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Now I know what you are thinking…“All mystery shopping websites are scams that take your money for a useless list”.
You are right to be skeptical; there are a lot of phony websites out there offering tips on “how to get started with mystery shopping”. Almost 100% of them are scams. Ignore them, don’t go to their websites, don’t click on their links, and please don’t give them any money! Legitimate mystery shopping companies will not ask for your money… ever.
The organization you need to be aware of is MSPA or The Mystery Shopping Providers Association.
If a mystery shopping company is not part of the MSPA, it is almost surely a scam!
The MSPA website offers a lot of helpful information about getting started in mystery shopping, as well as links to many major mystery shopping websites. They also offer a certification process that is done in person that supposedly gives you the skills neccessary to be a myster shopper. You do not need the certification in order to be a mystery shopper. however, they do say that getting certified may get you priority assignments. I would definitely recommend against
the certification until you get your feet wet and decide that you want to get more serious with it.
The more useful section of the MSPA website is the list member companies. This is a good place to start looking for Myster Shopping
company in your area that is looking to hire shoppers. Spend some time and research several of the companies. Eventually you will find one that is right for you.
The company that I have personal experience with is Service Intelligence.
Signing up with Service Intelligence is very much like a job application, which makes sense. If you are going to be representing this company, they need to make sure you aren’t going to ruin their reputation. After you apply and are accepted as mystery shopper, you receive a shopper ID and password to log into the website. Now you get to start the process of choosing your jobs. Once you find a job that interests you, you must begin the certification process for that job. You only need to do this once, and there are usually many jobs per month from the same company at different locations that you can do. The certification usually consists of list of questions confirming that you have never worked for the company you are mystery shopping, as well as a walkthrough of the mystery shop detailing exactly what you are looking for, as well as a quiz at the end that you must pass. The whole process is relatively painless and usually takes around 30 minutes.
A typical assignment would entail traveling to a fast food restaurant and parking. Then you would walk around the parking lot checking for trash or debris. Then you would go inside and order a combo meal and time how long it takes for you to receive your order. Then you would eat your food and make note of the quality, and finally check the restrooms on your way out to make sure they
are sanitary.
Of course the jobs would vary greatly depending on what kind of store you were shopping, but if you plan well, you could easily go out to lunch or get services that you would normally pay for, but get reimbursed and get paid on top of it!.
Typically the pay for jobs is around 5-15 dollars for short jobs, more if it is time intensive or requires traveling. If you are required to purchase something on your shop, you are reimbursed for your expenses when you get paid. You get paid electronically at the end of the month following the month you complete your jobs.
At the end of the day, you will definitely not get rich mystery shopping. But for those of us that are pinching pennies, it can definitely be helpful to get reimbursed and paid for food and services that you would have paid for anyway
Does anyone have a myster shopping success story to share? Hit the “Contact” page and send me an email. I would love to hear about it and possibly post it to the site.
Good Luck!
offering tips on “how to get started with mystery shopping”. Almost 100% of them are scams. Ignore them, don’t go to their websites, don’t click on their links, and please don’t give them any money! Legitimate mystery shopping companies will not ask for your money… ever.
The organization you need to be aware of is MSPA or The Mystery Shopping Providers Association.
If a mystery shopping company is not part of the MSPA, it is almost surely a scam!
The MSPA website offers a lot of helpful information about getting started in mystery shopping, as well as links to many major mystery shopping websites. They also offer a certification process that is done in person that supposedly gives you the skills neccessary to be a myster shopper. You do not need the certification in order to be a mystery shopper. however, they do say that getting certified may get you priority assignments. I would definitely recommend against
the certification until you get your feet wet and decide that you want to get more serious with it.
The more useful section of the MSPA website is the list member companies. This is a good place to start looking for Myster Shopping
company in your area that is looking to hire shoppers. Spend some time and research several of the companies. Eventually you will find one that is right for you.
The company that I have personal experience with is Service Intelligence.
Signing up with Service Intelligence is very much like a job application, which makes sense. If you are going to be representing this company, they need to make sure you aren’t going to ruin their reputation. After you apply and are accepted as mystery shopper, you receive a shopper ID and password to log into the website. Now you get to start the process of choosing your jobs. Once you find a job that interests you, you must begin the certification process for that job. You only need to do this once, and there are usually many jobs per month from the same company at different locations that you can do. The certification usually consists of list of questions confirming that you have never worked for the company you are mystery shopping, as well as a walkthrough of the mystery shop detailing exactly what you are looking for, as well as a quiz at the end that you must pass. The whole process is relatively painless and usually takes around 30 minutes.
A typical assignment would entail traveling to a fast food restaurant and parking. Then you would walk around the parking lot checking for trash or debris. Then you would go inside and order a combo meal and time how long it takes for you to receive your order. Then you would eat your food and make note of the quality, and finally check the restrooms on your way out to make sure they
are sanitary.
Of course the jobs would vary greatly depending on what kind of store you were shopping, but if you plan well, you could easily go out to lunch or get services that you would normally pay for, but get reimbursed and get paid on top of it!.
Typically the pay for jobs is around 5-15 dollars for short jobs, more if it is time intensive or requires traveling. If you are required to purchase something on your shop, you are reimbursed for your expenses when you get paid. You get paid electronically at the end of the month following the month you complete your jobs.
At the end of the day, you will definitely not get rich mystery shopping. But for those of us that are pinching pennies, it can definitely be helpful to get reimbursed and paid for food and services that you would have paid for anyway
Does anyone have a myster shopping success story to share? Hit the “Contact” page and send me an email. I would love to hear about it and possibly post it to the site.
Good Luck!
Stumble it!
Another great mystery shopping resource is volition.com. It also has resources for the whole paid-email thing (my attention span is too short when it’s such a fraction of a penny) and rewards sites like MyPoints. But there are forums where mystery shopping companies (so far, I’ve only experienced legit ones) post shops. Excellent source of info and, most importantly, FREE source of non-scam info
Good advice here — the main thing to remember is NEVER pay to “join” a mystery shopping company. They should pay you. There are a lot of fake companies trying to scam people who want to shop. You should also never cash checks or do any kind of fund transfers with a company claiming it’s part of a mystery shop. This is almost always a scam and I have heard of people seriously being out thousands of dollars for trusting someone they shouldn’t have.
Did everyone see the good news this week? The US Federal Trade Commission ruled against a group of mystery shopping scammers in the amount of around $20 million this week. Great work to everyone creating awareness of the scams and the mystery shopping companies that are working with authorities to find others running these scams.