Mystery shopping is easy when you know how

I have carried out what must be two of the easiest mystery shops of my life today. They were both simple purchases made and all I really had to remember was the name and description of the person who served me. This is the beauty of mystery shopping sometimes as you get to carry out fun assignments that don't take up a lot of time.

There were other parts to the mystery shop such as was the place clean and we're team members wearing a uniform but these are general points that are really easy to remember at the point of completing the report. The reports is what you fill out when you get back home and often there are large parts of it that you will remember as a matter of course. The general impressions of a place are still there in your mind when you get home and are asked to reflect on them.

Mystery shopping can be an easy way to make some extra money and pick up some free stuff. Today I made enough money to pay for the petrol I used to get there and back, a few pounds for my time and I got -

• A pack of toilet rolls
• A tube of toothpaste
• A pack of toothbrushes
• Curry, side dishes and drinks for two

Maybe not the most glamorous of shopping trips but all of this was paid for by someone else (in fact by two different mystery companies) and it was somewhere I was going anyway. This is the beauty of mystery shopping. Many of the possibilities will be in one of your local towns, cities or shopping centres so you will be visiting these places anyway.

Mystery shopping reports can look daunting when you first start out but they are not difficult. In many reports there may be up to 70 questions but the vast majority will be simple yes/no clicks of a button and move on. The reports today took me around 6 minutes combined. Add this to the visits and this was an easy way to make money and get free stuff. It is best practice to take a copy of the report with you so you can complete it as soon as you leave, that way yo can record all the important details and even possibly go back and check again if you need to.

If you are thinking about becoming a mystery shopper then my book is a great place to start. It contains a step by step guide on how to be a successful mystery shopper. Check it out now!

Fish and chips rounds off the weekdays on my free lunch mystery shop challenge

My regular readers will know that I am on a mission to have my main meal paid for by mystery shopping company every day for a week. I am doing this to highlight the great things that mystery shopping can bring you.

Today was a lunchtime meal for my mystery shop. Many restaurant mystery shops are actually designed for one person to carry out. It can be difficult to feed multiple people without supplementing it with a little of your own money. Today was different.

Chain pub fish and chips for two!

The mystery shopping assignment itself is always a straightforward one for this client. They are very efficient at what they do and serve thousands of customers up and down the country every day. I like to do this mystery shop and there are a few of these pubs within a twenty mile radius of my home so they come up quite often.

This one saw a change in some of the requirements against what is usually asked do this is a good time to remind all you budding mystery shoppers to read the notes thoroughly before every visit. Sometimes you visit the same client so often that you know the visit like the back of your hand. But if the assignment notes change and you've missed it then you are high and dry - you won't get paid for the mystery shop.

Many different things can change, such as-

• The visit times that you are allowed to perform the shop in
• The required purchases
• How long you need to be in the establishment
• Any questions you might have to ask

It is always best practice to check all of this out before going on your mystery shop. If you are discrete then you may be able to check and confirm these details on your smartphone while you are here. However make sure that you do not give yourself away as a mystery shopper.

Always be prepared for what you have to do and you can become a successful mystery shopper. My guide to mystery shopping is available now on the Amazon kindle store. Check it out-

Mystery shopping for my dinner every day this week - Tuesday

Part two of my mission to get mystery shops for my main meal every day for a week was a success.

For those of you they don't follow my blog every day I have set myself a challenge. I firmly believe in the power of mystery shopping to earn a little extra money and get your hands on a few freebies. Family life can be tough on the finances so freeing up a little money can help.

For those of you that do follow, you will know that I have promised a small blog entry every day to let you know about the meals I have got from mystery shopping and how my progress is coming along. The next blog (later today or early tomorrow) will go into some detail about what I have actually got to do in return for these free meals.

One of the best things about mystery shopping to me is a free meal. There seemed to be a few around so I decided that I would try to feed myself (and others) for a week solely by mystery shopping.

Tuesday saw a visit to a national pub chain for one of their theme evenings. It focuses on a type of cuisine and gives you a choice of meals with a drink for a set price. The reimbursement and fee for the job was enough to cover a meal for two with a drink.

It's great to go out and mystery shop. There are several benefits-

• Extra income
• Free food and drink
• Gifts for others
• The chance to meet other people

When it is cold and wet out there (and it certainly is that in the North East today) then it's good to get warm food some place where someone else is footing the bill. You should try it some time!

If you are interested in mystery shopping then my book is a great place to start. It's a available on the Amazon kindle store now-

Two mystery shops in the same location produce very different results

I'll use this post to do two things. The first is to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope that 2016 brings you everything you want. The second reason is to use two mystery shops to highlight what we do mystery shoppers.

