Dear OZbargain
I'll try my best to keep up but please feel free to ask me anything.
I'm a mystery shopper and completed over 5,000 visits during the course of my career.
Covered all sorts of visits… I'll try to keep the thread live for 72 hrs.
Nothing of a personal nature thanks!
What was your average hourly rate for that 2.5k/month?
Just under $25 per hour. I'm including the time spent at home compiling the surveys too.
Can you tell a little bit about your job, your role/responsibility? How you get this job? How it is paid weekly (if you mind to share)?
"Mystery shopper", this is the first time I heard this. Is that suitable for kids, or stay-at-home parent?
Performing an assessment of the service experience at the physical retail point of sale as a potential / returning customer.
Paid monthly usually at the end of the audit cycle.
I got the job through a registration process as earlier.
Checking
- Cleanliness of the store
- Staff Knowledge of Product
- Staff attempting to Up / Cross Sell
- Staff member handling of an objection
- Staff member recommending a certain brand of product e.g. Google Pixel vs Apple iPhone
- Staff member offering a refreshment - coffee - tea at a car delearship.
- Pricing.
Plenty of SAHPs do this- I was different as i was not a SAHPs and worked full time. This opened up jobs for me that SAHM couldn't do - apologies about the gender diversity!
Sorry, stupid questions.
SAHP - do you mean stay at home parent?
SAHM - stay at home mother?
You mean most of the jobs available for male?
No worries - this is an AMA and not stupid questions :)
SAHP - do you mean stay at home parent? Yes
SAHM - stay at home mother?Yes
No, most of the jobs were not gender specific unless we're talking about the Auto ones or fashion.
I've been into a bra shop as a male. (shopping for a gift)
There is a much higher number of women shoppers than male, which gave me an edge.
Can you explain how you tested the handling of an objection? Did you have to be rude?
Be an indecisive douche
Sounds like you've had a front row seat to the fall of retail shopping.
If you had a retail business, what would you do to compete against online shopping and the fall of retail?
Pick a business where people can come back and the margins are not skinny.
A good servo can make a fortune - and I am thinking of putting my own skin in this game.
Juice bars / Coffee places
I recon the fish and chip shop on the beach did at least $100k in trade on Easter. Everyone ordering 4-6 fish packs $100. No shortage of people. Take away rent stock and staff wages and it’s $50k in ur pocket.
Agree with you, there are great opportunities for an old school BBQ Chicken Shop / Fish shop.
I saw heaps of these opportunities in new housing estates like Jordan springs / and the ponz
Can you stop giving away trade secrets?
How many mystery shopping website are you registered in? Can you recommend me some interesting ones? I'm asian, work fulltime, don't drive and don't dress up. Thanks!
Do they have higher ranked jobs that they do not release to new shoppers?
Can you share how you do reports/describe situations? I've got a previous 60% score on contents but I'm not sure what is expected as we don't get comments back.
I was registered with about 10 agencies - half of them disclosed above.
You may be interested in maybe the Google client jobs - going into JB Hifis and checking for Pixel / Chrome Cast / Home device knowledge.
I'm a 1st generation Aussie with English spoken at home which may have been a slight advantage.. The best thing is to make sure that your comments reflect the survey response.
I.e. don't say that you were served within 30 seconds on a tick box - and then comlpain about a wait in the commentary. Good spelling and grammar is a must.
In situations where the mystery shop is a textbook perfect shopand there is really nothing to complain about. What would you say?
For example, KFC, got ample parking, walked in with no one in queue, ordered, efficient transaction with a smile, offered receipt, picked up order under one minute with no fault in order.
Does the agencies expect anything more in situations like this?
No, you're not there to find a problem - you're there to check. So I would report as-is. The reality is, that there usually is something amiss.
Full scores are possible and the store staff are incentivised for achieving such results.
@mousie: Do you record conversations when you do a shop to make sure you don't miss anything?
Can you explain your flow so I can learn to be a better/more efficient shopper? I quite like being one as a fun job on weekends.
Good luck!
@mousie: Thanks so much your tips are very helpful.
Will have a look at your agencies above tonight. None of my existing ones are on there lol.
@codinghelloworld: Some of us actually do this - I personally didn't as it's a dead give away. I didn't blow my cover afaik.
