Read why you should be preparing for January mystery shops right now

It may seem like madness at this time of year but it's really time for mystery shoppers to start preparations for January. With Christmas and the New Year festivities in the offing, you may have your mind elsewhere at the moment but there is very good money to be made in January and the effect of your purchases can be multiplied by the sale prices.

Last January my partner and I carried out 150 mystery shops - almost an average of 5 per day! There are mystery shops available for-

• Clothing stores
• Bars
• Restaurants
• Fast food outlets
• Bookmakers
• Supermarkets
• Takeaways
• Pubs
• Gift retailers
• Sports stores
• And more

There are so many options as mystery shopping customers are looking to start off the quarter by getting their assessments done.

If you're currently a mystery shopper then it's time to get prepared and start looking on the mystery shop we sites for the early releases.

If you're not currently a mystery shopper then now is a great time to find out all about it. Get my book to find out how to become a mystery shopper - it's available now.

See why you should consider becoming a mystery shopper

Mystery shopping is becoming more and more prevalent as retailers, financial services organisations and hospitality providers want to know what their teams are doing when they're not around to supervise or assess. The use of mystery shopping in many economies grows as multi-site operations take over High Streets, shopping malls and out of town shopping centres. Multi-site operators will want each site to offer a similarly high standard of service, so every customer knows what to expect on every visit. The operations want to be able to provide the same level of customer experience in their outlets whether they be in London or Birmingham, Portsmouth or Glasgow, and for multinational companies from Madrid to New York. And there are several different steps that one of these companies can take to facilitate this similarity of customer experience. Staff training is the same throughout the company to ensure that everyone gets the same resources to be inducted, initially trained and improve themselves. And this is where a level of communication comes in. The companies need to communicate their requirements to the team. And some of these requirements come through really well in the way they are mystery shopped.

The management teams are also trained to deliver training. By this, I mean that they can communicate the ideals of the company and ensure that all their teams understand what is expected of them. From this base level of understanding, the idea is that the distinct standards of service I mentioned above are carried out to the best of people's ability.

But people are human, ideals can sometimes get lost in the everyday buzz of work and not everybody has the same training, personal standards, motivation or understanding, and this is where mystery shopping can help out. It gives a framework for managers and their teams to set out their work day. A good mystery shopping programme should work hand-in-hand with the training and supervision that a company offers to reinforce the standards that they have - it leaves those on the customer-facing front line in no doubt about what is expected of them. In turn, it should leave the customers in no doubt about what the company stands for and what they can expect - no matter where in the country (or indeed where in the world) they visit and spend their money.

So, as large organisations develop a mystery shopping programme, they need mystery shoppers to help to fulfill this. And this is where you can come in, help and earn money. Mystery shopping is fun, exciting, rewarding and is valuable. This blog will help to make it all of these things and more for you. I will add background to the process, as above, and give you knowledge, practical advice, hints and tips to make your time as a mystery shopper as interesting and rewarding as possible. With the benefit of the background knowledge, you can alter your responses to the situation and be comfortable that you understand the impact and importance of the mystery shop work that you carry out.

I will help you to make a success of it and any successful mystery shopper will add value for the company, the mystery shop provider and for themselves. It is probable that you will make reasonable money for yourself by mystery shopping. It is possible that you can make yourself a living from mystery shopping, if you are dedicated and when you get yourself up to speed and established. You will need to register with a number of mystery shopping companies. It is a self-employed position, where you carry out assignments on behalf of mystery shopping company and then deal with your own tax assessments, and we will look at that in one of the chapters. All in all, I want you to share the passion I have for doing this. It's a passion for improvement and a passion for making money. Just about all of us shop for things that you could just as easily mystery shop for, even if it's for groceries, days out or for a meal. Mystery shoppers are needed for supermarkets, for attractions or days out and for restaurants or cafés.

Check out my book for more information-

See how regular mystery shop clients can help you hone your skills

I went on to one of the mystery shop companies websites a few days ago and there were hundreds of shops available in my local patch. This usually means only one thing - that a major retailer with thousands of outlets across the country wants all of their shops assessed.

And this was the case. As usual I won't name the company involved but it's a food outlet that's on just about every High Street. I managed to carry out three of these tasks and repetition makes things easier.

Of course you'll want to read and understand each set of job notes individually to make sure that there are no differences. But once you understand what is required from you then carrying out the same shop repeatedly makes getting it right easier. You can almost carry out these shops on auto-pilot.

It's a piece of advice that I can give you for your own mystery shopping - carrying out jobs for the same client over and over again does make the completion of the assignment and the reports much, much easier.

If you're looking for advice on mystery shopping, how to become a mystery shopper or how to make things easier then my book is a great place to start.

Could you, would you have your Christmas Day dinner paid for on the house?

