A mystery shopper is a person hired by any company that depends on customer comfort for success. Mystery shopping, also called secret shopping service has extended to every industry that offers services to the public. Mystery shoppers are hired to investigate public fields such as hotels, sport parks, theaters and health clubs. Also, they may evaluate businesses such as hospitals, schools, airlines and even tax preparers. Because of the high competition rising in the marketplace, many retailers find it hard to measure the customer satisfaction, and in such cases they use all the ideas they have in order to identify what will upgrade their services and the amount of customers. There are several types of mystery shoppers and here are some examples of them.
Traditional Secret Shopper
The traditional secret shopper is one of the several types of mystery shoppers. A secret shopper is a person hired to investigate a particular retailer by purchasing products from that specific store. He/she is in charge of interacting with other employees as well, remember their names and evaluate their attitude towards customers. After the evaluation and purchase have been made, the secret shopper writes a report about the experience he/she had at the assigned store.
Whatever a secret shopper purchases is reimbursed by the company, which also pays the secret shopper for his services. The amount of money a secret shopper is paid depends on the company but usually, secret shopping is more like a part-time job income rather than a full-time one.
Mystery Shopper Online
Another type of mystery shoppers' jobs is done exclusively online. This is a new type of mystery shopping, but many online companies have already started to hire secret shoppers. Shoppers engaged in this job are usually given a worksheet with links to different sites, which they must visit and most of the time fill out request information about a particular service or product. After the form is filled, usually the online company's representative calls the number provided by the secret shopper. During the phone conversation, the shopper must talk to the salesperson as like she or he is interested in the product offered. However, in the online shopping, there is no need to purchase the products after evaluation, but inform the representative that he/she will search for other options before buying anything.
Online secret shoppers are usually paid by the hour or by the worksheet and not by the job. However, since online shopping is faster than in-store shopping, one can complete several shops in one day and this helps the secret shopper increase the potential income, even if these types of job are only used as supplementary jobs.
If someone would like to become a mystery shopper, at first he/she must find a mystery shopping company or site because these companies are like a bridge between businesses and shoppers. Some shoppers may also go directly to a company and ask about mystery shopping, but the chances to get hired that way are low, so it is easier to find a middleman.
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