D'oh of the Day

Hello everyone, it has been a couple of weeks since my last post. I've been kinda busy counting down the days until it was time for vacation time to begin. Now I'm back in the saddle again. And since my vacation started officially as of 3:15 this afternoon, I'm wondering whether time will go in super speed mode or whether it will be slooooow. Either way I plan on getting in some more posts. I had a mystery shopping experience today as I do frequently. This one didn't directly involve completing a shop.

Let me start at the beginning. Today at about 1:30 I got a call to my cell phone. It happened to be on vibrate, as I usually put in on that at work so I don't have to take out my cellie in front of all of my students and have a conversation in front of them. First of all it is super distracting. Secondly I am embarrassed about the condition of my phone. I am one of the types that could care less about bells and whistles on phones. I just want it to make and receive phone calls and the rare text message from my sister who continues to text me no matter how many times I ask her not to.

So there I was this afternoon, letting the kids decorate little sun visors and velcroing and hot gluing them together while a swarm of student enclosed my desk reaching their cute little germy hands everywhere. The phone vibrated in my pocket when it was ringing. I knew it had to be a call about a mystery shop because everyone else knows that I'm a teacher and they don't call me during the day. I didn't even pause what I was doing because I figured that I'd just call them back.

Well...at around 4:30 I finally checked my messages and found that I probably should have checked my messages earlier. One of the good shops. It was one of those alchohol shops that I've written about in an earlier post. Click here to read more details about that. I guess this company must have been pretty desperate to get that shop done because they were adding a $20 bonus on top of the shop fee of $10, PLUS reimbursement. Yeah...so I called the scheduler back three hours later only to find that the shop had already been assigned. ARGH

The lesson for me is to be available and to return calls as soon as I can. I mean it's not like I was at home playing video games or something and just didn't feel like calling them back...but I am notorious about procrastination so I guess I got what I deserve this time. Don't be like me and miss out on your valuable shops.

How to Get Mystery Shopping Jobs Repeatedly

So by now, if you are a regular reader of this blog, you have already compiled a list of companies that you can do mystery shopping jobs for. If you are a new reader you should definitely get started on that.

What is important as a new mystery shopper is getting jobs. You might start off doing any job you can get your hands on at first. As a new mystery shopper, you probably get the jobs that aren't the best. You'll probably start with the low paying jobs or the ones that have longer reports. You may even end up doing the shops that have the super long reports just because you don't realize how long the reports will actually take you.

Let me clue you in on how to get some of the better jobs. You won't get the great jobs right away, but you can start to make your mark on the company by doing something you have to do anyway. You have to write reports for companies when you do shops so you should make your reports the best that you can. Be super descriptive when it comes to describing employees, the atmosphere, food, service, etc. For example, instead of saying that your hamburger was hot and delicious say, "The hamburger was cooked to perfection. The meat had the coloring of a burger cooked medium well, just as I had ordered. The lettuce was cool and crisp. The tomatoes were perfectly ripe and fresh. The bacon was crispy and sizzling. The temperature was just right as well." Instead of saying that the fries are good you can say, "The french fries were firm, crispy, and well seasoned."

I tested out this theory of mine as I was filling out the report for a casual dining shop.
I teach writing so I used some of the tricks that I use as a teacher to help get more opportunities as a shopper. The shop was for a dinner for two including soup, appetizer, drinks, two entrees, and desert- all reimbursed might I add. Even the tip was covered. Anyway, I felt particularly creative that night for some reason. I decided that I would try out my theory of being super descriptive in the reporting section. It probably only took me ten minutes more than it would have taken me otherwise to write a less descriptive report. I have done shops for the company before and I had even filled out this report before in the past, (read more about it here) but was just less descriptive.

What happened to me was that I got a personal email from the scheduler thanking me for the outstandingly written report the very next morning. I got the opportunity to do new shops on my log. I'm not a scheduler or anything but I know that schedulers do not necessarily show ALL available shops to everyone that signs up for their company. From what I have heard, but am unable to verify for myself, you have the opportunity to do more mystery shops if you are certified. It appears that evidently if you do a really good job on your report, the scheduler might think you are worthy of doing more shops too. This is a company that I had been scoping out for months to see what shops were available and then the day after I did a great job on my report all of a sudden there were more opportunities for me. Another thing that happened was I got a 10 on my report for my shopper rating. Finally, I have been getting emails about job opportunities from this company and even phone calls. All of this for just spending time being a little more descriptive.

