The answer to that question for most mystery shoppers can be summed up with another question, “How much am I getting paid to do the work?” There is, of course, more to an assignment than how long your assignment takes. For instance, if you spend an hour scouring the provider’s job boards to find one assignment, that is an hour that you can a lot to the time you spent on that assignment – time wasted before you’ve even started on the actual job. And then, of course, there is the time it will take you to complete the site visit and prepare the report. So the answer to this question often involves the amount of time required to complete the job. A $10 assignment is simply not worth three hours of work, but a $40 or $50 assignment may very well be worth it.
Time-Wasting Assignments. We’ve all seen them on the job boards, and chances are we all have done or even continue to do time-wasting assignments. Some of the biggest time-wasting assignments include those at stores with multiple departments, such as electronics stores, department stores, and grocery stores. More often than not, an assignment at one of these stores will require you to visit each separate department and interact with the staff in each department. The reports tend to be broken out by department, asking the roughly the same questions for each department. What this equates to is doing multiple “shops” in one assignment.
While this could be a time-saver if you were getting paid to actually complete multiple assignments, more often than not you are getting paid what you would get paid for any other single assignment. The report is lengthier and more detailed, the site visit is lengthier and more detailed, and the pay is about the same. Why do mystery shoppers continue to do these types of assignments?
The Benefit. Most people have needs at these types of stores. From food at the grocery store and clothing or shoes at the department store to batteries, gifts, and even appliances and larger purchases at electronics stores, there are likely things that are on your “need” list that can be found in these stores. These “needs” are items you are planning on purchasing anyway. So if you can have a $10 or $15 shop pay plus another $10 or $15 expense reimbursement for your required purchase (a purchase you were going to make anyway), the assignment seems a little more worth your time and effort.
Just watch out for the trap of buying things you don’t really need. If you truly don’t “need” anything at the electronics store and you are considering taking on a three hour assignment for $10 worth of pay, it may be better to keep scouring the job boards and pass that assignment buy.
More Time Than Money. In this economy, many mystery shoppers are struggling to make ends meet or are trying to earn extra cash to build up a larger nest egg for rainy days. If you fall into this category, you may be ready to take on any assignments that come your way. For many mystery shoppers, it is far better to be out working for any money at all rather than sitting at home twiddling your thumbs and not earning a dime. These assignments are great for putting some extra cash in your pocket when other assignments are not available for the taking.
While these time-consuming assignments may not be at the top of most mystery shoppers’ list of preferred assignments, they certainly have their benefits and can put some much-needed cash in your wallet.
look how can I apply for your assignments
Celia, this is not a board for mystery assignments. This board is for articles related to mystery shopping.
Sometimes the writer will post the name of a mystery shopping company. It is your responsibility to find and to sign up with mystery shopping companies.
The articles posted here share great information on the mystery shopping industry! I hope you will find value in the articles. 🙂
It seems that the higher paying jobs have significantly longer requirements in time to prepare for the job, and time to compklete the survey. Many jobs carry a high risk also, such as hotels… if you miss an item you could have a large bill that is not reimbursed.
I live in a rural area that does not give many shop opportunities so I grab what I can. It has taken about 2 years to weed out useless shops and redundant ones. I work with 2 (employed) and 1 contracted merchandising with occasional mystery shops. It takes time to establish a routine if you are doing this on a regular basis and not as a fill the time in type of work. I don’t take those types of shops unless I need to make that trip or have other shops that day to make the trip worth it. You just need to organize your time to make it work for you.
I agree with what you have said about the time that is put into a shop that basically isn’t worth the time used. I recently had to delete quite a few of these shops because they clogged up my schedule that I normally have . I don’t ask to be assigned these jobs unless as said I need that item or I am in that neighborhood.
I am really intrested in your articles as i have been thinking about trying to get some work as an m.m. only dont have much spare cash & seems that I need to have some cash upfront. any suggestions?