I visited the same location as a mystery shopper two Sundays in a row, the second occasion being yesterday. The visits were very different and I'll use this to illustrate what we should be measuring. It's two visits to a national food pub chain.

Level of trade

The difference in level of trade on these two dates was staggering. On 27th December the venue was packed. I struggled to find a table and waited a long time at the bar to be served. Whilst ordering at the bar I was told that the wait for food would be around 40 minutes, which was a fairly accurate prediction. It took longer to use the toilets, longer to have the table cleared and longer to pay but all of this is expected when it is this busy. And it's here that I want to look at customer measures.

What could have been done?

The only potential change would have been to have more staff present. Now I know that at this time of the year people need their time off and there's more likelihood of someone calling in sick, so this isn't always an option.

As a measure of the actual service the team gave me on that day, they could not have affected the delays. It was purely down to the heavy trade. The service was friendly and as efficient as possible and the delays were explained. The visit yesterday was to a virtually empty place. There were no queues, speedy service and the food arrived quickly. The team worked as well as they did the week before, but with vastly fewer customers.

It's here that you need to consider what you are measuring. Service times in busier times can be extended and this is acceptable. If you're unsure then speak to your mystery shop company, they will help you along the way.

If you want more information about mystery shopping then take a look at my book, available now.

The last few mystery shops before Christmas - free meals!

Its very quiet now in the mystery shop front, and the only jobs I'm picking up to carry out now are those in restaurants and pubs.

I've carried out a few over the last week or so, and I've for two more set before the end of the year.

I went to a chain pub last week for a standard assignment. It was about ordering a meal and a couple of drinks and them assessing the customer service and quality of the food and drinks. Its a repeat assignment, so it's something I can do in my sleep but sometimes this brings it's own problems. It really pays to read through the notes thoroughly, as these assignments can change over time. On this occasion I read through but it was very similar to the way it always has been - in fact this same assignment was my very first ever mystery shop!

Fee = £3.50

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £11.00

Profit/Loss = -£2.50

I also visited the catering outlet of a local government establishment last week. It was to test the quality of food and service age in, but with a slightly different agenda. The measures that the client wanted was to establish whether the outlet was closer in standards to a catering facility or a restaurant chain. The offering was decidedly catering outlet fayre and this will no doubt disappoint the client. They are hoping to be viewed as a food destination in their own right but on the basis of this visit, that is unlikely to be happening any time soon.

Fee = £3.25

Reimbursement = £9.75

Spend = £19.00

Profit/Loss = +£6.00

If you are looking to mystery shop, and this really take soff in January then take a look at my book. It's a guide on how to become a successful mystery shopper.

See how to look a little deeper into the mystery shops you do

It's just a quick single shop visit today, and because of that it's going to be a short blog. It's actually a second visit to the same national pub chain that I visited earlier in the week (see here) and another free lunch (or dinner, depending in where you live - see here.)

But I'll use this opportunity to take a look at this mystery shop in more detail, as it's one I manage to do about once a fortnight.

I always try to look a little deeper into what the mystery shop company is trying to measure when I'm out conducting a shop. From some of the questions asked by the mystery shop company, I'll take a look at what we're attempting to discover. These questions have been edited to protect the anonymity of the mystery shop company and the client, but are similar in structure to the originals. This gives me the opportunity to explore the customer service measures behind the questions-

Were you acknowledged before you were served, whilst standing at the counter? Yes/No

Did you begin to receive service within 1 minute 30 seconds of being positioned at the counter? Yes/No

Obviously we are looking at a service here, but a particular kind of service. It's the all-encompassing service of someone behind the counter that is in control of their counter. The questions are designed to measure that the person behind the counter, who may be busy with a lunchtime rush, has a good idea of who is arriving in their view, that they have seen them, acknowledged them and will be ready to serve them. It's about making sure that the customer knows they've not been ignored and that they will be served as soon as possible. It creates a feeling of calmness at the counter as every customer knows the server has control.

Did you receive a check back during your meal?

If you are a regular mystery shopper then you will be aware of the term check back. A check back is where the member of staff returns to your table during your meal to see that everything is satisfactory. And the purpose of this is to see if the customer wants anything else. For example, the customer needs more gravy, has dropped their fork and needs a clean one, wants another drink or anything else. So this serves a double purpose - customer service (making sure the customer is okay) and sales (seeing if there is anything else that the customer wants to buy) and this double purpose is something that companies will want to see if their staff are carrying out. Hence the fact that it is included on pretty much every pub and restaurant food order mystery shop.

Like what you read? Want to become a mystery shopper?

