I Shop, Therefore I Am (A Mystery Shopper)
So I’m a mystery shopper. I have been for years. When I stopped life at the airlines to be a stay at home mother, I went crazy. I loved being home with Jake but I hated being dependent on my husband for money. I always hear “Its not his money, its both of yours” and even though I understand the point, I wanted something of my own.
I nursed Jake for a full year and while using my hands free pump, I spent a lot of time on the internet. My first piece of advice is don’t ever click on a mystery shopping ad. Every single one of them are bogus. You should NEVER have to pay to be a mystery shopper.
The MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association) is where you may want to start, that’s where I did. To quote from the MSPA website:
“The MSPA is the largest professional trade association dedicated to improving service quality using anonymous resources. With over 150 member companies worldwide, our diverse membership includes marketing research and merchandising companies, private investigation firms, training organizations and companies that specialize in providing mystery shopping services. Our member companies work with their clients to establish mechanisms to measure and improve levels of service.”
I started out here, by going on the site and taking the certification course. I became Silver Certified (I did pay for that, $15 for the online test). The certification helps you learn more about what these companies expect, and the companies associated with the MSPA will be more likely to assign a shop to someone who is certified. They also have an extremely detailed Gold Certification, but you can just read about it on their site if you’re interested.
Don’t expect to get rich from this, I get the occasional free meal and most shops will offer a small compensation and a specified reimbursement amount. Read everything on the website, it should answer all of your questions. Check the bottom of the friends section of this site for links to the MSPA , Volition and other shopping links. They have links and forums for every single mystery shop company and answers to all of your questions. You can also get free samples, paid survey sites and all kids of stuff through them.
Feel free to email me (julie@Momspective.com) if you ever have any questions. I was a shopper for years!
4 Comments
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I have always wanted to do this! But I didn’t want to get scammed.
http://elislids.blogspot.com/
Julie Reply:
January 21st, 2009 at 1:42 pm
@Kara-Noel, I know, that’s why I posted this. NEVER pay to be a shopper. NEVER EVER. You may have to pay to buy the product for whichever company (like a coffee from dunkin donuts) but they should reimburse you. Never pay for a list of shopping companies. http://www.volition.com has them all listed free.
very cool job just about as big as my daughter has made out of product reveiws
I have always been interested in marketing research and have found myself as a consumer wanting to express information to the company about a good or bad experience, but never knew how to go about doing it where it could make a difference.
I have been mystery shopping for a little over a year now and I love to pay attention to the details and report on them to help the company and their employees succeed.
You must be ready to keep track of detailed information for the shop experience as well as for tax records, so be prepared to setup a good system to handle. MSPA is a great source for ideas and examples of how to go about doing this work.