Mystery Shopping Success Tips
1. Read over your Shopping Form and set of instructions carefully before you go to each new Shopping Adventure.
2. When you are given a certain time frame in which your Shopping Adventure must take place, be sure to arrive at that location on time.
3. Fill out your Shopping Forms as completely as possible. Print legibly. Review your form before you turn it in just to double check for errors and also that you have filled it out accurately.
4. After filling out your Shopping Form, make a photocopy for yourself, just in case the Business calls you with more questions about your shopping trip.
5. Do not take young children along on certain Shopping Adventures where they may become a distraction to you. Remember, you are working and getting paid for it. Always take your Mystery Shopping seriously and act professionally.
6. While visiting a store, don’t attempt to stand out from the crowd. Dress the same way that you think everyone else who will be shopping there will be dressed. Always act like another ordinary customer. Your goal is to experience a normal shopping visit at each store that you visit. Don’t do anything out of the ordinary to call attention to yourself as you conduct business with a store’s employees.
7. You don’t have to look for things that are wrong. Don’t try and deliberately harass employees to get them upset. Mystery Shoppers are supposed to give the view point of how the average customer is being treated in a store, not how rude people are dealt with.
8. If you shop at the same store more than once, each time that you go back, act as if it is your first time as a customer. Otherwise the employees may catch on to the fact that you’re a Mystery Shopper. Don’t analyze every move the salespeople may make. More importantly, just shop as you normally would.
9. When you are filling out your Shopping Form, try not to use words that are demeaning or have racial overtones when you are describing an employee. For instance, if you are writing down a particular race use: White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, etc. For gender, use Male or Female.
10. Always keep your “Shopping Forms” confidential. Don’t show anyone, and certainly don’t ever give or sell your form to a store’s competition. Take pride in being a “Mystery Shopper”. What you do is extremely important. Feel good about yourself. Have respect for the Businesses who pay you to shop and the stores you shop at.
11. Don’t act like an inspector, looking into, under, around and behind everything. Shop like you would normally.
12. Be neutral. Don’t act over friendly or unfriendly. Don’t start up unnecessary conversations with salespeople. The less attention you draw to yourself the better you will be. Just try to fit in and be one of the crowd. Try to give the salesperson an opportunity to be friendly, but don’t try to force it. Your Shopping Form should report how employees behave in normal selling situations.
Mystery Shopping Summary
While you are writing the summary of your Shopping Adventure, try to mentally walk through the entire shopping experience as you have just lived it. Write your report as if you were telling the experience to a friend. Include any relevant details that stand out. For example, if you walked into the store and noticed that there was water on the floor, because it had just been mopped but there were no warning signs, write that down.
It is not necessary for you to write your summary like an English teacher. Use simple, easily understood language. Avoid using terms like: “Man, my experience at Hank’s Hardware was totally awesome! I got this rad tool kit.” Instead, you might say: “My experience at Hanks Hardware was quite pleasant. The salespeople were genuinely friendly and I bought a very high quality tool kit.”
If you fill out your form with many uncommon words, the business person who reviews it will have to spend a lot of time trying to evaluate what you mean rather than concentrating on what you are saying.
Be accurate and truthful. If you didn’t like a salesperson’s hairstyle, it is not necessary to include that in your form. Write down only the facts, not your own personal preferences. You should include your opinions on service, product quality, and overall store cleanliness.
