Fancy trying out a new restaurant without spending any money, or doing your weekly supermarket shop for nothing? It might be worth your while doing a spot of mystery shopping. Mystery shopping is market research ‘in the field’. Essentially, you pose as a customer and report on the products and services of various companies. Different market research companies will provide you with different assignments depending on who their clients are. There is a wide variety of tasks on offer, from the tame (such as buying an item of clothing from a department store) to the infinitely more risque, like visiting a lap-dancing club to ensure staff are sticking to the law!

• What’s involved?
• See our list of mystery shopping agencies
• How do I do it?
• How much could I earn?
• NEW mystery shopping company

Mystery shopping has been around for 60 years and is now highly regulated in the UK. The Market Research Society has created a code of conduct, and standards are maintained by trade bodies such as the Mystery Shopping Providers Association.

NEW Mystery Shopping Company
Check out a new mystery shopping company Consumer Intelligence – this company works predominantly with general insurance but you could earn pretty good money just for your opinion and a few hours of your time.

Visit the site here and enter your name, email and a few details about your current insurance policies. If you’re asked to take part, you’ll be asked what you think about several companies and get you to retrieve quotes directly from certain companies. Once you’ve done this you’ll need to complete a couple of questionnaires (boring but probably very straightforward). You aren’t obliged to buy any of the policies of course – just give your opinion and get paid for it!

Nowadays, all industry sectors employ mystery shoppers – retail, automotive, financial services, hospitality, property, call centres, public services, travel and even the voluntary sector – so there’s a huge range of work available. You could be enjoying a weekend break one month and phoning a call centre to complain about your gas bill the next. You don’t need any formal qualifications to be a mystery shopper – but you do need to have good observational skills and a good memory.

Most agencies ask that you don’t write notes or make what you’re doing obvious while you’re ‘on-the-job’, as it can affect the way you’re treated by the staff. The company’s main objective is to get an impartial experience. Mystery shopping is very flexible and not usually suitable as a full-time job, but it can be good to fit around other jobs in your life.

And remember that mystery shoppers are classed as self-employed, so you’ll need to declare your earnings to the Inland Revenue.

Different types of mystery shopping

Report-only mystery shopper

This is the most common option. You’ll be given a brief and a checklist of things to look out for. You need to follow your instructions (without letting anybody know you’re testing them), evaluate the response and then provide feedback, usually by way of an online questionnaire.

For example, you might go to Pizza Hut, order a large pizza and comment on the cleanliness of the restaurant, the atmosphere and mood that the staff set, their competence and the quality of the food.

Telephone mystery shopper

If you don’t trust your acting skills you might prefer to stick to the phone – there’s plenty of work available. You’ll be given a company to call with a host of questions that a typical customer may have. Again, you’ll need to assess the response and provide feedback.

Postal monitoring

This one requires minimum effort. Your home address is simply used for receiving brochures and other promotional material. You return the items, and the content and speed of delivery is measured.

Email

You’ll be sending specific enquiries to websites and monitoring the speed and content of the response. Again, you’ll need to assess and then pass on your findings.

Covert video mystery shopper

This is specialist stuff and only for well-trained shoppers. Essentially, you’re given a brief; you enter the premises as a customer, and then you record the entire process using covert video cameras. Companies need clear pictures, so don’t go for this if you record your feet at family events!

Step 1: Find the right agency for you.

Check out the list below and sign up with one of the many mystery shopping agencies around. Some specialise in specific industries, others are more general. You could try investigating the major department stores – Selfridges for example has its own mystery shopping panel.

• Checkout
• ESA
• Gfk NOP
• JKS Mystery Shopping
• Mystery Shoppers Ltd
• Performance in People
• Retail Active
• Retail Maxim
• Retail Rapport Ltd
• Storecheckers
• Stratagem Marketchecker
• TNS Global

This list contains the better mystery shopping agencies in the UK. If you want to find your own, just make sure they’re based in the UK with a UK phone number and address.

Make sure you keep an eye out for the small ads too. Local papers and recruitment agencies often carry mystery shopping adverts.

You should be looking for the ones you’ll get the most out of, whether that is the pay you receive for the jobs you do, or the freebies you get from the places you inspect.

You should never have to pay to join a company – they should be paying you for the work you do.

Step 2: Go out in the field.

Once you’re accepted to your chosen agency, you can begin looking for jobs on their website.

This is the hard part! You need to go and shop – or eat – or enjoy a show – but the main objective is to follow your instructions exactly, without having the instructions in front of you.

You’ll need to report on products and services, which can include anything from aspects of the decor, cleanliness, atmosphere, how the staff deal with other customers, how many staff there are and what they’re all doing.

Step 3: Reporting on your experience.

This will usually involve filling in a questionnaire with short or longer answers about your experience as a customer.

You’ll only get reimbursed and/or paid after you’ve reported on your job. This is usually done within 24 hours of your assignment.

Pay rates differ from company to company and depend on the complexity of the work.

Generally, you can expect to earn £5 – £25 per task plus expenses (but as little as £1 – £5 for phone work).

Useful Links

• Checkout
• ESA
• Gfk NOP
• JKS Mystery Shopping
• Mystery Shoppers Ltd
• Performance in People
• Retail Active
• Retail Maxim
• Retail Rapport Ltd
• Storecheckers
• Stratagem Marketchecker
• TNS Global