@codinghelloworld: i thought about doing that, but that's super weird. I thought about those hidden cameras in bags before but decided it was not worth it for $10 job…
@angusngon9: Couple of months ago I subscribed to a Youtuber who visited multiple places in Asia, stay in accommodations and review the medium to top hotels.
Initially he paid for everything, camera, hotels, etc… but took videos of all the place he stayed. But now his channel got about at least 7k USD per month.
Theoretically, it is different with mystery shopper. But if we review auto or hotels, it is worth to invest in gopro and upload to youtube, the more subscribers, the more payment from youtube, and maybe, the agencies pay you more to review.
Just my opinion :)
@codinghelloworld: if I get to review hotels around the world that would be interesting/ worth investing but for shops at bunnings/furniture shop a go pro would scream mystery shopper.
@angusngon9: I get to review 7 hotels at one holiday overseas in Asia for over 30 days. Stayed for 1 night and at the end of the stay show my "auditor letter" and didn't have to pay a cent which includes breakfast (some are very nice, i must say)
@angusngon9: Calculate how many of those $10 jobs you'll be assigned in the future to determine if it's worth it. Also, check ebay for cheaper prices on devices.
When Starbucks were being MysteryShop'd, the agency originally offered up thermometers and scales to their mystery shoppers. Then the agency took them back a few years later and wanted shoppers to supply their own equipment. I splurged about $40 for the equipment (it was a rush to purchase them and no time to shop on ebay) and scored so many assignments because other shoppers weren't prepared to outlay the cash. I was earning a $20 payment on a $4 spend and, occasionally, getting an extra $5-10 for last-minute assignments. I did this for YEARS, visiting 4-8 stores every month.
@eyeballz2770: You've got it in one eyeballs. I was very early to adopt a smart phone and iPad, and various things like clicky counters.
An IR thermometer would be useful for food audits now.
What is a mystery shopper?
mystery shopper
noun
a person employed to visit a shop or restaurant incognito in order to assess the quality of the goods or services.
Anonymous shopper would be a better term for it.
Mystery shopping sounds like a euphemism for stealing.
Were you only a retail mystery shopper or did you also do mystery experience and travel ones?
Yes, I did travel including hotels, car hire, restauraunts and casinos.
So all of the cost is covered by the agencies who hire you?
Yes - I have been paid to check the Sovereign room in The Star ..
I asked because the mrs used to get freebies, including a paid holiday to Bali for a wellness retreat, when she had a travel-turned-mummy blog and was active on instagram. She struggled with it ethically towards the end when there was more pressure to recommend products/services that she hadn't even tried and we felt less and less comfortable with posting photos of our children.
What you did sounds better: all the perks while still being able to maintain your anonymity.
Yes, I had a great time and got involved with the HMAA organisation and did a lot of work with hotels on their scoring programme. They expect a lot of detail, but I really enjoyed the life experience.
@mousie: How much control do these agencies have over your mystery shop. Can you bring a friend / family on these trips or must they be solo? Or do they give you a budget to spend as you please for a review? What about if it's a "simpler" mystery shop like reviewing KFC?
@ChronoSphinx: I have brought mates along all the time - and spouses
For some gigs like ZONE bowling (it used to be AMF) you can't really go bowling by yourself lol.
I registered on two websites previously and on the Snooper app. I found the payouts really low for the time and effort that went into doing the shop. The only one I did was an Aldi one that looked simple enough in the description which said i would need to take a photo of an item on display in the payment register line. Turns out I had to take a photo of the item in ALL the register lines (7 of them) and write a short description. After doing about 3 lines the Aldi staff started noticing and got all suspicious, asked me what I was doing, wanted proof I was conducting a mystery shop etc.
Took me almost 20 minutes to do the whole thing, all for $5 :(
I'd be happy to do something that paid like $80 for an hours worth of effort. But I guess only Automotive ones pay that well. Will check out the sites you mentioned in the above comments. Thanks!
Some of the $2 agencies are terrible. Avoid!
Also be aware that some of these Fiver / airtasker apps, a mystery shopper may be subcontracting you to do their job for them that they're getting paid up to $30 for. So the bigger ones are better if they have a contact centre.
The one that annoys me the most is the surveys from Coles and Coles Express. You get 50 Flybuys points to complete a survey. I use to get paid up to $30 and get free petrol. I delete the surveys. They're get mystery shops essentially for free
These are a big fat waste of time.
and write a short description. After doing about 3 lines the Aldi staff started noticing and got all suspicious,
Never do the writing/report while on the job, do it at home.