This is the time of year that mystery shop companies and retailers cut back on assignments to concentrate on customer service. The number of mystery shops available has started to drop quite a lot. But for the willing there are certain kind of jobs that start to appear about now.

If you want to have a few days away at Christmas or want your meal out on Christmas Day then there's possibly a mystery shop coming up for you!

There are often mystery shops at national restaurant chains to assess the service for Christmas Day dinner.

I've seen currently some mystery shopping assignments for a few days away for Christmas at national family resorts.

Both will give the willing participants a hassle-free Christmas experience. If you're interested then get applying for mystery shopping jobs.

My guide to becoming a mystery shopper is available now. Read it to get the lowdown on mystery shopping.

See how a quick mystery shopping trip ended up with a winning bet!

It's a blog today after a short trip to a local town to carry out three mystery shop assignments. It's the usual shop, lunch, shop scenario that has come to typify my mystery shopping activities at this time of the year.

This will quieten down soon so I'm just making the most of the last of the opportunities.

The first assignment is a home improvement store and this one is very similar to one I did last week I browsed the shop floor for literally 9 minutes and 50 seconds of the allowed 10 minutes before a team member came over and asked if I needed help. For the sale of 10 seconds I could hdve left without going through an enquiry and still earned the same fee!

Fee = £5.00

Reimbursement = £1.00

Spend = £0.71

Profit/Loss = +£5.29

The second assignment was to a national pub chain to assess service times and levels. The timing was about measuring how long to be served at the bar, brought food and plates cleared. The service was about staff knowledge and friendliness. There's very, very rarely a reason to mark these pubs down and this assignment isn't any different.

Fee = £3.25

Reimbursement = £9.75

Spend = £11.18

Profit/Loss = +£1.82

The third assignment is to a bookmakers and this gives me the opportunity to share a little insight of the type of overviews we have to produce for mystery shop reports-

"I entered the shop and I was greeted straight away by a team member from behind the counter. I then browsed the floor for approximately five minutes before a team member approached and asked if I was okay.The team member offered me a cup of coffee. I then looked at the betting football coupons before going to the counter to seek help. The team member was helpful and friendly and made conversation about the upcoming England match."

This is what is called an overview, and it's where the report wants a commentary on your visit. It's best to keep details fairly vague here, as you'll go into more detail in the full report.

Fee = £2.75

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £5.00

Profit/Loss = +£2.75

TOTAL = +£9.86 + a tile, lunch for 2 and a free bet (which actually won and made a further £15.50!!!!)

If you are interested in mystery shopping and want to make a little money, get a free lunch or gamble with someone else's money then you can find out how with my book.

Mystery shopping is all about new experiences, and so is Mannys Sauces

I love to mystery shop. It gives me a part of my lifestyle that perhaps I wouldn't have without it. I can see and do things that I wouldn't consider in my everyday life. Mystery shopping brings you into contact with new people, experiences and sensations. Trying something new is a large part of life itself, and especially a part of mystery shopping. Having the chance to try something that you've not tried before, sometimes with someone else picking up the tag, is an experience that you can't afford to miss.

Now I can't pick up the tab for this one, but I can bring you news of a great new experience that you may not yet have had. It's Mannys Sauces. They've come into existence from the experience and dedication of Manny, and here's his story-

“As any other person in the world, I had a huge dream - to open the first Piri-Piri Chicken Restaurant in the world, and then spread this dream to every corner of the planet. It wouldn’t be easy to achieve, but neither was it impossible. I had the will, the courage, the faith and family support to make it come true. Early in 1985, I sold my home to open the first piri-piri chicken restaurant outside of Mozambique. CHICKENLAND was the chosen name and Johannesburg, South Africa was the birth place of my dream! After a short while, I was making, bottling and selling a range of 5 different Piri-Piri Sauces and Marinades. After a slow start, the business was a stunning success! The name quickly spread across the city and everyone was talking about this new food place that was taking the food industry by storm.

The business success was proven! The next step was expansion to other parts of the city, country and abroad, and many people tried to get financially involved. Expansion included a need for capital and people, and so in 1987, I sold some of my business shares to two young men: one of Portuguese origin and the other, a South African of Jewish origin. Shortly after they joined, the business name was changed to NANDOS. Chickenland was a nice name, but according to marketing experts at the time, it was felt that the business should be backed by a personal name before the expansion took place. BetweenMANNYS and NANDOS, I was out-voted two to one, and the latter name was chosen. Despite a few initial problems, the expansion started taking off and now more than ever, the success was tremendous!

