What advice would you give someone who is just starting Mystery Shopping?

Jon

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Knowing what you know now about doing Mystery Shopping what advice do you think you would give to someone who was just thinking about starting it up?

I would say confidence is key but that only comes with time

Do no estimate the usefulness of the 'notes' app on your phone for taking down details you need to report on later

Make sure your phone can take good photos or else you WILL be send back to get better HQ ones

Detail is key - Try and pay attention to every interaction with staff members if you need to have them

DO NOW THROW AWAY RECEIPTS as 9/10 you will be asked to upload them to Market Force or whoever.

Be prepared to talk 'on the fly' with staff if conversations don't go as planned when you as asking them about all the different pillow cases they sell that are the colour blue or some other random question lol
 

The Reverend

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Don't panic.

Someone you aren't expecting WILL talk to you.

Use the volume up button on the phone to take photos. Or if your headset can take work as a clicker, use that.

Read and re-read the requirements.

Check the address.

If ever you can't find something, take plenty of photos of where you think it should be and be very clear in the notes that there was not the product there.

and finally

Don't panic.
 
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Simon Gardiner

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Read the survey/report questions before completing the job so you know exactly what you will be asked as sometimes they ask things that aren't clear in the job instructions.
 
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Jon

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Don't panic.

Someone you aren't expecting WILL talk to you.

Use the volume up button on the phone to take photos. Or if your headset can take work as a clicker, use that.

Read and re-read the requirements.

Check the address.

If ever you can't find something, take plenty of photos of where you think it should be and be very clear in the notes that there was not the product there.

and finally

Don't panic.

that check and re-check the requirements thing is SO important - I used to make so many mistakes at the start by not reading the instructions properly...
 

Jon

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Read the survey/report questions before completing the job so you know exactly what you will be asked as sometimes they ask things that aren't clear in the job instructions.
Yeah I used to ask Market Force or whoever before I went if I had any questions after reading the brief
 

Thrifty Mum

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Don't forget to take photos of your meal if it is a restaurant mystery shop! Too many times now have I just dug in and started eating then remembered I didn't take a photo! I became quite good at rearranging my food to make it look like it didn't have bites taken out of it! haha I don't forget anymore now I've been doing it a long time
 

tinker0159

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Don't forget to take photos of your meal if it is a restaurant mystery shop! Too many times now have I just dug in and started eating then remembered I didn't take a photo! I became quite good at rearranging my food to make it look like it didn't have bites taken out of it! haha I don't forget anymore now I've been doing it a long time
hahaha this one made me laugh so much :)
 

homie

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Don't be scared to phone/email the mystery shopping company to clarify anything you're not sure of. They want the job done properly so will be happy to help you especially if they know you are new. I had a quite complicated vehicle leasing one involving 4 different car dealers and the mystery shop company were very helpful in guiding me through what needed doing.
 

OCTOPUS

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Don't forget to take photos of your meal if it is a restaurant mystery shop! Too many times now have I just dug in and started eating then remembered I didn't take a photo! I became quite good at rearranging my food to make it look like it didn't have bites taken out of it! haha I don't forget anymore now I've been doing it a long time
I remember doing that one. The problem was that I had literally eaten the whole meal minus two bites before I remembered. Had to tell the company what I had done and redo the shop lol
 

skint

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I did my first one yesterday and I really quite enjoyed it. The hardest part for me was taking the photo of the shop without looking suspicious.
 

NRS

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I think you just have to accept that you will make mistakes in the beginning. You will forget to take a photo of your meal. You will forget to ask for a receipt. You will forget to take a photo of the shop. You will forget to look for the name badge of the person serving you. Just don't beat yourself up about it. Treat it as a lesson learned.
 

fraserbooks

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Remember to read people's name badges and also try to guess their height and age. I am hopeless at remembering what people look like. It is sometimes useful to take a quick picture of the staff member who served you if you can do it discretely.
 

Thrifty Mum

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I did my first one yesterday and I really quite enjoyed it. The hardest part for me was taking the photo of the shop without looking suspicious.
I still feel a bit weird taking photos and I've been doing it well over a year now. But no one ever notices!
 

Thrifty Mum

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I think you just have to accept that you will make mistakes in the beginning. You will forget to take a photo of your meal. You will forget to ask for a receipt. You will forget to take a photo of the shop. You will forget to look for the name badge of the person serving you. Just don't beat yourself up about it. Treat it as a lesson learned.
This is so true! There's a lot to remember and its so easy to forget something
 

Jon

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Remember to read people's name badges and also try to guess their height and age. I am hopeless at remembering what people look like. It is sometimes useful to take a quick picture of the staff member who served you if you can do it discretely.
DAMN RIGHT ON THIS ONE!!
 

disneygirl

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I abandoned one today, my 1st one I have attempted in 3 years. The staff I was required to speak too looked intimidating and I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures in the toilets. I have social anxiety that doesn't help.
 

skint

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I've signed up with a couple more companies. I'm hoping for a few more retail jobs.
 

Andrew

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My tips would be as follows:

1. Start off small with market force and do jobs with them for a couple of months before moving on to the other companies.

2. Make friends with the people working at the mystery shopping companies and build trust with them. These days several companies phone me with opportunities before they publish them because they know I will do a good job and will take on board any feedback they have in a positive manner.

3. Don’t feel disheartened if you get a shop rejected. The criteria the companies have to fulfil to get paid (so that they can pay you) are very strict. Instead take on board any feedback you get and work on it for the next time. Absolutely don’t kick off if you do get something rejected as that’s a sure fire way to never get offered work again. I see far too many people claiming that companies are rejecting their work but think they’re still submitting it which is complete codswallop!

4. Let the staff in the store lead you and manage your query, not the other way round. I’ve spotted nervous mystery shoppers myself who are easily identifiable because they keep trying to get the store staff to ask them questions that they saw on their brief. If someone in the store doesn’t ask you something that’s on your brief it’s the stores problem not yours and gives you some nice detail to put in your report.

5. Detail is key. I’ve had reports accepted before where I’ve forgotten to do part of the assignment but because I’ve included lots of detail and pertinent information in response to other queries so the company has therefore deemed it useful enough to pass over to the client despite my omissions.

6. Don’t panic and don’t beat yourself up if you get rumbled. We’ve all got stories where we’ve been spotted doing a mystery shop and haven’t been able to complete the task properly. I remember having to leave a toys r us once because they rumbled me taking pictures. I simply gave the feedback about what had happened to the company I was working for and still got some reinmbusemebt for my time.

P.s. fundraiser mystery shops are brilliant. People don’t like doing them because it involves quite intensive interaction with another person at a time when they could be getting legitimate money for charity. But of the 15 I’ve done the fundraisers have only been there twice! Meaning I’ve been paid over £10 for snapping a photo to show no ones there, making a quick call to the task coordinator to say no ones there and then spending a couple of minutes uploading the photo and writing a few accompanying words to say that no one was there! I’ve moved on from mystery shops now so I’ll give you that one for free!
 

Andrew

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Oh and one more tip. If you’re visiting a large town or city try and book a few shops on the same day and combine them with some task based app tasks (T360, roamler etc) in the area and you can easilly clear a £100 in a day.
 

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