If you got bad short term memory, lack of social skills, unable to act without getting nervous etc, you might struggle.
Na they got suspicious because I was taking photos. I couldn't do it discreetly enough as I had to get in the register line to take the photo for each line.
Did you put your phone on silent? ie. no camera sound
@Ughhh: There is are a few apps which allow Android phones to use the camera without the fake shutter noise / disabling flash.
@Ughhh: No sounds for the camera… its just the act of going in each register line without making a purchase that made them suspicious. I was lucky to be noticed only after the 3rd attempt.
@0FoxGiven: I done something like it before, I just pretended I was looking for someone behind the register, phone screen was still in vision without actually staring at my phone.
Also, use those phone wallets.
Snooper is the new low. It's like doing an entire store audit for $3 in some cases. They have managed to get some big contracts as well. These aren't anonymous either, you declare that you are doing the audit. I wonder if their clients are aware of their business model…
Ye and I cant even withdraw my hard earned $5 because they have a minimum paypout limit of $20. FFS
Sounds like Sham contracting to me!
I did this for a while, but the pay was crap and never got anything too interesting. Would have been happy to continue on if I could do things like flight and hotel evaluation, but those opportunities never came up. The food tasks got a bit old and I didn't like the idea of dressing up and doing the servo audits, so gave up on it all.
The reality is that you don't get to do the flight and the hotel audits without having to do the more menial tasks. Not for everyone I guess.
My local agency was offering trained temp positions auditing 7/11 stored at $28 per audit.
Sounds like the realise group
Obviously you need to be mysterious but what happens when the store notices you?
Aside from sudden changes and offers, does this affect your contract, pay, etc?
Disclosure is the best to the Agency - they may need to get the shop to be reattended. You will get paid a failed visit fee if outside of your control.
I have been recognised by friends and acquaintainces that I knew from before and wanted to be social..
Nothing !! I've been mystery shopped when I worked for JB It's not like you're going to call their employer and tell them lol
Were you ever followed by security who were suspect of your shopping habits?
Which gig did you hate the most, and why?
Did you put MS’ing on your resume and receive feedback for it; either positive or negative?
Yes I have been followed by Security and asked to leave a shop after performing linear shelf space checks at a supermarket.
I hated mystery shopping department of housing.. Absolutely terrible enquiries.. Poor pay and a long wait.
I don't put M/S on my resume as it dillutes from my full time role.
Cheers.
Ugh having to wait for a job you know will take at least half an hour but probably more like a whole hour sucks, for the pay.
Makes sense
Why are you now an "Ex-Mystery Shopper"?
Did you retire from the work force entirely, or just from mystery shopping?
Personal reasons not related to the Mystery shopping work itself.
Still work FT
Would you go back to it if circumstances changed? Or would the routine of re-establishing your reputation as a high performer (getting the car and travel gigs) be to much effort?
Happy with my change in circumstances so I don't need to flog myself as much. The work was varied and fun in my view.
Do you get to keep the items you bought (like clothing/ electronics)? or do you have to return them?
Depends on the assignment. Most of the time you get to keep it!
I personally hate the purchase and return jobs . . they are a waste of effort for everyone.
Sound great! follow-on, so what cool (valuable) item have you been allowed to keep?
edit 1: Oh and example, your assignemnt is to bunnings, do they stipulate a max amount you can buy in the store or is it a specific product?
I won $7k once playing the pokies on a mystery shop with the casinos money.
Other than that - doing 30x Aldi's at $20 reimbursement at a time- stopped me from having to use my own money for groceries.
Every job is different, some will have a specific purchase, otherwise will be a float.
Aldi's at $20 reimbursement at a time
Just wondering which ms company pays $20 reimbursement? I'd like to work for them.
The only company that I know that shops Aldi pays $12 + $5 reimbursement.
Do you have to pay for items from your pocket? Or do you get some kind of a voucher or card that you get to use?
Pay out of your pocket. Keep the receipt and scan back to get paid with the assignment fee.
i mystery shop at the strippers
That’s a lie. Every man and his dog knows your mug.
They let dogs into strippers now. Boss.
