Mystery Shopping Exposed: The Other Side Of The Hype
Author: Cynthia Alexander
You've seen the ads touting how you can make a part time or
even a full time income doing “mystery or secret shopping.”
Some say you can make between $10 – $60 an hour or more. That
is technically true. But it’s stretching the truth a bit.
There's another side of the story that most people neglect to
mention. I believe everyone should know this side as well.
According to Mystery Shopping Providers Association website:
Mystery Shopping is the practice of using trained shoppers to
anonymously evaluate customer service, operations, employee
integrity, merchandising, and product quality. You can mystery
shop for practically any service or product you can think of.
First and foremost, there is NO need to pay for mystery
shopping information. Mystery shopping information is available
for FREE online. You just have to know where to find it.
Mystery shopping on any sort of regular basis is really for
stay at home Moms, people who have plenty of spare time or
someone with an extremely flexible schedule. Lots of
notifications are for “emergency” or “urgent” shops which may
need you to do it the very next day.
You MUST have internet access. You also must be intelligent.
You will need to write out your reports and you have to be able
to articulate your observations well.
The hardest part about getting an assignment is to get that
FIRST one. The trick to getting selected is to SELL YOURSELF in
your reply.
With many shops you must pay out of your own pocket first then
wait to be reimbursed. That's not always the case, but it's
quite common. Many companies pay you the following month and it
can take up to 45 days. So if you need the money you’re spending
to do a mystery shop to pay the bills, DON’T do it.
The most time you will spend associated with a mystery shop is
in filling out the report/survey afterwards. It will take you
over an hour to complete the survey if you are just starting
out. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not being truthful.
Something very important that gets conveniently left out is if
you don’t fill out the survey 'correctly,' your report may be
rejected and you will NOT get paid.
Those stories about people making over $7,000 in a month doing
mystery shops are anecdotes. They are few and far between. The
truth is that you will earn far less. It is true that you can
make $10 - $60 an hour doing mystery shopping. But...you may
not get more than one job a week or a month for that matter.
The reality is that you might make between $50 - $100 a month
when you first start out. If you stick with it, you can make
several hundred dollars a month or more by doing multiple
shops. To make any decent money, you’ll need to do multiple
shops in a day. And the longer you stay with it, the more money
you’ll be able to make.
You've heard all the hype, now you have the other side of the
story. You now know what to expect going in. And you won’t have
to learn through the school of hard knocks like so many others
have.
About The Author: Cynthia Alexander has written a detailed
report on mystery shopping. In the report she reveals insider
tricks, tells where the highest paying jobs are and gives a
website that lists hundreds of mystery shopping companies that
won’t cost one penny to sign up. Go to
http://www.stopyourbarking.com/mysteryshop.html to download the
FREE report.
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