for all the expenses enquired while you get to provide the much-needed feedback. Other perks include free meals, free products and it goes on and on.
Requirement and Qualities of An Effective Mystery Shoppers
The requirement for a mystery shopper is peculiar to the speculations of the hiring company based on the customer profile that they want to emulate and the kind of feedback they want to get from you. These pre-requisites could demand that you are above 19 years, you have a reliable form of transportation, you have reliable and constant access to the internet or you have excellent verbal and written communication skills. Some companies might require some of them while others might require all of them and even more. these could include having a digital camera, an active email account, a PayPal account, a scanner, a personal computer, an assignment log and a printer.
A mystery shopper is expected to be calm so as to be able to go about the entire process undetected to the employees of that organization in order to avoid any preferential treatment. You should be able to accurately follow the script that has already been written out for you for the duration of the assignment and at the end of the day, you should be able to provide a very honest and impartial assessment and evaluation based on what you have been asked to assess. You also need to be very professional with all your assignments as your role at that very moment is very crucial to the growth of that business.
Mystery shoppers need to be extremely skilled in being vigilant, attentive and watchful in order to be able to provide the relevant information that is required of them. other qualities of a good mystery shopper include being responsible, dedicated, diligent, trustworthy and honest. Being observant is not even a negotiable quality as everything a mystery shopper does at any point rises and falls on his or her observant nature and ability to remember specific details as in some cases a company might expect a mystery shopper to remember the name of different employees, the time he or she entered and left a particular store, the weigh of the product that he or she purchased and so on.
A mystery shopper must also be organized as he or she has to keep all the information and receipts gleaned from multiple mystery shopping assignments neatly organized and submitted promptly which is why you also need to be punctual as a mystery shopper.
Example of Mystery Shopping Assignment.
There are a lot of assignments that you could be paid for to complete as a mystery shopper. Some of these assignments include:
- Testing an online site that deals in selling movie tickets.
- Taking dinner in a restaurant
- Shopping at a convenience store or a grocery store.
- Calling a company to set up an appointment.
- Visiting or attending to an already fixed appointment.
- Assessing of the cleanliness of the environment of a particular business.
- Evaluating the customer service of a particular business.
- Placing orders for pizza
- Opening a new bank account.
- Taking snapshots of advertising materials in different locations.
- Taking snapshots of different products.
- Dinning for two in an eatery.
- Buying alcohol to see if they ask for age identification.
Most of these assignments reward you with reimbursements that could be as low as $10 or as high as $50 or even more. some of them even get to pay you plus the reimbursement.
How to Get Started as a Mystery Shoppers
To get started as a mystery shopper, you will have to apply to the different companies responsible for hiring mystery shoppers. These companies can be easily found because we have them literally existing in hundreds now but the catch is that these companies are not allowed to publicly announce the businesses or stores that they have assignments for so it would require a bit of luck to get the jobs that you want.
So, the best way to go about this while getting the jobs you want would be to sign up with as many mystery shopping companies as possible and then be patient until they start sending out mass emails to their mystery shoppers. You could also sign up for a one-month trial membership at ShadowShopper. This will cost you about $4.95 per month but it is a sit that has a couple of assignments in your area that companies need shoppers to fill in for. This is just about the only site that I will recommend you to pay for to join and you only need to pay for one month because I really do not recommend staying with then for a long-term period. It is just okay to get you started.
Other ways to get going is going to take you a bit of time but I will strongly recommend that you read through the ones that are mentioned in this list and sign up with as many as possible and once you exhaust this list, you can also check out the lists of mystery shopping companies at the Volition website situated at www.volition.com and you can now sign up for the ones that have assignments in locations that are close to you.
Another website that behaves like ShadowShopper would be JobSlinger and here, they also list the different assignments that are available in locations that are close to your area and both of these websites unlike ShadowStopper that you have to pay for. The drawback though to using these two free websites are the fact that they could have listings of up to 100 trillion companies or assignments so sorting through them could become a bit of a bore but with dedication and some tough luck, you could find a few that works for you.
You should also note that there are a lot of scammers in this industry and one of the ways to get past them is by noting the companies that ask you to pay them or make some kind of deposit to start mystery shopping for them. Anytime you encounter a case like this, ignore them and look for another option because they are out to scam you. Another thing you should note before starting out is that the income you make on mystery shopping is still very taxable.
When you get reimbursements, you don’t have to pay tax but when you get paid for a particular assignment, you still have to report your tax to the IRS. Finally, you should also know that most times, you are expected to pay for the expenses that you’ll make at the shops up front and eventually get reimbursed in about 2 to 6 weeks. In this case, your receipts are your best friend and you don’t want to lose them at any point because that could mean that you won’t get reimbursed.
You may also join the best paid online survey sites to make extra money by taking paid surveys.
Conclusion
Over time, I have come to realize that mystery shopping is one of the best ways to support your monthly budget for the expenses you would make. in other words, this means that mystery shopping could help you pay for stuff that you need so that you don’t have to pay for them anymore.
For instance, if you choose to only accept assignments that have to do with visiting restaurants and having breakfast, lunch or dinner, you’ll find out that you don’t have to pay so much for feeding anymore as the company reimburses you for all the money spent on food while you get to eat free food. The more mystery shopping assignments you take, the more money or rewards you get to earn but you need to carefully sort out the ones you would accept because some of them might take so much of your time for a reward that might not even be worth it.
Mystery shopping can also be carried out alongside your day job. All that you need to do is just pick out assignments that could be completed during your lunch break or after work hours. you don’t need to quit your job to start solely relying on the funds you’ll get from mystery shopping as the main attraction of mystery shopping is not the amount of money you get to earn because it is not so much. The main feature that makes it appealing is the flexibility that it offers
These companies I have listed in this article are legit companies that would pay you to engage in mystery shopping assignments and even though you would prefer to work with the online companies because they are much easier to work with, endeavor to apply and send your resume to a wide range of these companies irrespective of their location as most of them work with large business chains and they might need you to check out a particular branch or franchise situated near you. Most of the companies listed here are members of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) so you don’t have to be scared of getting scammed while working with them.
One more thing I would like to leave with you is that you don’t have to feel pressurized to take up an assignment. Whenever you receive an assignment from a company that you don’t feel like attending to or you don’t feel comfortable with, you can always decline it. declining does not ruin your chances of getting more assignments from that company except it is done late but if you do your declining pretty early and the company has time to find someone else, you are good to go.
