If you’re like most mystery shoppers, you have a few providers you enjoy working with. Those providers more or less offer the same round of assignments, and you more or less complete the same assignments every few months or so. There is comfort in your mystery shopping routine, and there is at least some degree of financial stability in your routine as well.
Every once in awhile, it’s good to step out of the mold and try something new, and this is especially true with mystery shopping. The new year is the perfect opportunity to break out of your routine and add some excitement to your same old mystery shopping routine!
Walk To A Different Beat. Most mystery shoppers are on automatic pilot when they scour the job boards in search of assignments, selecting from among the “safe” assignments that they have completed in the past and not even glancing at assignments they haven’t completed. If this is you, now is the perfect time to try something new! Take a look at some of the assignments you have been passing over that your providers offer, and sign up to work on an assignment or two that you’ve never worked before.
If all of your providers’ other assignments are truly duds, take some time to find a few new providers that you can work for in the coming months. Diversifying your assignments and providers will surely add some spice to your same old routine!
Get A Co-Worker. Mystery shopping can be a very lonely profession, but it doesn’t have to be! As mystery shoppers, we work at home alone scouring job boards. And while we interact with employees on site visits, there is largely very little communication done on a personal or familiar level. You can change all of this by bringing a buddy along with you on your next assignment. Ask your spouse, a good friend, or a family member to tag along with you and keep you company while you work. You may not be able to find someone to go with you on every assignment, but bringing a buddy along on an assignment every now and then is a surefire way to keep the doldrums away while you mystery shop.
Get Out Of Town. If you’ve never mystery shopped while you’re out of town, you’re missing out! While mystery shopping away from home requires some special planning and forethought (consider access to a scanner or fax machine for receipts, and so forth), it’s a great way to really break out of your regular routine and change the scenery. Even if you don’t have a lot of extra money for a big, extravagant getaway, even an overnight trip to a nearby major city can be just the thing you need. Plan to work a few assignments while you’re in the city, and maybe include a few non-working activities, too!
Mystery shopping should be a fun job, and following these tips can bring the fun back into mystery shopping!
Spicing things up does wonders! However for those who have been at the grind, a break or a change can make mystery shopping appear to be ‘fun’ again. If you’re in the habit of efficiently scheduling, shopping, recording mileage, etc. and working every angle to make your efforts count, take a break. Go on a trip, go to town, go to the mall just for the fun of it! My psyche responds quite favorably from such a well deserved break. Maybe yours will too.
I also agree like everything that one does repetitive it gets boring and in order to lighten it up you must make it interesting again I change my providers after awhile I may come back if we had some type of rapport if not ‘Ce La Vie’ and I am onto my next adventure look at life as one big smorgasboard and all the new things you can do and see just working your way in the neighborhood or outside jurisdictions,that’s what makes it different each time I complete an assignment~