A few years later, the rug was pulled out from under my feet and I was forced to leave my business. I lost my dream; one of the best things in my life after my family. After this happened, I opened a few other restaurants including Chickenland in Portugal, but these weren’t my dream. It was a way to make a living, but it wasn’t my passion. It took me a long time to recover from what happened, but I was determined and pushed through until another dream emerged; to make the best sauces and speciality food products in the world! MANNYS SAUCES is now my new dream! Once again I can see this new dream taking shape and growing strong all the way to the TOP! The passion is back and I again have the will, the faith, the support of my family, and the support of so many loyal customers that know and appreciate the high quality products that we make. I am forever grateful to my family and my customers for their support and the divine forces for showing me the way.

Manny x”

And if you’re after new experiences, then Mannys Sauces will offer you just that. The Mannys Sauces range can be found in many different places, so whatever your taste and wherever you hang out online, you can find them.

Try the online store at http://www.mcssl.com/store/mannyssauces for the Chickita - Mann’s famous cured and smoked chicken sausage and the rest of the range of cured meats.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Mannyssauces where you can read about the wonderful MannyNaise. With this, you can substitute your boring, regular mayonnaise for the spectacular taste of MannyNaise and transform dishes from the ordinary to the wonderful.

Catch up with them on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Mannyssauces to hear about the Tomato Fusion – a sauce that’s destined to become the ketchup of choice for the 21^st Century. It’s the next level in tomato ketchup.

Their YouTube site at www.youtube.com/channel/UCPvHPFfaz5yJRTtlv_ViDPQ gives you great recipe ideas and shows you how to use the sauces, such as the original, classic Piri-Piri sauce. This is the genuine, original and unique Southern African Piri-Piri sauce. This is the perfect mix of the heat of chilli and the depth of flavour that perfectly captures what Mannys Sauces is all about.

And you can just go straight ahead and check out their website at www.mannyssauces.com to see details of what they are all about, more details on Manny’s story, find stockists and much more.

Mystery shopping is all about enjoying yourself in what you carry out in life. And Mannys Sauces is an extension of that – great food to share with friends and family. Give them a try today!

It's time to start mystery shopping now if you want to bring in free stuff for Christmas

It's heading towards the time of year that the mystery shops slow down. Many retailers want to concentrate solely on selling at this time and ease off the mystery shopping programmes, to resume in the new year.

I've been stating in my blog for some time that mystery shopping is a great way to secure presents for Christmas. As I write this piece, that is starting to fall away just a little. We're not quite there yet though. It's a strange thing that in my mystery shopping diary I only have three shops booked, and they are all for tomorrow ( and you can see how I get in in tomorrow's blog.) I'd ideally like to have 20-30 booked and I usually have somewhere between 10 and 25 set out in front of me. It's not just the fact that mystery shop companies don't have much available, it's the fact that I'm really only looking for shops that bring me in something that I can use for Christmas. Regular followers of the blog will have seen recent trips to supermarkets and for gifts. I'm looking for similar.

As it stands though, mystery shopping does tail away now and disappear from about mid-December until the first week of January, soniw is the time to read up about mystery shopping, apply to some companies and get out there shopping for free!

My book is the perfect companion to the mystery shopper, so check it out-

Is there such a thing as a free lunch? I think so....

Mystery shopping has been a fun companion to my days out and shopping trips over the last few years. It's an interesting pastime and adds to the enjoyment of a day out in a local town or city. Being organised before the day out and knowing where you are going should mean that you don't change the day too much by adding a mystery shop or two to your shopping trip. And of course it can bring in some money and some free things to make the day go a little smoother.

A free lunch is my most often accompaniment to a day out shopping. Whether it's a coffee shop, a restaurant, a sandwich bar, a takeaway, a fast food joint or a pub there's usually somewhere that I can find lunch with one of my mystery shopping companies. Even the catering facilities of hospitals, workplaces and supermarkets are mystery shopped to see if they come up to standard.

Even if all you mystery shop for is free food then it can really help you along the way.

If you're interested in mystery shopping then my book can help you to become a mystery shopper.

Read about how I went out shopping and came home with more money than I started with!

It's strange sometimes the way mystery shops fall. It's been ages since I did any home improvement store visits then there's two in the same day. Add in a clothing concession in a department store and a coffee shop for lunch and it's a day for generating income rather than gathering free stuff. Let me explain-

Mystery shop 1 is about checking product availability and staff knowledge. I had to check stock levels of certain products before asking someone a question relating to a home improvement problem. The response should have directed me to certain products as a solution.

Fee = £6.00

Reimbursement = £1.00

Spend = £1.55

Profit/Loss = +£4.45

The second shop was a similar home improvement visit. However this one ran a little differently. I was to browse for ten minutes to see if I was approached by a store colleague. On this occasion I want approached, so the mystery shop company required me to make a small purchase and leave. It felt unsatisfactory but those were the instructions.

