See how I continued my Christmas shopping, and someone else paid me to do it!

I've carried out three mystery shops in a city local to me today. It was free parking for two hours, only a little petrol and only three hours out of my time, including preparation, the shops and data input afterwards.

The first mystery shop today was at a national gift store (to say any more would be to give it away) as a concession in a department store. The store is known for it's quality products and service, and the team member today was outstanding. The scenario was to ask about advice for a gift but be as vague as possible. This means that the team member has to do all the leg work in finding out about who you are gifting to before making a recommendation. The team member asked loads of great questions and made a fantastic recommendation. The product was priced up at £13.00 but scanned through the till at £6.25 so I was even happier at that!

Fee = £5.00

Reimbursement = £3.00

Spend = £6.25

Profit/Loss = +£1.75

I always like to find somewhere for lunch when I'm shopping and the second mystery shop today helped me with that. It was a cafe inside another store and the task was to measure the service levels above the quality of the food. The brief was to be fastidious - the slightest slip in standards was to be marked down. But this was a team on top of their game, so there were no issues at all. Another free lunch (I thought there was no such thing!) and I'm on my way to the last shop.

Fee = £5.00

Reimbursement = £3.00

Spend = £5.30

Profit/Loss = +£2.70

The third and final shop today was at a gambling outlet. The idea was to browse and see if a team member approached me, offered help, talked to me about promotions or any other interaction. These can often be difficult for the team members as they are often left to work on their own and have little or no opportunity to speak with customers at length. The team member I encountered today was good when I approached him but had no opportunity to approach me - so marks down for proactivity but marks up for interaction when it actually happened.

Fee = £2.75

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £5.00

Profit/Loss = +£2.75

TOTAL = +£7.20 + a Christmas gift, lunch for 1 and a free bet (if it comes off another £52!)

Are you interested in mystery shopping in your free time? Looking to earn a little money while out shopping. It can be easy if you get the right information. Check out my Amazon Kindle book, which will talk you through the process of becoming a mystery shopper.

See how I've been looking for more readers in new places

I've taken the mystery shop blog in the road a little! After three mystery shops today in a local city, I took some poster in to some student living accommodations to try to spread the word! I want as many readers as possible for my blog, as I believe passionately that good mystery shopping improves things for all customers. So I've started to try to expand the readership through looking at the type of people that may be interested in mystery shopping. I thought of students, especially when they've settled down into student life and found that money can be a little tough at times. I asked a some student accommodation blocks to pout up the following posters-

They are basic posters prompting people to take a look at the blog rather than anything aimed at selling. I want people to love mystery shopping as much as I do and take a look at what can be achieved by going out and mystery shopping.

If you are new to the blog from these posters then welcome, and I hope you find this interesting and useful. To my existing readers, I will continue to add ideas, hints, tips and the inside knowledge on mystery shopping.

If you are interested in mystery shopping, then please take a look at my Amazon Kindle book, which guides you through the process and gives lots of ideas on how to be a successful mystery shopper, all for less then the price of a Costa coffee.

See what is important after conducting a mystery shop to confirm your visit

I've been looking in a little bit of detail at one of the mystery shops I've conducted today, at a restaurant in a local town. The idea behind the mystery shop was to assess the service (foremost) and the food quality. It's a national chain higher-end restaurant and the image is that of a good quality, high price point chain.

I've looked at the preparation before the mystery shop here.

I managed to type a few lines during the mystery shop, discreetly, here.

This third part of the blog is about what happens after the mystery shop.

After
The first thing I did was towards the end of the during part of the mystery shop. I checked my notes when I visited the toilet and made sure that I had all the information that I would need to be able to complete the report. I left the building and then started to complete my report as soon as I got back to the car. This gave me a minute or two to think, but not too long that the answers disappeared from my head. Having the printed report card in my hand allowed me to be able to complete all the questions immediately and be ready for when I git home and completed the report online, on the mystery shopping company website. Each mystery shop company has their own data input programmes and this is one of the easier ones. Most questions are a simple tick box yes or no followed by a comment if necessary. There is a summary of the visit to be typed at the end and then I upload a photo of the receipt and a photo of the front of the restaurant. I got the photo discreetly as I left to avoid being potentially spotted as a mystery customer.

The next step is to wait for the report to be processed by the mystery shopping company and then if all is correct (and it is on 99% of occasions) payment will come through on the 15th of next month.

