Mystery shopping

— anyone tried it?

Have done a little research on the web, but mostly found stuff related to US- or UK-based companies. Now I see an ad in the local paper recruiting people for www.customerperceptions.ie (offshoot of a larger UK organisation, I think)

So — anyone tried it? Is it worth the bother? (as a flexible, fit-it-around-your-other-commitments kind of thing...)

I woulnt mind trying but must admit I find something "sneaky" about the concept. I think employers would be better off spending the money on training and development of their staff rather than trying to " catch them out" through mystery shopper programmes.

ajapale

Hi Ajapale - I think you are jumping to conclusions about how the results are used. In my experience, the results aren't used to choose which staff to fire/bonus/promote - they are used to drive the next round of training/development by identifying particular areas of weakness.

Ajapale (at the sight of my "mystery-shopper" wife approaching...?)

rainyday is right here — as ever... :rolleyes . From what I can gather from reading the various bumpf — plus "user experiences" at a forum like [broken link removed] — the emphasis is on identifying "structural/strategic" strengths/weaknesses, not witch-hunting individual staff members. In fact, the guidelines for most of the companies involved very emphatically stress the need for anonymity in the whole process — both the reviewer's and that of the client's staff.

Which is not to say that I haven't encountered some pretty appalling "point-of-sale" service over the years — just check out my recent posts in the "Letting off steam" forum! But I'd rather the relevant regional/store manager learned a constructive lesson — through the company's expensively bought-in "Quality control" procedures — than see an incompetent individual fired (if I wanted the latter, I'd just look for the manager, get their name and put the complaint in writing, with a "CC" to Head Office...!) The point of the "mystery shopper" thing — as far as I can see — is to give credit where it's due, and not, where it's not... i.e. it can be a positive thing just as much as a negative one.

So anyways — has anyone any experience of actually doing this kind of work, in an "Irish context"...? [Jeez, maybe there's a niche in the market here...!]

Dr. M.

Eye contact.

I worked for a financial institution. The mystery shopper arrived when I had a new cashier with one weeks experience and another on secondment. My result "appaling" service. Totally unfair under the circumstances but no quarter or allowance was given. This visit remains on file to date.

Re: Eye contact.

That sounds like an unlucky draw, in fairness...
Presumably, if the report was held on file, you also got to place on file some kind of written response, pointing out the extenuating circumstances?

nixers.com

nixers.com have advertising for mystery shoppers in various counties around ireland at the moment . . .try it

Re: nixers.com

Cheers, trixie.
Have you ever tried this lark?

tempted

but am too young (just) according to ad Doc, they wanted 35-60yr olds according to ad I saw. There's not much left in this life I'm too young for - so am quite enjoying that.

Re: tempted

Just two quick points:

There are a lot of "mystery shopping" scams out there. Do a google search for "mystery shopping" and scams.

These schemes have been abused in the past. Do a google groups search for "mystery shopper program" or "secret shopper program". The US postal service have been accused of using these programmes to ensure that additional services are sold at the counter.

I first came accross mystery shopping in the Banks in the early 1990's they were simply that staff were attempting to "cross sell" to customers.

I seems like a good idea if it is used with integrity and that the orgainsers adhere to a code of practice.

Incidently do staff have to be informed that they may become the "target" of a paid mystery shopper?

ajapale

Dr. M,

Talk to any of the Market research companies,

e.g. Lansdosne, IMS, Data directions etc.,

They all offer Mystery Shopping as a service
D

Did it!!!

Hi

I tried it before. Found it to be a bit more hassel than it was worth. They would gie u an assignment, I was asked to go to clarks shoes, and buy a pair of shoes for €40. I had to pay for these shoes myself. I then had to evaluate the experience and phone in my results within twelve hours.
The result:
They paid me €25.00.
I found it took up a lot of time up, and made me buy a pair of shoes that I didn't need!

Re: Did it!!!

Hi TRIER,

Which company was that with? Most of the UK ones I've been able to find anything out on reimburse you if there's a purchase involved...

Dr. M.

Re: Did it!!!

If they reimburse you, do you get to keep the goods?

If they don't, can you return the goods for refund?

Yes...I've done it several times. There are many many reputable companies looking for Mystery shopping and other field marketing staff. It can be good fun. A good gig e.g. would be 'product influencing' in e.g. Brown Thomas - or sampling product in pubs. The hours are extremely flexible - pretty much chose when/where you want to work. If you are really a grafter - you could get €100 per day. Weekends pay more.

loriel said:

Yes...I've done it several times. There are many many reputable companies looking for Mystery shopping and other field marketing staff.

Click to expand...

Can you recommend any of these reputable companies in particular?

I have been involved in Mystery Shopping with Grass Roots Research and GapBuster. I enjoyed it and it's easy money.

Thanks Kazbah

Hi

I Mystery Shopped with a company called MRC operating out of Dublin.

I had a great time with them.

Basically, job was going into branches of large chain stores, critiquing the tidiness, displays, time to get served, testing salepersons' knowledge of products, hanging around the items which are a shoplifters dream (razors apparently) testing how quickly a staff member will begin to watch you (this last one always bothered me). In any cases where I had to buy an item (admittedly with my own money) it was just to keep it for an hour or so and then return it for a refund to test the companies' returns policy.

The most I got paid, if memory serves me correctly as my last Shop was in 2004, was €50 per visit. I was paid mileage, but this was negligible. The other two jobs I did were paid at €25 and €15.

Where I live there were several branches of each of the three chain stores I was asked to visit, so I did each one in rotation and found that I was called back regularly to revisit. The jobs themselves were quite quick, the main thing was to read the instructions and make notes of the things you had to look for. On one job I had to record the time of every single task, ie time entering shop, time to order product at counter, time to pay, time to wait for product to be presented, time leaving.
In some of the visits the instructions were quite detailed, so I had to have little hints written on my palm to remind myself of everything. Sometimes, the job required a visit on two consecutive days. At times, I felt that I was quite obviously a Mystery Shopper, but with practice I think I got quite good at browsing and observing.

I think if you prepare yourself well for your visits you will be able to complete the questionnaires with ease.

Re: tempted

ajapale said:

Incidently do staff have to be informed that they may become the "target" of a paid mystery shopper?

ajapale

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the have to be informed but while in school and college I worked for my father in his garage. When a new super-duper petrol was introduced we all had to go and do a training course (lasted an hour or two) to learn about the product and how to talk to customers about it and address any queries they might have. We were told then that there would be people visiting over the next few months to make sure everyone was promoting the product properly. We did indeed get a visit from a mystery shopper but as it happened to be the same woman who'd done part of the training course it wasn't that much of a mystery. Remember my sister getting a fiver from her for answering all the questions correctly!