Mystery Shopping Job

Mystery shopping is when you pose as a customer of a store and observe the employees, the premises, and the quality of the goods offered. Most mystery shopping jobs require that you keep your identity to yourself, thus it is a mystery that you are even there. Obviously, if employees knew that you were critiquing them, they would be on their best behavior and be performing for you rather than performing their normal day-to-day routine.
Most companies will provide a scenario for you to use when posing as a customer. For example, if you went to a pet store, then they would tell you that you have a dog that is overweight and you are looking for the appropriate type of food to give to him. Some scenarios are very detailed, others lack detail, and some ask that you come prepared with a scenario that you have imagined yourself. You are usually given a window of time to complete the job. Some jobs will give you a week to complete, while others are more rushed and need to be completed within the next day or two. You are usually given a time to shop and many of these are performed during the daytime hours- perfect for stay-at-home moms.
Each mystery job is different in what they expect from you. I have done a lot of different types of shops such as film development, food, checking promotional materials at stores, department stores and retail shopping, bowling alleys, cellular companies, and pizza delivery. There are lots of different jobs out there that you can do and once you become a more experienced shopper and are known for completing jobs in a timely fashion, then the companies will begin to contact you for more jobs and you will have to do less searching for them.
Mystery shopping saw its start in the 1940s. When it began, it was used primarily in banks and retail stores to assess the integrity of the employees working there. Private investigators would pose as employees in an attempt to discover if any other store employees were stealing or compromising the success of the company.
The term "mystery shopping" was coined in the 40's when it began being used to define the services used by everyday customers that were investigated by these shoppers. Since, it has evolved into an industry that evaluates many different areas of customer satisfaction within several different industries. Today, mystery shoppers use materials that include questionnaires and video and audio equipment to document their experiences. Materials that are far and away more advanced then when mystery shopping began and evaluations were based on the word of the shopper.
As the industry grew into the 80's and 90's it expanded rapidly because of the presence of the Internet. Market research companies began cornering the market in terms of mystery shopping and businesses stopped hiring individuals to evaluate their businesses and instead turned to market research companies for the service. Now, most mystery shoppers can find work online via these market research companies who train, and provide work for their employees. Today mystery shoppers provide customer service information for restaurants, retail stores, fast food chains, banks, gyms, movie theaters and even car dealerships.
There are some instances where market research companies are hired to provide mystery shoppers to evaluate housing services, churches, as well as government-run organizations such as law enforcement facilities, park services and hospitals. Today mystery shopping offers a much broader service to the company in which it investigates than it did years ago. It is used more as an indication of customer service and satisfaction rather than simply a method for policing bad employees. As such, mystery shopping has boomed into a $1.5 billion dollar industry that exists worldwide.
Companies all over the world turn to mystery shoppers to help them evaluate how customers view their business and products. In today's world with so much mystery shopping being done via the Internet, the turn around for assessments and information is quicker and more comprehensive, making mystery shopping an industry that is sure to continue growing.