Mystery Shopping - An Excellent Part Time Job Or Additional Income Source
Though the name itself may seem a bit mysterious, the concept of mystery shopping is actually straightforward. Also referred to as secret shopping, performance evaluations, service checks and frontline evaluations to name a few, mystery shopping allows companies to obtain a "snapshot in time" by trained researchers who know in advance what they are to evaluate. It provides management a method to quickly yet efficiently evaluate their business practices, deliverables, and employees from the perspective of a non-biased consumer. Mystery shoppers visit or call businesses posing as ordinary customers and provide detailed evaluations of their experience using written reports or questionnaires. Mystery shopping is used in a wide variety of industries such as retail, restaurants, financial institutions, convenience stores and gas stations, service providers, manufacturers, department stores, travel and entertainment, etc. Though there is a certain level of responsibility and professionalism required to be an effective mystery shopper, you should never have to pay to get a job. There are dozens of companies claiming that by paying them a registration fee they will send you job opportunities and teach you the steps to becoming a shopper. This may be true, but is also completely unnecessary. The legitimate mystery shopping companies in the industry NEVER charge fees to the shopper. Training, tips for improvement, and shopping opportunities are provided free to registered shoppers. Mystery shoppers are either paid a pre-arranged fee for a particular shop, a reimbursement for a purchase or a combination of both. Though it is possible to make a living solely from mystery shopping, it is not very common. Most shoppers view this as a second income source or as a way to obtain fully reimbursed meals, products, and services. The registration process with leading mystery shopping companies has improved over the years. Most provide a simple online form that takes only a few minutes to complete. Once you have registered with a company or two, they will start informing you of shopping opportunities. Most of these are "first-come, first-serve", so be sure to provide the company with an email address that you check regularly, and a phone number where you can be easily reached. Be willing to accept last minute assignments and treat bottom-of-the-barrel assignments just like top-of-the-line assignments. At first, take whatever you can get. This will allow you to build a reputation with each company. The old adage, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression," is exceptionally true in this industry. Make sure you completely understand the instructions for the particular shop, be impartial, and focus on accuracy. You may be required to document employee names and descriptions, prices, inventory evaluations, etc. Go hi-tech. More and more mystery shopping companies are requiring shoppers to have access to the Internet, email and a fax machine. Some shops even require the use of a digital camera to capture product placement, signage, cleanliness or other focus points. Complete all assignments on time. If you absolutely cannot complete an assignment, contact the mystery shopping company immediately so they can reschedule the assignment. Dependable shoppers get the best assignments! Assignments can be as basic as sitting in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant for 20 minutes to document drive-thru service times to taking an all-expense-paid trip to a resort for 2 weeks to document your daily service experiences. Now that you understand the mystery shopping industry a little more clearly, the next step is to locate a few top mystery shopping providers and register, remembering that even if a firm doesn*t have a client in your area today, they may next month. Once registered with a company, it would not hurt to call or send an email to express your willingness to shop and to confirm your professionalism and attention to detail. Just make sure that you do not send an email full of typos and grammatical errors ? definitely not the type of first impression that you want to leave. Another method for finding potential shopping opportunities and to gather further industry knowledge is by monitoring online mystery shopping message boards and forums. To locate a few, type words like "mystery shopping message board" or "mystery shopping forum" into your favorite browser. Mystery shopping may not become your next career, but it will provide you with some extra income, free goods, and maybe even a few adventures along the way! About The Author Steve Pearce is the Dir. of Business Development for National Shopping Service. NSS has been a pioneer in the mystery shopping industry since 1972, offering customizable solutions to businesses that provide the information they need to understand and affect their businesses at points of customer interaction. http://www.nationalshoppingservice.com - 800-800-2704
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Career Change - Emotional Intelligence for Knowledge Workers?
Nowadays we can expect to survive the second half of our lives and as our work is knowledge-based - we knowledge workers are not finished after 30 years on the job - Are we merely bored?
Resume Writing Service Website
Promote Your Resume Business Website!
Preparation is Key
Interviewing for a new job, or a promotion, can be a stressful situation. However, Preparation is the KEY! When preparing for that all important interview, take time to reflect upon your career experiences; and look for at least five good examples of your accomplishments and challenges--we will call them "bragging points".
3 Creative Job Search Tactics
It's a fact: the best jobs attract loads of competition. So it pays to do whatever you can to stand out as a persistent, creative candidate, one that any sane employer would love to hire.
