What mystery shopping has done for my Christmas

With only a week to go it is good to look back on the last few months of mystery shopping to see what they have done for my Christmas. It is a great way to get your hands on some free stuff that takes some of the pressure off over the Christmas period. I use my mystery shopping assignments to get hold of some extra things and to take the pressure off rather than to generate an income. If I can pick up extra things throughout the year for birthdays and Christmas and break even then I am always happy. This is easy to do if you know how. So here is what mystery shopping has done for my Christmas.

Stocking fillers

The reimbursement from a mystery shopping company for an assignment is rarely massive. So you can't often get an assignment that will give you £50+ to spend on gifts. Even the shops in jewellery stores are usually only to make an enquiry rather than a purchase. For this reason I use the mystery shops for those little extra presents that fill stocking rather than try to use mystery shopping for main presents. The kids are still fairly young so it helps to have something extra for them to open on Christmas day.

I think that mystery shopping can really help in this way as you can get your hands on those smaller extra gifts that help make a good Christmas for the young ones.

Gifts for other family members

We have many people that we buy 'a little something' for that only costs a few pounds. It is a gesture of our appreciation, especially if they buy something for the kids and don't have children themselves. So mystery shopping can really help here. many mystery shops give you the chance to pick up something that would be prefect for a gift, such as-

• perfume
• a candle
• a box of chocolates
• a bottle of wine

And these are ideal to give to people as a small token of our love.

The Christmas table

Again, you will be unlikely to be able to find a mystery shop with enough of a payment to buy a turkey but you can pick up extras like chocolates, wine, Christmas crackers, etc that will help to make the day go with a little more style without spending any more money. Mystery shopping opens doors for people to make their Christmas day a little more special. If you have a set budget then mystery shopping will allow you to push out the boat a little.

Much of this takes planning. I generally start thinking about mystery shopping for Christmas when the kids go back to school in September. This gives me plenty of time to pick up those extra items that will make a big difference to the day.

If you are interested in mystery shopping then my book is a great place to start learning all about it. Check it out on the Amazon Kindle store now.

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.

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-

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.

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 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.

Looking to earn money in time for Christmas? Have you thought about Mystery Shopping?

I have been working on the different ways of promoting my book on mystery shopping. I recently produced the following promo video, available on You Tube to support the book and blog. It starts to explain the things that mystery shopping can do and how it can help you out. Take a look-

The video was made with help from an online free animated promo video-making company called www.RawShorts.com

I recommend them if you have a little bit of tech knowledge and need a free promo video.

If you don't have the skills of patience for this then try www.fiverr.com which is an online community of people that will produce all sorts of things for you for only $5.

If you are interested in Mystery Shopping and want a head start on getting free stuff in time for Christmas then take a look at my Amazon Kindle book-

Looking to start mystery shopping in time for Christmas? Read on…

It was my eldest sons birthday yesterday and an occasion such as this (along all the other emotions) brings home what mystery shopping can do for you. As extra presents alongside what we had already bought him, we were able to add-

A £25 pair of trainers from a £30 mystery shop

A £15 jumper from a £14 mystery shop

A £18 polo short from a £13 mystery shop

A £12 pair of jeans from a £14 mystery shop

A £10 dressing gown and £1 pyjamas from a £14 mystery shop

So, the mathematicians among you will have already worked out that we added £81 of presents to his birthday and made a small profit of £5. I know that this figure doesn't include allowances for time, petrol and parking (on the above occasions there was no parking fees) but you can see the potential here.

With Christmas in the way, it's time to start again and look for stocking fillers to make the kids Christmas even better.

Like what you read? Looking to earn from mystery shopping in time for Christmas?