My Amazon Kindle book on mystery shopping and how to become a mystery shopper is out now-

See how a 2 hour quick mystery shop can be profitable

Yesterday was a quieter day on the mystery shop front, but a quick 3-shop trip out paid dividends, as well as only taking up less than 2 hours. Plus, although I visited 3 locations, all had free parking to ease the strain!

First stop was a local chemist or pharmacy store. I've carried this an similar for the same mystery shopping company (one of several I use) and I always find an element of the shop intriguing. There is always a question about the purchase being under-rung or the money not going in the till in my presence. It makes me think that there's something underhand going on in these locations. My imagination flies away and I think that I'm going somewhere that the staff will steal from me as soon as look at me! Obviously that's not the case, but I'm always looking behind the questions to see what the company is measuring and what they want to know about their teams.

This is a really simple shop, purchase and get  a description of the team member. Easily done and quite well paid for the amount of time and effort taken.

Fee = £7.00
Reimbursement = £3.50
Spend = £3.50
Profit/Loss = +£7.00

The second visit was to a branch of a nationally-recognised health and beauty chain to ask about cosmetics and make a purchase. I like these assignments where I am playing a role that I don't usually play and the chance to be a man buying cosmetics is too much of an opportunity to pass on. SO when I saw this appear in the jobs list of my favourite mystery shopping company, I couldn't let it go.

The mystery shop itself wasn't quite as interesting as the build-up and it was a straight-forward enquiry and purchase.

Fee = £4.75

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £5.54

Profit/Loss = +£4.21

The final visit of the day was for lunch, at a national pub chain. This chain is a regular mystery shop for me, and I know the routine like the back of my hand-

1. Order 2 drinks and a meal
2. Take servers details
3. Take details of the person who brings you your food
4. Assess food and drink quality
5. Check for any promotions
6. Assess the toilets

It's a nice, easy, regular payday and it gets my wife and I a free lunch approximately once every week or so. This visit was no different to the regular ones - great food, great service, great mystery shop.

Fee = £3.25

Reimbursement = £9.75

Spend = £15.13

Profit/Loss = -£2.13

TOTAL = +£9.08 + toiletries and lunch for 2

Like what you read? Want to be a mystery shopper?

Check out my book on the Amazon Kindle store.

Find out how I earned money with a shopping trip to a local coastal town

Yesterday brought about 4 mystery shops, all in the same town. It's a great way to pull all of these things together by having one trip, one lot of petrol and only one parking fee. I often try to find free parking but it's few and far between in big towns and cities.

The first visit was to a multinational supermarket chain and to check out availability of some of their ranges before making an enquiry with a colleague and making a purchase at the till. Browsing the store it became obvious that there weren't many staff in the location and it may take a while to find assistance. However, as I looked for the items I wanted to purchase, a team member passed me and I was able to ask their assistance.

There were no queues at the checkout and I managed to pass through quite quickly.

Fee = £2.50
Reimbursement = £5.00
Spend = £7.41
Profit/Loss = +£0.09

The second visit was to a discount store and the process was very straightforward. Make an enquiry on the shop floor, and a purchase at the checkout. The team member on the shop floor was very helpful and I feel sorry for him, as his service was excellent but he wasn't wearing a name badge so there were probably marked down for this. For a team member in a discount store to take the time to show you products elsewhere in the store and listen to your enquiry is rare, but this guy knew hi stuff.

Fee = £5.00
Reimbursement = £0.99
Spend = £4.01
Profit/Loss = +£1.98

The third visit was the final retail visit of the day and was to a national unisex clothing store. The remit for this store is always the same and I was required to visit the menswear department, which in this store was upstairs. This usually means that there is only one team member present in the upstairs and today was no exception. I was to make four enquiries and I like to make these with different team members to get a more overall view of the store rather than just one employee who may particularly good or particularly bad.  The team member was very good, but I feel most like a mystery shopper when asking the same team member several similar enquiries. I think it's when I'm most likely to me recognised as a mystery shopper.

Fee = £2.25
Reimbursement = £12.00
Spend = £12.00
Profit/Loss = +£2.25

The final visit of the day was for lunch (or dinner, depending on whereabouts in the UK you live - see here) It was to a chain pub, where the purpose of the mystery shop was to check service levels and whether the team were up-selling. The team were very good at discussing starters, larger size meals, sides and desserts so there was a huge tick in the up-selling box. And the service was definitely with a smile - three team members said "goodbye" as I left - how's that for a friendly team!

Fee = £2.75
Reimbursement = £12.74
Spend = £12.74
Profit/Loss = +£2.75

TOTAL = +£7.07 + groceries, clothing and lunch for 2

Like what you read? Want to be a mystery shopper?

Check out my book on the Amazon Kindle store-