Mystery shopping tips:
1. Mystery shopping is a market research. A mystery shopper provider is a market research company that hires independent contractors (could be you) to do shopping to evaluate the quality of products and services and compliance with image, specifications, etc. of franchised stores and distributors.
2. Mystery Shopping is a legitimate real job and it must be approached as such in order to make money. If you are honest, dependable and have the desire to make money doing mystery shopping , you can make money. You will most likely be an independent contractor for mystery shopper providers, so you determine how many hours you want to work, what jobs you want to accept and how much money you charge for your service.
3. You might not be required to have a 4 year college degree to be a mystery shopping agent, but you will most likely be required to have good communication skills both written and oral, ability to observe details while doing mystery shopping and recall your observations later and ability to fully express your observations in a clear, concise manner with objectivity in a written report. Also, you must be able to follow precise directions, and have minimal basic computer skills because most of your communications with the contracting company and reports will be through the computer. Above all you must be reliable and honest. If you always wanted to be an actor then this is the ideal job for you as there will be a variety of fun roles to play as a mystery shopper.
4. Legitimate real mystery shopping providers will never ask you to pay a fee to register with them or to receive a job. If any mystery shopping provider company asks you to pay money before you can start receiving any assignments from them then the chances are that they are not real and that they try to scam you. (Just think logically, you don't pay for a job interview and no legit company charge you for resume processing fee or anything like that.)
5. Don't be discouraged if you don't get as many assignments as you hoped in the beginning. Remember that even though mystery shopping is a real legit job but assignments may not be available as often and frequent as you hoped. Mystery Shopping is like any other job in that the more experience you have the better the job opportunities.
6. You may be tempted by and jump right in head first with unsolicited email's or newspaper ads that claim you can earn a living as a mystery shopper by dining at elegant restaurants, shopping at pricey stores, or checking into luxurious hotels, but, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's’consumer protection agency, marketers who promise lucrative jobs as mystery shoppers often do not deliver bona fide opportunities. (And they ask for a sign up fee or some other charges....Scammers!!!)