We’ve all heard the old adage that time is money. As a mystery shopper, the more shops you can squeeze into a busy day, the more money you can earn. Many of us chose mystery shopping as a job because of its flexibility, and because we need extra money but have busy lives, too. So it goes without saying that the more shops you can do in a day or a week, the more money you can make. Here are some things you can do to become a more efficient (and more profitable) mystery shopper:
Follow The Instructions. As a mystery shopper, you are being hired to follow very specific instructions. If you fail to follow the instructions, your shop will be rejected and you will have spent time working on a shop that you won’t be paid for. Most people certainly don’t want to work for free! So be sure you follow all of the instructions in the requirement.
Read through the guidelines before you enter the store. There may be some very specific things you need to make note of. For instance, which stores were on the left and the right of the store you were shopping at, or what was on the front display sign. These are things you may not readily know off the top of your head, and also things you most likely would normally not pay attention to. There is nothing worse than getting back home and realizing you have to drive back to the shop to figure out which stores are next to the store you shopped!
Write It Down. It’s good to keep a notepad in your car to keep track of mileage during your shops. But that notepad is good for other things, too. Write down the start and end times of your shop, associate names, specials the associate told you about, and other small details that may slip your mind while you are driving home. When it comes time to fill out your report, you won’t have to spend time trying to recall these details – you will have them written down right in front of you.
If you manage to book two or three shops in one day, that’s great for you! It will save you so much time to get a couple of shops knocked out in one trip out. On the down side, though, you have three different shops to keep straight in your head. Maybe you have a great memory and this is no problem for you. Most of us, though, have incredibly busy lives and have trouble recalling small details. And that is compounded if we have details on several shops to remember. This is when that notebook in the car comes in really handy. Scribble a few notes down after you complete each shop, and you’re good to go!
Pencil It In. Use a PDA if you’re savvy with the new gadgets, or go the old-fashioned way and use a regular calendar. Either way, write down dates and times of your mystery shop assignments. But you also want to write down everything else, too. If you’ve got to take the dog to the vet at 9am on Tuesday, and Billy has a soccer game at 6pm on Wednesday, write all of those things down. Since time is money, you can pretty much say that managing your time well means money in the bank when you’re a mystery shopper. With a quick look on your calendar you’ll easily be able to see that you’re wide open for shop assignments on Thursday and Saturday, but Tuesday and Wednesday are booked solid with other commitments. You can also see that you’re already doing a shop on Friday at Main Street Mall, so it’s not a big time commitment to work in another shop there on Friday, too.
Following these few simple steps will free up more time for you to do more shops and make more money!
the key to mystery shopping is all of the things you mentioned plus,gaining the loyalty of a few dependable shopper companies, finding shops on the same day/area as you are out, trying to route them, finding a shop that pays its bill within 6o days and aiming for the better not necessarily by brand higher fee shops…the ‘best’ stores do not pay the best fees…Michaelbu@aol.com
It is always good to keep a calendar when you Mystery Shop because what ever you put down there is fresh in your mind and when you get to where you are shopping all you have to do is look down at your little notes.
As a shopper I do not get to do too many Shopping Jobs because this area is very small and if you have to go a few miles with the price of gas really it would not be worth it. I do not know about other areas, but I do know about this small area in which I live. I still check everyday to see if there is any that I can do that is close.
All of these have been very educatenal
thank you
I am an advocate of electronic gadgets and using my paper calendar as a back up and to quickly jot down assignments/notes. The paper backup was invaluable a few months ago when my Palm died. Fortunately I had a back up of my info on my computer. I now use a smartphone (Blackberry Curve 8310). It is user friendly. I’m lost without it.
I rely on my phone to jot details after the shop in code so no one but me knows what it means. I have even done this on fine dining shops whom required details timing for each interaction with the server. I also always print a hardcopy to review in the car and a copy of the report to fill out immediately after each shop. I have completed as many as fifteen shops in a day and that is the only way to keep up with it and to make it easy on you when it is report time. Then I can clear my brain for the next shop. Thanks for doing this forum I wish it was around when I first started. Keep it up.
Phyllis
My desk is against a wall that I have one of those extra big calenders that you write in the month and days. It’s very big and I write all my shops in red ink on the days I need to do them. I find it so easy to stay organized. I find these calenders in Staples. They’re like 21″ X 17″. I’d be lost without it. And when I’m on the phone with a scheduler I just have to look up and see exactly what I’m doing and when.
Fifteen Shops?? I’d like to know your secret to reporting 15 shops, within a 12~hour window !! PDA not with standing, that seems incredible. Even if I had a WiFi capable laptop, I can’t conceive of reporting 15 companies in less than a day!! Kindly show me how it’s do~able!
I print out my assignments as they are assigned so that I can thumb through them as I take a look at other jobs that come my way to see if I can route them together, or if I have to schedule them for another day. I am also a big fan of my pocket digital recorder which I take on the job to record details of the conversations. You never miss what was said, and while you are walking through the aisles, you can record the associate’s details to remember without having to write it down. You just casually talk to yourself discretely and you never have to write anything down until you get home.