If you have decided to get started working as a mystery shopper but don’t know where to start, you are not alone. Mystery shopping is an amazing job with a ton of benefits. You may have heard from friends and family members who already are mystery shoppers about benefits like a flexible work schedule and the ability to work from home. These are features many people would love to take advantage of in their own lives, but before you can, you first have to learn how to become a mystery shopper and earn your first paycheck. Consider these three steps to get started:
1. Sign Up to Work With Mystery Shopping Providers.
Before you can work as a mystery shopper, you first have to find one or more mystery shopping providers to work with. There are dozens of providers that you can choose to work with, and many will allow you to apply to work with them online. You often can sign up to work with a provider with just a few minutes of your time and effort, and some will notify you immediately of your ability to start working for them. With others, you may not hear back about the status of your application for a few days. Most who apply will be approved to work as a mystery shopper.
2. Select Your First Assignment.
After you have been approved to work for at least one mystery shopping provider, you can start browsing the provider’s job board. This is an online assignment posting system that allows you to browse through a list of assignments that are available for mystery shoppers to complete. Some assignments require you to request them. If you request one of these assignments, it may be several days before you hear back regarding whether you were awarded this assignment or not. Other assignments are self-assigned. As soon as you request these assignments, they are yours. You are committed to completing these assignments by the scheduled due date.
3. Complete Your Assignment.
Once you have an assignment that has been awarded to you, you will need to ensure that you complete the assignment and file the corresponding report to the mystery shopping provided by the due date. Most assignments include a site visit as well as a report, and the report often must be completed within a few hours after doing the site visit. Be sure to read through the assignment requirements and ensure that you understand fully what you need to do on the site visit. Your report will relate to your observations made while completing the assignment requirements.
After you have completed your first assignment and submitted your report, generally, you can expect to receive payment within about a month. Each provider has a different payment process, however, so the actual time may vary. After you have eased yourself into a few assignments and feel comfortable with the process, you can then proceed at full speed to complete more assignments and maximize your income as a mystery shopper.