Mystery shopping / secret shopper jobs pay you to shop. Does that sound too good to be true? Read more to know if these are legitimate jobs or scams.
Getting paid to shop or to buy a certain brand? How nice that would be! Seems like a dream job but if you are a mystery shopper, this is exactly what you will be paid to do.
What is Mystery Shopping?
Mystery shopping is a form of market research, where companies evaluate the quality of its own product or service through certain people trained to make observations about the same.
Many companies today hire people who are also their target customers to use their products or services and evaluate the same. By doing this, the company gets a fairly unbiased consumer feedback which helps them correct setbacks if any, and improve their service or products.
In India, the mystery shopping business is in its infancy but quickly picking up pace. Mystery shopping is an effective way to check service standards and employee integrity.
Is it Legit or Scam?
Many companies have a database of secret shoppers, along with online training system and a test thereafter, which will decide if you can be a mystery shopper for a company or not.
Every company will require the mystery shopper to audit and evaluate its product or service on different parameters. They will be asked to visit a store or an outlet and try out the service or product, observe various aspects and accordingly fill and submit a questionnaire on the basis of the visit, provided by the company.
The questionnaire may include many minute details and the mystery shopper is expected to answer each one of them fairly. After the questionnaire is submitted, the company compensates the secret shopper accordingly.
Things to Watch Out for as a Mystery Shopper
Summary
Mystery Shopping/Secret Shopper Jobs allows companies to audit their own products or services. You will be trained by the companies who hire you and compensated on submission of the evaluation. Whoever said you can’t bake the cake and eat it too! Mystery Shopping/Secret Shopper Jobs lets you do that!