5 Reasons to be a Mystery Shopper
Working as a Mystery Shopper can be a fun and rewarding experience, especially with a mystery shopping company that values its field team. Here at ABa, we choose to work differently with our Mystery Shoppers: we take pride in building long-lasting relationships.
As an ABa Mystery Shopper, you are hand-picked, well-briefed, insightful, and fully equipped every time you go out into the field. We see you as part of our family, not as a faceless name in a database. We invest in you and your education of our clients’ requirements, standards, policies and culture, and we run regular meetings to engage, educate and gain unique face to face feedback from you.
By ensuring that you are the best Mystery Shopper you can possibly be, we ensure that the information we get is as precise, relevant, and actionable as possible for our clients.
What Is a Mystery Shopper in a Nutshell?
Understanding what mystery shopping is all about will help you decide whether it’s the job for you or not. Simply put, a mystery shopper, also referred to as a secret shopper, is a person engaged by companies or third-party mystery shopping agencies to visit a business and act like a regular customer. The ultimate goal is to get an objective and unbiased assessment of the business by evaluating the quality of service, the customer experience, and other important aspects from a customer's perspective.
Becoming a mystery shopper can have several benefits and can be interesting and rewarding. Here are our top 5 reasons to become a Mystery Shopper.
The Benefits of Working as a Mystery Shopper
1. Generating Extra Income
People often ask if mystery shopping pays well. And the truth is, a lot of it comes down to your availability to accept assignments. Our mystery shopping assessments offer both monetary compensation and reimbursements for products and services (as appropriate). Through savvy planning and effective diary management, you are in control of your earning potential.
We have a range of different Mystery Shoppers registered with us – some choosing to work full time (and typically working with several different Mystery Shopping providers), and some choosing to fit their assignments around existing commitments as a part time role or as an additional income stream.
Sticking to deadlines, providing full detailed commentary and accurate scoring is a surefire way to improve your reputation as a core member of the Mystery Shopping team at ABa and increase the likelihood of being offered more work.
2. Flexible Schedule
One of the key benefits of mystery shopping jobs is the great flexibility they provide. You are in control of your schedule, choosing assignments that fit your availability. This makes it ideal for any individual looking for a good work-life balance.
3. Gaining Insight into Different Industries
Becoming a Mystery Shopper will allow you to get to experience a wide range of industries, from retail and hospitality to financial services and automotive. You'll have the opportunity to gain insights into different business operations and customer interactions. You'll never get bored with no two days being the same. It can be a fascinating way to learn about diverse industries and how they operate from a customer's perspective.
4. Enhancing Your Own Skills
A significant advantage of mystery shopping is the opportunity to develop valuable skills and boost your CV.
Mystery shopping requires keen attention to detail and the ability to observe, analyse situations objectively, and act and play the part of a genuine customer. This can enhance your observational and analytical skills, which are valuable in many aspects of life. As a mystery shopper, you'll develop a critical eye for evaluating customer service, product quality, and overall business performance.
But the golden rule of mystery shopping is that no-one should be able to identify you, so you will develop and learn a reasonable level of acting skills in order to be discreet and play the part of a genuine customer.
5. Contributing to Quality Assurance
Mystery shopping plays a crucial role in quality assurance for businesses. By providing objective and detailed feedback, mystery shoppers help companies maintain high standards and identify areas that need improvement. This contributes to a cycle of continuous improvement, ensuring that businesses stay competitive, and customer focused.
More so than ever, regulatory organisations are operating to protect consumers in different retail sectors and Mystery Shopping is widely used in all of them to support these businesses in their governance. By becoming a Mystery Shopper, you will be helping to prevent customers from experiencing poor customer outcomes and sales practices, which can be detrimental to the individual – you can make a real difference!
The Ultimate Goal of Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping provides an opportunity to contribute to the improvement of the overall customer experience. In short, by becoming a mystery shopper, you can help make the world a better place.
Here at ABa, we achieve a step change in service one assessment at a time, knowing that each improvement, each development, and every act of kindness has a positive impact on the lives it touches. As a mystery shopper, you will provide valuable feedback to businesses about the quality of service they deliver. This feedback helps companies identify areas for improvement to help refine their customer service to provide the best possible customer experience for genuine customers.