What is The Best Way to Get Started

The idea of making money while shopping and dining in your favorite restaurant has appealed you and you have made up your mind to take up a career in mystery shopping. 

You have found out that you are suitable to get mystery shopping jobs wherein you can make extra money in your leisure time while having fun. The question is how to start and get your mystery shopping assignments?

Therefore, you have decided to start a wonderful career where someone pays for your food bill, seeks your opinion and pays for it. However, wait! Do not take a sudden plunge. It is always better to understand the concept of mystery shopping and nitty-gritty of this business thoroughly before you take up any mystery-shopping job. 

The first thing you need to decide is the area and scope of your work. You can decide on your preferences regarding the fields you would like to work and what fields you prefer not to work. 

For example, you can decide that you would like to work only for restaurants or only for retail chains. Secondly, you should find out the actual amount of time you can spare for the mystery shopping assignments.

Thereafter, you should decide on the geographical area you wish to work. Once you have decided on your preferences, you should find out the list of mystery shopping and market research companies in your locality. For this purpose, you can make use of the contacts provided here. To widen your scope of search you can utilize your telephone book or the local library to find out the list of probable mystery shop employers.

Certain companies may require your photograph, so it is better to get a photograph taken. It is not necessary to have a photograph taken by a professional. A simple head shot from an aim and shoot camera at your home or a Polaroid snap would do.

Before creating a resume or writing to the companies, you should analyze your strengths and earmark your strong points that would help you to become a successful mystery shopper. Once you are through with the process you should create a resume and a covering letter, which you need to send to the mystery shopping companies.

Your resume should highlight all your strengths and pervious experience, if any, because it will help you in getting assignments more suited to your profile. The resume should also include your preferences regarding the location, category of shop assignments you would prefer to do, the amount of time you would like to spend in this job per week and the time slots that are suitable for your schedule.

To begin with, even a handwritten letter to a few market research agencies would help. Once you have sent your letter or resume to the market research agencies you should wait patiently for their call. Your first assignment might take some time, but remember patience is the key. If you do not get a call for some time there is no need for repeated or bulk mailing.

Most of the market research companies are nationwide and therefore it is better that you do not limit your selection to the local companies. Mailing your resume to the national companies is helpful because they have a better volume of assignments available at any given point of time.

You should not to contact the clients directly because most of the clients do not offer the assignments directly to the shoppers and they prefer to use the services of the agencies. Moreover, contacting the clients directly can take a toll on your time and effort and there is a possibility that you might give up after not hearing after so many contacts.

The shop assignments are not limited to physically visiting the particular store or the restaurant only. Nowadays, you get similar assignments for evaluating the mail order business or the businesses that home deliver the stuff. A number of e-commerce and other websites are also employing people for taking online surveys to evaluate the services offered by their websites, for which you need to make an online search and submit your application on the net.

When you receive the call from an agency or a client, you should fill the appropriate form and send it back within the stipulated time. You should be professionally dressed and reach in time for the personal meeting if the job entails a personal meeting. During the meeting spell out your strengths and weaknesses and clearly state your preferences regarding category, location and timings of the assignments you would be interested to do. This would help you in the end and save you from possible discomfort in future.

You should be attentive when briefed about the assignment. You should carefully note down all the important points and should not hesitate to ask if you do not understand any point. The new mystery shoppers should go through the questionnaire thoroughly. A second reading is always helpful. Do not hesitate to ask for training or mock session before actually starting your mystery-shopping job.

Before you really embark upon the first mystery shopping assignment, go through the relevant portions of this e-book and study the instructions and guidelines given by your employer. Timely submission and accurate reporting would enhance your chances for getting future assignments.

If you accomplish few initial assignments successfully, you will get repeat assignments. However, in the initial phase you should take all the new assignments as if you are doing your first shop assignment. If you fail to do so, you tend to become complacent, as you grow older in this business. Complacency increases chances of making mistakes and it may affect your growth and earning prospects.

Lastly, it is recommended that you should not pressured by the jobs that are offered to you. You should not hesitate to say no to the assignments that you are not comfortable.

For example, if you avoid alcoholic beverages it would be sane not to take up assignments that require drinking, or you can decide exclude shop assignment at computer or electronics outlets if you are not at ease with the technical terms. 

It is always better to exclude the category you are not comfortable with rather than doing a second rate assignment because such a situation ultimately jeopardizes your growth prospects in the mystery shopping business.