What is Experience Anyway?
I learned in first grade that one plus one equals two. But, that's not the right equation when counting work experience. We often think we're building experience to help us get ahead. In reality, we're passing time. Ten years working like a cloned Bill Murray in Groundhog Day is not ten years worth of experience. Doing the same thing again and again yields an experience formula more like: ten times one equals one.
I used to equate years of work with years of experience. No more. I learned by making plenty of hiring and promotion mistakes in twenty years of management the two are not equal. Neither are years of work and performance. Doing something for five, ten or twenty years doesn't make you automatically five, ten or twenty years better than when you started. I've been cooking for thirty years but I remain a mediocre cook.
Two or three years involved with a business start-up or a new project might provide more growth and knowledge than ten years in a stable venue. And it might not. Gaining experience is more about you and your approach than anything else.
Recurring work events can be predictable, boring, and unchallenging ways of passing years at work if what you're doing is updating last year's memo, tweaking last year's budget, or fine-tuning last years goals without applying innovation, analysis or critical thinking. Retiring on the job is as prolific as spam and will get you as blocked as those unwanted emails.
I've found the difference between people who are winning at working and people who aren't, is the difference between passing another year at work and gaining another year of work experience. Those who build their experience build their futures. And, you can build experience without changing jobs.
Building experience is about the depth, diversity, challenges and learning you gain by offering the best of who you are at work. It's about seizing and creating opportunities. And it's about continual self-improvement and constant self-feedback.
You know you're gaining experience when you problem solve your own mistakes; learn to use knowledge building blocks to handle more complex issues; make contributions more valuable than the year before; acquire new skills by venturing outside a comfort zone; embrace new ideas or technologies; or recognize you don't know as much as you thought you did as you begin to see a bigger picture.
People who try new things, push the envelope, pitch ideas, offer innovative problem solving, take accountability, and never stop learning and making a difference, are people gaining experience and building their work future.
(c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.
Job Search Tips - How to Increase Your Success
Finding a job can be a painful and difficult experience. Here are three things that
you can do to minimize the pain and increase your chances of success.
Personal Contacts: The Key to Successful Networking
When the word "networking" is used, we tend to think of upwardly mobile college graduates with a bursting day timer in hand chatting up the competition at business meetings, conventions, or workshops. The average blue/pink/white collar worker disconnects, feeling that they could never be that pushy, don't know enough people to even start the attempt, and that the method only works in competitive business environments.
Wishing and Hoping
Years after Disneyland was built, after the completion of Walt Disney World, the story goes that someone went up to Mike Vance, Creative Director for Walt Disney Studios and said, "Isn't it too bad Walt Disney didn't live to see this?" Without pausing, he replied, "But he did see it, that's why it's here."
How to Answer The Most Difficult Interview Questions
The following 'difficult' questions are common to most tricky or adversarial interviews. In order to convince the interviewer that you are the best person for the job, you must prepare and rehearse your answers meticulously. Study the job description and the candidate profile; research the company; and match your skills and accomplishments to the employer's requirements.
What Me? Lie On My Resume? Who Will Know?
The temptation to lie on a resume is great! How can it hurt if I stretch
the truth a bit? Employers see lots of resumes. How are they going to
know who lies and who doesn't?
How to Think Like a Headhunter to Find Your Dream Job!
In this ever changing world, we need to think out of the box to get ahead. This true for anything you do in life. If you want to succeed you will need to be creative.
Nuts and Bolts of Effective Cover Letters
As a job seeker, you shouldn't overlook the importance of a cover letter. If written strategically, a cover letter increases your chances for consideration, and provides an opportunity to highlight your individuality.
Sample Resume Objectives: Good, But Summaries Are Smokin!
Since college I've been told that a resume ought to have an "objective statement" at the top. Maybe you've been told the same.
The 5 Essential Telecommute Rsum Components
1. An attractive layout that is easy to read and follow.
Resumes That Work: 3 Steps to More and Better Interviews
All of us involved with helping you get a new job, whether as third party recruiters or as representatives of a company, are evaluating you for employment are all receiving hundreds of emailed resumes a day. Having done professional search work for more than thirty years, I have seen both resumes change and how they are delivered change. The change in delivery means that how you think of your resume being seen needs to change too.
Seven Tips to a Job-Winning Interview
These days, interviews don't come easily. When you get The Call, make the most of your time -- and go for it!