Fee = £5.00

Reimbursement = £1.00

Spend = £1.30

Profit/Loss = +£4.70

And the third one was the clothing concession, and a rare thing with UK mystery shopping companies - the ability to take the item back for a refund! This is usually frowned upon by mystery shopping companies. They go to all sorts of lengths to warn you against refunding the items you've bought. But with this shop I can take the item back for a full refund any time between 30 minutes and 28 days after my purchase. It means that the whole fee comes in as cash.

Fee = £0

Reimbursement = £12.00

Spend = £20.00

Profit/Loss = +£12.00 (as I will return the item for a full refund)

The final mystery shop was a franchise operation of a massive coffee shop. It was to make a basic purchase and to see if the team member upsold me to any further purchases. It's a basic enquiry and the fee almost covered lunch for two. Not a bad end to a morning of shopping!

Fee = £6.00

Reimbursement = £6.00

Spend = £13.65

Profit/Loss = -£1.65

TOTAL = +£19.50 + a tester pot of paint, 2 tiles and lunch for 2

It's by having these days where you gain money but little free goods that can balance out your mystery shop account. All-in-all, from the preparation, the travel, the conducting of the shops and completing the reports, I probably spent 4 hours on this.

If our are interested in mystery shopping then my Amazon Kindle book is a good point to get started at. It shows you step by step how to apply to become a mystery shopper and then how to complete shops like those above-

Read about how someone else paid for my shopping trip today!

I've been out and conducted four mystery shops today as the search for Christmas presents and to earn some extra money takes hold. It was a visit to a local city, via a garden centre - and that's where I'll start-

Mystery shop 1 was that garden centre and I really like the way this assessment is constructed. It was designed to test the observation skills if the team member and their ability to ask questions, understand the customers needs and make a recommendation. It's really what mystery shopping was designed to do. The team members I encountered were good on a basic level and I bought a plant.

Fee = £3.75

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £7.99

Profit/Loss = +£.076

The second assignment was to an outdoor products retailer and another really enjoyable assessment. It's the standard start - browse until you are approached - but then the enquiry becomes about a specific range of products. The idea is to test the colleagues knowledge and that they are following the procedures. It takes around 20 minutes, which is quite long for a single enquiry. It also tests your skill as a mystery shopper because there are quite a lot of pieces of information that you need to remember for your report. I really enjoyed carrying it out and will do it again when the opportunity arises.

Fee = £10.00

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £12.00

Profit/Loss = +£3.00

The third mystery shop was to a higher-end restaurant chain and it's a really straightforward assessment. Customer service (always very good) and timings (always good) are the order of the day today. Everything went off without real incident and an easy report to boot.

Fee = £3.25

Reimbursement = £15.00

Spend = £25.65

Profit/Loss = -£7.40

The fourth and final shop today was to a discounter. It's more about the store than the team, which I always find a shame. The measures are about availability, cleanliness and the features of the store. I know that the team affect most of these things by their activities but it's nice to be able to assess team members directly by interacting with them. Generally it was a good experience and the fee is good for a quick shop and an easy report to complete.

Fee = £2.50

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £6.83

Profit/Loss = +£0.67

TOTAL = -£2.97 + a plant, two tops for Christmas, groceries and lunch for 2

If you are interested in earning money now for Christmas, or to collect the free stuff that mystery shopping brings you, then my Amazon Kindle ebook is a great place to start. It's available now-

See how you can be paid to shop for Christmas presents

It's the real countdown to Christmas and it's at this time of the year that I look to getting all my free stuff together for presents. I look at the mystery shops available as there is a lot more travelling anyway. I would normally travel to several local towns and cities several times in the run up to Christmas, so I continue this with my mystery shopping exploits. I don't mind spending a little more than my fee and reimbursement when Christmas shopping as it's these extra little presents that make a difference with the family Christmas.

I would think that between now and Christmas I will get several hundred pounds worth of Christmas food and drink, stocking fillers and other smaller presents. A lot of the free stuff I will get now will be really useful in and around Christmas, and I expect to be able to pick up-

• boxes of chocolates
• boxes of biscuits
• bottles of wine
• clothing
• books
• plants
• flowers
• toys
• perfume

And these extra bits will help to take the strain from Christmas, whilst bringing in some income for petrol, parking, lunch and a small profit at times.

How can this work for me?

When mystery shopping at a retailer, the average reimbursement is somewhere between £8 and £15, so you're not going to be able to buy games consoles or a bike. But by working out what you need, your budget for each person you are buying for and any food and drink requirements you will have a great idea of how far mystery shopping can take you. I expect to reach somewhere between £200 and £500 worth of free stuff in November and December in time for Christmas. This will make a big difference to your plans if you can bring in this much extra to help at Christmas.

If you want mystery shopping to help you in time for Christmas then you need to start now. My Amazon Kindle book is available now.