Thompson Grayley - Making Ends Meet with Secret Shopping Gigs as a Mystery Shopper

Copyright 2013, ThompsonGrayley

Smashwords Edition

I learned about secret shoppers when I was akid, when I heard my parents talking about the part-time job mygrandfather had as a mystery shopper.

My grandparents were eating in severalrestaurants each week, and they were being paid to do so.

The concept behind secret shoppers ormystery shoppers is that business owners want to see how theircustomers see their business operations. For example:

• If the food at their restaurant is bad orservice is slow, the restaurant owners/managers want to know aboutit.

• If cashiers are not tending to the cashregisters at the retail store, those shop owners want to know howwell their customers are being served.

• If the hair cutting lady is too busy talkingto her friends, rather than taking care of you, the shop owner willwant to know.

• If the oil change shop is not offering youadditional services, the manager might want to know.

• If a store's employees are not helpful tothose customers in need, some manager somewhere might want to beaware of that.

• If the customer showroom is dirty, clutteredor dangerous to the public, some body might want to know.

The bottom line is that business owners andbusiness managers want to see how well their businesses do or don'toperate through YOUR eyes.

When the manager, district manager orbusiness owner walks into the place of business, every employee inthe place sits up and makes darn sure the boss doesn't think theyare shirking on their duties. As a result, the boss may never knowthe real extent of how their customers are really being treated bytheir employees.

The secret shopper is able to walk into theplace of business, and because the employees don't know that theyare at the business to watch what goes on, the secret shopper isbound to see things as they really are.

As a retail employee, many of my employersused secret shoppers regularly. The staff was aware at all timesthat secret shoppers were on the job, so they had better presenttheir best face to all of the customers that came through thedoor.

From the employee standpoint, it was reallyscary to know that the secret shopper would be in soon.

When I started working in management, thesecret shopper was a mixed blessing. The secret shopper would showme where I needed to make improvements, yet the secret shopperwould also reveal to my bosses the weaknesses that existed withinmy store.

My grandfather started working as a secretshopper after he retired. He kept his part-time job for thefollowing 12-years, right up until his death.

While my grandfather was doing the job, mymom also got a part-time job working as a secret shopper. She wasalso paid to eat out and buy stuff from local stores.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I got my momto set me up working with the company she and my grandfather hadworked with as a shopper.

I was a secret shopper myself for nearly adecade, and I have been kicking around the idea of doing itagain.

To this day, when I walk into a Wal-Martstore and I see certain things happening, I laugh and tell myselfthat the bosses would be very unhappy to see that thing happeningin that store.

I have done secret shopping for manyrestaurants, quick oil change shops, hair salons, conveniencestores, grocery stores and Wal-Mart.

On some shopping sprees, I was asked to gointo Wal-Mart to the beauty supplies section, wave down an employeeand ask them where to find something in a department on the otherside of the store. The employee was expected to take me directly tothe item I wanted, no matter how far away the item was.

On other shopping experiences, I was asked togo into a fast-food restaurant and ask about a specific product onthe menu, and the employee was expected to answer all of myquestions about that product. In fact, the first time I had evereaten a McDonald's fish sandwich was because I was asked topurchase that item by the secret shopping company.

I was also advised not to order fries or adrink with my sandwich and make a note of it if the cashier didn'toffer me both.

I am generally someone who doesn't care foranything on McDonald's menu, but any time my wife talks me intoletting the kids go to McDonald's, I always eat the fish sandwich,because I learned as a secret shopper that I couldn't go too farwrong with that item.

Sometimes I would be sent to a hair salon toget a hair cut, and sometimes I would be sent there to buyshampoo.

The pay for this kind of work varies,according to the amount of information that the company wants youto collect and the amount of time expected to be spent during theprocess.

On some jobs, you could make $8 plus the costof what you purchased. On other jobs, you could make $20 and youwould be reimbursed for your purchase. In other cases, you may notbe asked to buy anything at all, but just to fill out thequestionnaire concerning what you found when you went to thebusiness.

In all cases, you will need to forward yourpurchase receipt to your secret shopping employer, either bymail, emailed photo or fax. You will also be expected to fill out aform that answers the questions that the company wantsanswered.

The companies want an honest assessment ofwhat you saw while you were in their place of business. Honesty isthe most important thing, and secret means that you cannot tellthe employees that you are the secret shopper.

If you have a bad experience, the companieswant to know about it. And, if you have a good experience, thosethat employ you want to know that as well.

Be aware that when you secret shop and youhave a bad experience, the managers at the location you visitedmight dispute your assessment, so be sure to take good notes whenyou write your report.

If you say something like, I talked to ablonde lady and she was rude, then you might have less credibilitywhen you submit your report.

However, if you write your report to say, Italked to Rachel, and when I asked her what was on the fishsandwich, and she said, 'fish' and you had to ask what else, thenyour report will be much more credible, because you includedverifiable facts in your report.

If you keep good notes and record verifiablefacts when you write your report, few people will dispute what yousay in your report.

I had only ever written one mystery shopperreport where someone questioned my honesty in the report. Idouble-checked my notes and verified the information I had. I neverheard anything more about that report, and I did not lose the job.When I was able to tell the ladies' name and what color hair shewore, and that she had glasses, it was truly hard to dispute thatshe was the one that gave me bad service.

Also, it should be noted that the businessowner has the option to ask the secret shopper company to neversend me to their store again and the company will honor thatrequest.

That did happen one time when I was a kidworking in a restaurant. There was a report submitted by a secretshopper that I had in fact given bad service to the customer. But,since the shopper reported having me as their server on my nightoff, the report went nowhere fast.

Important to you, you need to know that thereare more than 170 legitimate companies that offer this kind ofservice across the United States. Getting the job is easy, when youknow who to contact. Usually, all that is required to get the jobis a phone call or an email.

While some companies will send you paymentwithin just a couple weeks, most of them will take up to six weeksto pay. The company I had worked for would pay six weeks after Ishopped the store.

You can find a solid list of mystery shoppercompanies at this URL: http://www.volition.com/mysteryUSA1.html