Are you looking for extra money or free products? Do you want to be paid for going out shopping? My Amazon Kindle book will help you to become a mystery shopper.

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies R-Z

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies

Below is a list of the active UK mystery shopping companies that I could find in a Google search in October 2015. This isn’t to say that this covers all active companies, or that the below companies will remain as active when you read this book.

There is no bias or recommendation intended here, as I’m just stating an alphabetic list of the companies I have found.  I haven’t used all of the below companies, nor would I suggest that you use them all. I think that it would be best to do some research and select one of two companies to start with. From there you will be able to grow into the role and find mystery shopping companies that suit your needs. If you want guidance then another Google search for mystery shopping forums will give you places that mystery shoppers exchange ideas and information.

I have added url’s to the shopper sign-up pages for the companies and a contact number where it was shown on their website. I’ve tried to keep additional notes to a minimum, but there are a couple of entries where I have added a note to clarify.

React Surveys
https://www.sassieshop.com/sassie/SassieShopperSignup/Signup.php?EmsID=X6eUOnEOVg8%3D

Retail Active
http://www.retailactive.com/mystery_shopping_lp.aspx
01235 856575


Market Force
http://uk.marketforce.com/become-a-mystery-shopper/
01908 328000

Retail Maxim
http://www.retail-maxim.co.uk/Mystery-Shoppers-page-4-menu-5.html
0844 875 5505

Serve Legal
http://www.servelegal.co.uk/apply
For 18 & 19 year olds only.

Service Measure
http://www.servicemeasure.com/index.php/info/join_our_team


TNS
http://www.tnsglobal.com/uk/mystery-shopper

Tern
http://www.tern.co.uk/become-a-mystery-shopper
01939 235555 (Ext 205)

These contact details are up to date at the time that this blog is published and I'll endeavour to keep them up to date as I go. If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me or the mystery shopping companies directly.

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies I-Q

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies

Below is a list of the active UK mystery shopping companies that I could find in a Google search in October 2015. This isn’t to say that this covers all active companies, or that the below companies will remain as active when you read this book.

There is no bias or recommendation intended here, as I’m just stating an alphabetic list of the companies I have found.  I haven’t used all of the below companies, nor would I suggest that you use them all. I think that it would be best to do some research and select one of two companies to start with. From there you will be able to grow into the role and find mystery shopping companies that suit your needs. If you want guidance then another Google search for mystery shopping forums will give you places that mystery shoppers exchange ideas and information.

I have added url’s to the shopper sign-up pages for the companies and a contact number where it was shown on their website. I’ve tried to keep additional notes to a minimum, but there are a couple of entries where I have added a note to clarify.

ITS Incognito

http://www.itsincognito.com/become.php

01295 880103

Market Checker

http://www.marketchecker.co.uk/shopper1.htm

01782 481601

Mystery Customer Evaluations

https://apply.mysterycustomerevaluations.com/MysteryCustomerEvaluations/shoppers.nsf/InternalNavFrameset?OpenFrameSet&Frame=WorkspaceFrame&Src=%2FMysteryCustomerEvaluations%2Fshoppers.nsf%2Fshopperapp%3FOpenForm%26AutoFramed

0131 208 4433

The Mystery Dining Company

http://www.mysterydining.net/

01225 470281

Performance in People

http://www.performanceinpeople.co.uk/be-a-mystery-shopper/

01983 568080

QDOS

http://apply.qdos4business.com/QDOSMysteryShopping/shoppers.nsf/InternalNavFrameset?OpenFrameSet&Frame=WorkspaceFrame&Src=%2FQDOSMysteryShopping%2Fshoppers.nsf%2Fshopperapp%3FOpenForm%26AutoFramed

These contact details are up to date at the time that this blog is published and I'll endeavour to keep them up to date as I go. If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me or the mystery shopping companies directly.

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies D-H

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies

Below is a list of the active UK mystery shopping companies that I could find in a Google search in October 2015. This isn’t to say that this covers all active companies, or that the below companies will remain as active when you read this book.

There is no bias or recommendation intended here, as I’m just stating an alphabetic list of the companies I have found.  I haven’t used all of the below companies, nor would I suggest that you use them all. I think that it would be best to do some research and select one of two companies to start with. From there you will be able to grow into the role and find mystery shopping companies that suit your needs. If you want guidance then another Google search for mystery shopping forums will give you places that mystery shoppers exchange ideas and information.