When you think about it, doesn't it make sense? If a scheduler has to choose between two people to do a shop, wouldn't they choose the one that has the best feedback? Companies read the feedback from the mystery shopper and I'm sure they are thrilled to see reports of the shoppers that are thorough and descriptive.

So, what do you think? Does anyone have anything to add about this? Personal experiences that affirm this theory? Leave me some feedback on what you think about this theory of mine.

Alcohol Compliance Shops- Easy Money

If you like to have a beer every now and then, this is good news for you. Check this company out right away. If you do an alcohol compliance shop you can get a beer for free. I did one of these shops and it was very simple to do. The tasks were to check out the bathrooms, food court, pricing, signage, and of course purchase the beer. Not to mention the pay was $20 just for about 10 minutes of my time...shops like that always make me do a little woo hoo in my mind. I mean there is like a big song and dance to go with it and everything. Song 2., Blur, to be exact.

I went into the store which had just opened about two weeks before I stopped in. I walked to the bathroom immediately to check out what that was like. It was in fairly good condition. It didn't smell terribly awful or anything. So I took a mental note of that and went back out into the store to check the other necessary things.

When I looked at the coolers they were almost empty. I opened the cooler up to look at the beers that were available and most of the drinks were warm. I didn't know if they had just been put into the cooler or if the cooler just wasn't working correctly. I noticed that price tags were not in the cooler consistently either. It was kind of haphazardly done. I tried to pick out a beer that I knew my husband would like since I don't drink any kind of beer at all, I'm more of a super sweet margarita drinker. I can't drink anything that you can taste the liquor in...anyway, I digress...so I was picking out the drink while trying to spend as little as possible to make sure I came in under budget.

I picked a drink and walked around the store looking at other things on my checklist. I looked at the food court. I looked for signs that said something about the age of alcohol purchase. I looked for the price tags (or lack thereof) of some other items throughout the store. After spending a few minutes looking around, I went to the checkout. I put my beer on the counter to checkout. The cashier asked for my birthday but never asked to see my driver's license so I could have told her anything really. The cashier said that there was no price on the beer so she couldn't ring it up. I silently went back to the cooler and put my 1st choice away and picked another. I went to check out once again. She couldn't remember my birthday and evidently didn't want to ask me again, so she must have just put in her birthday. The entire time she never asked for my drivers license. I almost left without my receipt because she didn't give it to me right away.

This is one of those companies that pays you right into your paypal account. If you don't have a paypal account you should sign up for one immediately. You will have to sign up with a bank account, but it is so convenient to have a paypal account in case you want to buy anything online. Also, a lot of mystery shopping companies pay this way. I've received my payment and already invested that money into making money with other shops. If you are interested in getting a beer for free, click here to sign up with this company. Also interesting about this company, if you get your friends to sign up and complete shops you can get paid for that too. I think they have to sign up with your email address as the referrer to do that though. In my opinion this is one of those companies that you shouldn't dawdle on...go ahead and sign up for. Do it, do it now.

I'm outtie.

Keepin' track of it all...and my free gift to subscribers

Hello shoppers! Now this post is an important one for mystery shoppers everywhere. If you are not one of those people who are born organizationists, you need to come up with some type of system to keep yourself organized. I know that organizationist isn't a word, but it should be.

Some people are just born with the innate tendency towards being organized. These people are always on top of their game, so to speak. These people as teachers are awesome because they can keep track of everything. Believe me, I know because I am the exact opposite. Organizationists believe that there is a place for everything and that everything should be in its place. They can somehow put information together in ways that can be easily retrieved if necessary. Organizationists keep to do lists. There is so much more that organizationists do that differ from folks like myself. If I knew all of what they did then maybe I would be able to join their ranks.

Then there are the rest of us. I am like the least organized person that I know. I keep things to do in stacks on my desk. Of course I'm constantly looking for things because I do not have a specific place for anything. I have a general idea for where I've left things because I am a visual person I can usually picture where I last saw the item I'm looking for. But that's neither here nor there. The point that I'm trying to make is that organizationists have it goin' on. If you are not one of those people then I have a few ideas of ways you can keep yourself organized.

1. Keep a list of companies that you shop for. I will give you a template that you can use to keep up with your companies if you subscribe to this blog- as my gift to subscribers. What I have done for myself, because I realized that there is no way I would be able to keep up with every company, is to make a list of the companies that I shop for. That way I can go to one place to search for current openings instead of saving each individual site to ymy favorites. Also, you don't have to worry about remembering 30 passwords. This saves lots of headaches!

2. Keep a list of shops that you do. A checklist would be fine. It should list the company, the date you performed the shop, and the amount you should be paid. You may want to add other things, but you will want these things at the very minimum. This is essential in making sure you get all the money you are due. To me, this is especially important if you do a large quantity of short, quick shops.

