Mystery shopping is an aspect of market research where you are hired to pretend to be a "real customer" to evaluate products and services you receive. Companies use this information to gauge competition, train new hires, and reward employees. The result is that you get to make extra income just by shopping and giving your opinion!
Mystery shopping can be done anytime and anywhere. Every business gets shopped. Apartment buildings, restaurants, banks, retail stores, movie theatres, self- storage facilities, cell phone providers, daycare providers, car rental companies, postal services, grocery stores, golf ranges, hotels, amusement parks, websites, online retailers, health care providers, and more! As a shopper, you only take the assignments that appeal to you, and if you need a week, month, or even a year off, it's OK. As long as you do good work, there will always be companies that need your opinion.
The Mystery Shopper Training Program is 180 pages with information on what companies expect, how to keep track of your business, tools of the trade, the different types of mystery shops, writing reports, sample forms, breaking the myths, what to do if you get caught, what to do when shops go horribly wrong, how to start your own Mystery Shopping company, scam information, other types of market research, and a list of over 250 legitimate Mystery Shopping Companies, Schedulers, and Resources.
Reviewed by Gisela Dixon for Readers' Favorite December 2018
The Mystery Shopper Training Program: All You Ever Wanted toKnow About the Best Part-Time Job by Bethany Mooradian is a nonfiction business book on how to become a mystery shopper.
Professional mystery shopping or, in other words, getting paid to try out products and services anonymously and then provide feedback as per guidelines, is a fairly new thing in the internet era and this book provides a pretty thorough introduction to it. In this book, Bethany draws upon her own experiences as a professional mystery shopper and through a detailed chapter-by-chapter summary talks about what this term really means, how it works, how one gets paid, answers frequently asked questions, provides handy tips on what is expected and how to make minute observations and fill out forms, how to do audio or video feedback as required, how to file taxes and manage money, how to write reports, and also what to do if one gets caught and the common pitfalls to avoid, among other things.
I really enjoyed reading The Mystery Shopper Training Program and although I had heard of the term before, I learnt a lot by reading this book. Bethany writes in a casual, yet serious way since this is a legitimate way to earn money and also points out how to avoid scams. I also really appreciated the list of websites and the numerous resources listed at the end of the book for anyone who wants to give this a go as a side income or a part-time job. The book lays out the pros and cons of doing this as a job, and can help to determine what areas you may be interested in, and how to pick and choose the assignments that appeal to you, among other tips. This is a useful guide on how to earn money as a mystery shopper.