I have added url’s to the shopper sign-up pages for the companies and a contact number where it was shown on their website. I’ve tried to keep additional notes to a minimum, but there are a couple of entries where I have added a note to clarify.

Douglas Stafford
http://www.douglasstafford.com/careers.php
02392 830 011

eMystery Shopper
https://www.emysteryshopper.com/
01489 772920

ESA
https://www.esa-webms.co.uk/iwr.asp?project=ESAShopperApplications

Frontline Focus
http://www.focusedshopper.com/application.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f

GapBuster
http://www.gapcentral.gapbuster.com/xec/Default.aspx?cp=CC000818_frontright

GFK
http://www.gfk.com/uk/solutions/mystery-shopping/become-a-mystery-shopper/Pages/become-a-mystery-shopper.aspx
0800 279 6979

Grass Roots
https://www.grassrootsmysteryshopping.com/msw_pnlExtAbout.aspx

Helion
https://evaluator.helionresearch.com/r/mse
+32 (0) 3 609 50 00 (based in Ireland)

These contact details are up to date at the time that this blog is published and I'll endeavour to keep them up to date as I go. If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me or the mystery shopping companies directly.

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies A-C

Contact details of active UK mystery shopping companies

Below is a list of the active UK mystery shopping companies that I could find in a Google search in October 2015. This isn’t to say that this covers all active companies, or that the below companies will remain as active when you read this book.

There is no bias or recommendation intended here, as I’m just stating an alphabetic list of the companies I have found.  I haven’t used all of the below companies, nor would I suggest that you use them all. I think that it would be best to do some research and select one of two companies to start with. From there you will be able to grow into the role and find mystery shopping companies that suit your needs. If you want guidance then another Google search for mystery shopping forums will give you places that mystery shoppers exchange ideas and information.

I have added url’s to the shopper sign-up pages for the companies and a contact number where it was shown on their website. I’ve tried to keep additional notes to a minimum, but there are a couple of entries where I have added a note to clarify.

ABA-i

https://www.aba-i.co.uk//signup/

Amber Arch

http://www.amberarch.com/mystery-shopping-jobs.php

01914922020

Bare International

https://www.sassieshop.com/sassie/SassieShopperSignup/Signup.php?EmsID=OTWjtdM%2Bsxk%3D

02 03355 9265

Blue Apple

http://www.theblueapple.co.uk/#!vstc0=vacancies

01933 316149

Business Blueprints

http://www.businessblueprints.co.uk/fieldForce.htm

01273 684714

Catalyst

http://www.catalystmarketresearch.ie/become-a-mystery-shopper-for-catalyst-market-research?EmsID=pKxXqli%2BNx8%3D

08450 263955

Coyle Hospitality Group

http://www.coylehospitality.com/evaluators/

Customer Perspectives

http://www.customerperspectives.co.uk/shopper.asp

01403 230650

These contact details are up to date at the time that this blog is published and I'll endeavour to keep them up to date as I go. If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me or the mystery shopping companies directly.

See how my mystery shopping book came into existence

My Amazon Kindle book called The Secrets of Mystery Shopping : How to Become a Mystery Shopper was released yesterday. This is one of the books that I have published on areas of modern life that I have gained great experience in. I'm passionate about mystery shopping and I think that it's a good way to gain some money and free products whilst helping out companies with how their team reacts in certain situations.

The book was available to pre- order on Amazon but there was a little bit of a wrangle between me and them about the pre-order and edits to the book so the pre- order was cancelled and the book launched immediately.

When I uploaded the book file when setting up the book for ore-order, there was no mention of any issues in updating the content in the run up to launch. So when I went through the final edit of the book, checked and updated the contact details of all the mystery shop companies I was ready to upload the final file to the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing site. When I got there, this book was greyed out and I couldn't access it to update. I contacted the help desk and was told that for the 3 days before the release, the book was unavailable to edit - I'd missed the deadline by about an hour! Although I didn't know I'd missed a deadline because there wasn't enough information there to tell me.

I was gutted - the choice was to wait until after it was released and then change the book file -meaning that any pre-orders would be unable to access the updated file. Or to withdraw the pre-order title, republish as a ready to buy book and have my customers read the full experience. This meant that I would lose the ability to set books up to pre-order for a year. I went for the second option as I couldn't see the value in having someone pay for what wasn't a full book.

So, here we are, it's published and I've set up a twitter account @mysteryshopper74 to help with the exposure.

It's available on the Amazon Kindle store now, so take a look and see what you think.