Your Interview Questions Are a Serious Matter
Of course interviews are mainly about you answering the questions they put to you, but at the end of your allotted interview time, the questions that really matter most are yours. You should hope to hear the interviewer ask you:
Hey, You Cant Ask Me That! (How to Respond to Inappropriate Job Interview Questions)
I received the following questions from a visitor to my website recently: "How should I respond to inappropriate questions such as: (1) Do you have a stable home life? (2) Tell me about your personal situation. Are these inappropriate questions? It has been so long since I interviewed for a job, your suggestions about the most helpful responses would be appreciated!"
Those are, indeed, inappropriate questions that should NOT be asked at an interview.
Various federal, state, and local laws regulate the questions a prospective employer can ask you. An employer's questions - on the job application, in the interview, or during the testing process - must be related to the job for which you are applying.
That does not mean, however, that you will never be asked inappropriate questions. Some companies have poor HR support, some interviewers are untrained and unaware of inappropriate or illegal questions, and some even ask them knowing they should not.
You won't have much chance of getting the job if you respond to such questions by saying, "Hey, that's an inappropriate question. You can't ask me that!"
So you have a few options. First, you can answer the question. Even if it's inappropriate to ask, there's nothing that says you can't answer it. If you choose to do so, realize that you are giving information that is not job-related. You could harm your chances by giving the "wrong" answer.
Or you could respond with something like, "How would my answer to that question directly relate to my ability to perform in this position?" If you keep your tone non-confrontational, courteous and upbeat, they may realize they've goofed by asking such a question without getting upset at you for pointing out their mistake. Depending on how they respond, you may feel more comfortable answering.
The best strategy, I believe, is to figure out and address their TRUE CONCERN. When they ask something like, "Do you have a stable personal life?" they may be trying to protect themselves from a bad situation that they've had to deal with in the past (former employee whose personal problems interfered with his/her ability to do the job). So what they really want to know is, will YOU be a reliable employee who can be counted upon to show up and do your job effectively, regardless of any personal problems you may have.
So without directly answering their question, try to address their underlying concern. In this instance you might say, "My career is very important to me. I'm fully committed to performing at my highest level at all times, and don't allow any kind of distractions to interfere with that. I'll deliver the results you're looking for."
If you're not sure what their true concern is, ask something like "Could you please rephrase or elaborate on your question? I want to make sure I address your concern."
Please realize that many interviewers are untrained and therefore unaware that a question they might ask to break the ice -- such as "Do you have any kids?" -- is inappropriate. Yes, this question may be an attempt to determine if you have child-care issues that could interfere with your job... but it's MORE likely that the interviewer is innocently trying to find something he/she has in common with you.
In the end, it's basically a judgment call on your part. If you feel the interviewer has no legitimate reason to ask an inappropriate question, and you do not want to answer it, say "I'm sorry, but I don't see how that has any relevance to my ability to do this job." You might run the risk of losing the job, but if your gut instinct is telling you there's something amiss, you wouldn't want to work for that person anyway.
Here's a list of some questions -- the wrong way, and the right way, to obtain legitimate information:
Inappropriate: Are you a U.S. citizen?OK: Are you authorized to work in the United States?
Inappropriate: How old are you?OK: Are you over the age of 18?
Inappropriate: What's your marital status? Do you have children?OK: Would you be able and willing to work overtime as necessary?
Inappropriate: How much do you weigh? Do you have any disabilities?OK: Are you able to perform the physical duties required in this job, with or without reasonable accommodations?
Inappropriate: Have you ever been arrested? OK: Have you ever been convicted of _____? (The crime should be reasonably related to the performance of the job in question.)
I Quit!
More and more people are calling it quits to successful careers to create some personal leisure time or to pursue another career. This trend is becoming more popular and common. Years ago few people voluntarily quit a job midway through their careers, no matter how unhappy they were. It was not acceptable to leave one job without having another job to go to. There was a stigma present that you were damaged goods if you did so.
The Role of a Medical Assistant in a Modern Medical Practice
Many physicians are unsure of what tasks are appropriate to assign to a Medical Assistant. It is important to remember Medical Assistants are not licensed to make independent medical assessments or give advice. Although many Medical Assistants may have advanced training in certain clinical areas it is ultimately the responsibility of the supervising physician or other licensed health care provider to assure that their staff and Medical Assistants working in the office are performing duties in compliance with all governing laws.
|
