Often, a mystery shopping site visit will be a fairly “textbook” event. You shop around, casually interact with salespeople, and make your purchases. But occasionally mystery shopping assignments turn into more than a mystery shopper bargained for. Perhaps it is due to complicated assignment requirements, or maybe a salesperson is on to you. For whatever reason, these complications are a good reason to stay on your toes while you are on a site visit and be prepared for any situation that may come up.
Those Pesky Details! Sometimes situations arise with a mystery shopping site visit that are caused by burdensome requirements. For instance, you may have to memorize photos of several display shelves and then ensure you find each of the display shelves at the store and that they are all laid out according to the photos. This can certainly take a great deal of concentration on the part of a mystery shopper.
Or perhaps the requirement is for something seemingly small, but yet turns into a major ordeal. For instance, a requirement may be that you absolutely need to get a salesperson’s name, but the salesperson is not wearing a name tag. Sure, you can ask for their name, but unless you handle the situation very carefully, you may stand out like a sore thumb to the salesperson and pique their awareness of you. There are any number of situations that can arise. The trick is to read the requirements well ahead of your assignment date and think the assignment through in detail, including seemingly small details like names. Be sure you have thought of how you will handle various scenarios that pop up so you are prepared to act quickly if a situation arises.
Play The Part! Almost any mystery shopper can handle almost any assignment. A 70-year old man can handle a mystery shopping assignment at a children’s store, and a minivan driving mom of four can pull off a motorcycle dealership assignment. There are so many different scenarios you can create, such as looking for a gift for a grandchild or neighbor. Perhaps you have hit a middle age crisis and want to walk on the wild side a bit. Even if you know absolutely nothing about the products the store sells, you can pull it off simply by acting like you are shopping for a gift for someone who loves that product, but unfortunately you just don’t know a thing.
Plan your story out ahead of time. Really think through your story and be prepared to answer almost any question. What is your grandchild’s age? Have you taken a motorcycle safety course yet? If necessary, do just a little bit of general research on the store and the product or service via the internet before you do your site visit. If necessary, be sure to dress and act the part. For instance, don’t pull up to a car dealership in a two-seater Miata and say you are a mother of three shopping for a minivan. The obvious question would be how you and your three kids go anywhere at all in the Miata right now. If nothing else, say you just found out you are expecting and will have to get a bigger car.
Play Dumb! There are times when every mystery shopper fumbles a little bit and gets lost in their own story. Perhaps you said your nephew was four, and then later you said he was eight and the salesperson caught your mistake. When in doubt or when you think you’re about to get busted, simply apologize and play dumb. “Wow! This allergy medicine has got me all mixed up today!” Or try, “My daughter is visiting with her newborn and I’m just frazzled from having a baby at the house!” You may want to create your own standard “cover line” that you can use repeatedly. If you have a line ready and waiting in the back of your mind, you won’t have those few second of blank stare while you quietly think to yourself that you’re about to get busted. You simply have to throw your cover line out there to save the day.
While you can’t plan ahead for every situation, you can be prepared to handle any situation with a little bit of forethought.
It is true regarding Mystery Shopping, you must read your assignment(s) ahead of time. Think of a scenarios, talk it out, just be prepared. That is the key to a good shop. What may seem simple can turn out disasterous by the smallest unexpected detail but if you have options in mind you can quickly recover. Reading requirements and having different scenarios ready is a vital key.
I agree that you need to think your scenario through ahead of time.
Another helpful thing is to keep your scenario as close as possile to the truth. (Or the truth as you wish it to be)
If you have to create a phantom “nephew”. Don’t make one up out of thin air, use a person you know. A neighbor child, a friends kid, etc. picture them in your mind. That way, when the salesperson asks questions, you have one particular person already in mind to answer about.
If there is nothing that you can use from your own life, borrow a scenario from someone else. But keep it real.
It’s always a tip off that something isn’t right when a person starts giving more info and details than necessary, to tey to convince you of a story.
Keep the story in mind, but don’t throw it all out there. Let the salesperson draw it out of you.
The less detail you give, the less chance of error.
Just because the salesperson needs to ask open ended questions, you don’t ned to give open ended answers. Keep your answers short and sweet.
In the realworld there are ‘private’ people. I am one of them. I feel no compulsion to give all kinds of personal information about myself. Sales people are used to having to deal with all kinds.
But when I do have to divulge, I keep it simple and truthful.
In the realworld there are ‘private’ people. I am one of them. I feel no compulsion to give all kinds of personal information about myself. Sales people are used to having to deal with all kinds.
But when I do have to divulge, I keep it simple and truthful.
I find that developing a quick migraine headache takes the shoppee’s mind off you as being a shopper. The respite will give you time to think of something quickly.
I agree with Deb, KISS – Keep it simple stupid! The more real you are the more real the shop is.