See the planning that will make your mystery shopping more productive

I keep asking myself how come I think that there's no mystery shopping jobs available in my area at the moment.

When I actually look through the different websites there are over 100 available, but none really for into what I'm doing, where I'm going or that I think will make me enough money.

The trick to turning mystery shopping from something you do every now and again to a 3, 4 or 5 times a week activity is grouping the shops into areas and days. By going out to one town, one shopping mall or one area I can hit somewhere between 3 and 12 mystery shops and suddenly turn a tidy profit. Unless you live in a big city then this takes some planning. I tend to write down the days I'm available all day, or the places I'm going to already. Then, as I work my way through the mystery shopping websites I can make a note of what's available on those days in those places.

So I might have a list like this-

Weds 21st October

Breakfast outlet in town A

Clothing retailer in town B

Lunch in town A

Discount retailer in town A

Health and beauty retailer in town B

Bookmaker in town A

Supermarket in town B

DIY retailer just outside of town A

From this list of options, I'll probably go for town A and then book all of the jobs in this town, look through the shop notes a a start to prepare.

The other way I start to look at things is when a mystery shop assignment comes up that I really want to do. I have favourite mystery shops, or I see one that pays so well I don't feel I can let it pass. From there I book that job straight away so I don't run the risk of missing out on it. I then look at all the other available jobs on all the sites to see what will go with it - jobs in the same town or nearby.

And that's why I don't think that there's any available - I'm stuck between these scenarios on 3 consecutive mystery shopping days-

On Saturday 17th October I'm at a nearby city but there are no jobs available at all.

On Wednesday 21st October I'm available all day but there aren't more than one job in the same town or city.

On Thursday 22nd October I have one favourite mystery shop in a large local city that I booked a while ago, but I can't find any other shops to go with it.

I'll keep looking.

Interested in becoming a mystery shopper? Looking for some guidance?

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