Is being a Mystery Shopper Profitable
Take the Mystery out of Mystery Shopping with the MSPA...
I was a mystery shopper for a few years in southern California. And I had a constant flow of jobs from several mystery shopping companies. The jobs were usually at retail outlets and included everything from clothing stores to national hamburger chains.
Most of the companies specialize in specific industries. So, one company would send me to fast food restaurants, while another would send me to consumer electronic stores and car lots.
I didn't pay anything to become a mystery shopper and I didn't buy a book to find the company that I worked with. I found them through the Mystery Shopping Providers Association. There are hundreds of paying companies listed here and members aren't supposed to charge potential clients a fee.
Basically, I would scroll through the websites and/or receive email offers of jobs and accept the one's that would work with my schedule. Once I accepted a job, then I would receive full written instructions on where to go, what to do and when to do it...
I would also have a deadline to file my report in order to get paid. Some reports had to be mailed in, but most companies had a special website set-up for shoppers to fill in the questionnaires on-line.
The jobs paid anywhere from $20 to $100 depending on what was required. The higher paying jobs would take more time and detail than the lower paying ones. For example, I would earn $100 to interview for an apartment which involved touring the unit and sitting through a presentation, and filing a report on what happened, the form was very specific wanting to know things such as exactly how long I waited before I was greeted and how long I waited before someone talked to me about the unit... step by step of the sales process to ensure the employees were following their training. And then waiting 48 hours to see if the person followed up on my visit or not, then I would turn in my complete evaluation.
The less well paid jobs were usually fast food restaurants where I timed how long I was in line, reported on the appearance and exact greeting of the employee, reported the condition of the food (hot/warm/cold...) and how it took to get the food, whether the bathroom was clean, the parking lot, the interior of the building... I was almost never allowed to reveal that I was a mystery shopper and my report had to be in by midnight of the day I completed the shopping. Then I would send in my receipts and get paid $20 bucks.
It was okay, the companies don't generally pay for gas so you have to be in an area that has loads of shops within a reasonable distance from your house. It's sort of like temp work, which is another good place to earn quick cash on an irregular basis.
You'll never get rich by being a Mystery Shopper and it's time consuming, but you do have complete control over when and where you're going to work on any given day. The only thing is you need to be in an area where there is lots of work, otherwise you'll only occasionally have assignments. Also, when you're new, most agencies will only give you small jobs that basically haven't been accepted by their reliable shoppers, but if you do a good job, then you'll find yourself flooded with opportunities.
To get more information on Mystery shopping, you should check out the organization that reputable companies join the MSPA (www.mysteryshop.org)