Giggity
Is English really a must? What if you were sent to an Asian restaurant? Lol
If the Asian restaurant accepts cash only and doesn't pay tax - they're unlikely to be motivated by improving their 'service experience' through a mystery shop audit.
You couldn't be any less Asian than me lol.
Thank you for this post :). I suffer from fatigue, any specific companies that offer somewhat flexible time frames to get a mystery shop done? My health is sometimes unpredictable shenanigans so I can't always do tasks when I want to. Hence why not working, and on this thread! Haha
And how about older people with not so great English, do you know if that would be a demographic these companies are interested in the mystery shops from?
And how long was it till you got to do flight or holiday kinds of gigs? Out of pure curiosity.
Cheers
Hi Beth, no worries
Good luck to you helthwise
Most of the agencies will give you a few days and up to a week to complete an assignment once it's allocated to you.
Your written skills appear OK, that's more relevant for them. You would be open to any job where you could play the role as a genuine customer.
I was completing flights and hotels after about 18 months. It wasn't my intention to do these assignments, I just wanted a tax break for my new car at the time.
Thanks! A week sounds more doable, so it's the kind of scenario where you accept the job and then have that days-week deadline, or is it more like you go and do the job sometime before a publicised and hope the quota hasn't closed before then?
I sometimes do surveys on purkle for that extra cash, it's not much but a few times a year I'll get enough just to partially pay for groceries.
Oh I'm not talking about myself re: the poor English, that's just some family members.
Hi Beth,
I have unpredictable health issues, too. Pretty much all companies give you at least a couple of days except for RMSA
@ChocolateTown: Hi chocolate, sorry to hear about your health. Thanks for the tip! I'll avoid RMSA then. RMSA is a mystery shopping site too?
One problem is I can't even drive owing to health, so I have to figure out what's the best way to do this. Public transport would surely make it not worth the time, effort and extra costs, unless reimbursed.
@Bargainbeth: I hope I’m not hijacking Mousie’s thread :( please let me know if so…
You wouldn’t get transport reimbursed unless they’re desperate to fill a job, so I think what non-drivers would do is to plan as many shops as you can manage into one big shopping centre outing. I did it for 4 months before I got a car again, but couldn’t use public transport and had to rely on partner on weekend.
You could probably do two clothing, a chemist, a food (lunch), and two quick electronics in one day. Three different companies for all those jobs. $17 + $10 (reimbursed); $20; $17 + $3 (reim); $20 (reim); $20; $20. Totalling $94 (take home) + $13 reimbursed back to you + $20 lunch reimbursed back. You would have to be there the majority of the day and take into consideration how long it would take to write the reports or do the visit. The chemist and the reimbursed clothing store require long time-consuming reports, and the two electronics visits usually take an hour in total if it’s not a super busy time at JB HiFi (if that’s where the shop is).
I seriously doubt a newbie could manage all that and write the reports before 24hr deadline, and the two quick electronics must be completed 8hrs after the visit. But you work your way up to this, and must register with many companies to make it do-able. I was only with one company when I started which was a mistake, also you get sick to death of the same shops.
@ChocolateTown: All good, an answers an answer, I was asking you anyway! Thanks for the detailed reply.
Wow 5 shops will take up the majority of day for visits alone? So you're saying on average 5 off those shop visits would take around 8 hours total? I was imagining each visit would only be a maximum of around 30m each.
And the reports, if it's typical market research style questions with just longer responses, it sounds doable. I used to be a uni student and was used to the essay assignments. But if you still think it would take more than 2 hours to do the reports. 10+ hours deadline of work sounds a like a bit too much to handle. For someone of my shitty health that is, I can only really do spaced out tasks..
@ChocolateTown: I treat the travel time as dead time. It wouldn't be viable to attend via public transport unless you were in the centre anyway for personal reasons.
To be honest I was served quickly in JB Hifi. It depends on how you dress, and wearing a good quality Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph polo shirt etc, I was served quicker at the service points than dressing like a grub.
Two Questions.
Did you find that the more assignments you completed the better jobs you were being offered?
What legitimate claims did you make as expenses on your tax return?
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Hi Yinnaki
1- Yes - I ended up getting almost exlusive access to a lot of jobs because of my hit rate / lack of QA hassles. They do need to provide a rotation around according to their client contract.
I was paying for these anyway!
@SnoozeAndLose: Average