3. Get a folder to keep track of receipts. Many companies ask that shoppers keep receipts for 30-60 days. I would definitely do that just in case something doesn't go through when you scan it. If you lose your receipt, you can be in a bit of trouble when it is time to get reimbursed.

Just some ideas. Use some of them or use them all. For sure you need to sign up for a subscription to get more useful shopper tips. I feel the need to explain the statement that I'm about to use in closing. One of my students ended her writing essay in this way a couple of years ago and it has stuck with me: Bow wow for now!

What is Mystery Shopping?

Well, I realize that many people have not heard of mystery shopping and I thought I should give a little more insight into what this actually is. Mystery shopping, or secret shopping, is when an individual is paid either a fee, or is reimbursed to try a good or service for a company while remaining anonymous. Some mystery shops require that individuals remain anonymous the entire time. Other shops require the mystery shopper to do a reveal at the end. Either way, the mystery shopper is providing a service for a company.

In order to start off mystery shopping, an individual will have to find a company that has listings in his/her area. While it sounds easy enough, often there are individuals who want to charge for this information. I've never purchased any kind of list to find out, I've just done research. I'd advise anyone to avoid mystery shopping lists. From what I've heard, a lot of them have useless information and there are scams out there too.

Be careful for mystery shopping scams. One scam I've read about is when a shopper is sent a bad check and is asked to deposit it into his or her account. The next step is to wire a portion of the check through a wire transfer. Basically, in the end the shopper is tricked out of his or her hard-earned money.

My blog will focus on mystery shops that I've done AND received payment for. I'll also give links to the websites so readers can sign up. I'll list the companies that have the quick and easy shops as well as the more in-depth higher paying shops. You'll be surprised. From my experience, you can make up to $40 dollars an hour if you do a few short quick shops. Sign up to receive updates when I write a new post and feel free to ask questions or post comments about your experiences.

Starting out...

I can remember it like it was yesterday...oh yeah...it was only about a month and a half ago. I somehow came across a website that mentioned mystery shopping. This, of course, was not the first time. I had looked many times for information about mystery shopping that was legit and did not require a charge to learn about. If you've done any searching for that yourself, you know that mystery shopping seems to be something that people try to get you to spend money to learn about. Still somehow, I managed to stumble upon a mystery shopping site. Little did I know, it was about to change my whole outlook on fast food.

My first assignment was for a fast food restaurant. I can't tell you which one because it is a mystery shopper thing not to eat and tell (except for in your report, which you get paid for). It was not one that I particularly liked but I was so giddy at the prospect of getting paid to eat fast food. I mean, in the town that I live in, there are not very many choices for fast food. So, I do eat at this restaurant once I get tired of the other places. Anyway, that was all that was available. I signed up for it immediately. This was all kind of a leap of faith for me. I had never done the mystery shopping thing before so I was just trusting that I would get paid for my efforts.

The mystery shopping experience involves a fee and often reimbursement too. The fee is what you get paid to do the shop. If you get a reimbursement too that means that on top of your fee, you will get reimbursed up to a certain amount for your charges. So, although you have to pay the money up front you get it back.

So when I got my first assignment and read the paperwork about 3 times to make sure I had it right. I had to go to the restaurant and order a hamburger, fries, and a drink. I had to see how the employees treated me. From the very beginning I had to be prepared. When you are mystery shopping, you have to be able to keep up with all of the details. Some of the questions that I was looking for answers to were: Who takes your order? Who brings your order to you? What do they look like and what was their name? How does the food look? How does the food taste? Did they check back later to see if you needed anything else? All the while you are trying to file this away in your brain because you can't very well just get out your paperwork and write it all down. This is while you are keeping track of the timing too. When I was leaving I had to comment on the appearance of the restaurant, inside and out. The first shop was a little overwhelming but I did the first part of it with no problem. When I got home I typed up my report and scanned in my paperwork. I got paid for all the work I did with this company this month. Woo hoo!


My rating for this shop: 3.5 out of 5
The shop was not my best! I was just learning so I was slightly mechanical.
Rating for this company: 4.5 out of 5. This company is awesome to work for. Click here to visit their website and sign up.

Click on apply here. When you get to the next screen click on sign up now under the blue portal. The company is market force. They have a variety of mystery shops available including fast food, phone, ice cream, audit/digital, retail, etcetera. They pay either by check or by direct deposit. I recommend direct deposit because this goes directly into your checking account and it is a lot faster than waiting for a check in the mail.