Happy Holidays, Happy Shopping!

Hello Everyone--

Just a quick note to wish you all a happy holiday and a prosperous new year with your mystery shopping!

And if you're not making the money you want to as a mystery shopper, please take some time after the hustle and bustle of the holidays passes to check out the many, many valuable free resources available at my web site Mystery Shopper Coach's Corner at http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com.

There IS good money to be made if you learn how to market your services and make connections.

Thanks for your time and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing

Handling Repeat Visits To The Same Sites (Ask The Coach)

Question:

“I enjoy reading your great information regarding mystery shopping. I am a mystery shopper for a company here in Auckland, New Zealand, and would like some advice on how to handle revisits to the same bank site. Normally there is a 3 month stand down, but I always feel that person knows me from before. Often we have to ask the same question such as "I want to buy a home and would like to know how much I can borrow?”. Any help would be much appreciated.”—T. C.

Answer From Coach Melanie:

I think in this case, you have to trust that the mystery shopping company that is hiring you to do the research has designed an appropriate study, including shopper rotation. Often, we feel that the employee involved knows who we are, or that there is a big sign that says "mystery shopper" on our foreheads giving us away. The reality is that most employees see so many people, unless you have done something unusual during the shop to stand out, you should be fine.

I did some apartment shops and car shops myself where the rotation was either 6 months, or 3 months, respectively, and ran into exactly the same employees I shopped before, but they did not have a clue that this was the case.

Have a great day and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan
http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing

Mystery Shopper Experiences—Honesty Is The Best Policy

Well, they did it again. I get lots of car dealer-related work from one mystery shopping company scheduler I hooked up with way back. But my pet peeve is that they are the slowest to pay--45 days after the month the shop is done! Yet they are very reliable--usually. I just had to call to check on a payment that was overdue for my December work. I got an apologetic voicemail and a promise that my check would be sent out immediately that day. Fair enough. And they did.

The funny thing was, two weeks later a second check showed up in the mail covering the same assignments. Hmm--what to do? Well, I decided it was best to be honest, so I called the company and left a message about the duplicate check. At the same time, I mentioned that I did have a March oil change shop that would be the exact same amount as the duplicate check, and asked if there any chance I could just keep the check as advance payment for that work? A couple of days later I not only got a phone call saying that as one of their top shoppers they would be glad to let me keep the check as payment for the upcoming shop, I was offered four more shops! It's nice to know honesty and good work are noticed and rewarded!

Do you have an amusing mystery shopper experience or anecdote that you would like to share? You are welcome to submit your own stories, and the best will be published in this blog and feed with full credit given to you. You'll be featured as a "Guest Coach".

Those submissions can be made by e-mail to me at mysteryshopcoach@aol.com. Please include your name, city and state and contact e-mail address with your submission (your e-mail address will not be published and we can either use your first name and last initial or vice-versa).

Have a great day and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan
http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing

Are You Mystery Shopping Legally? (Ask The Coach)

Question:

“Thanks for a great web site! Do you know if you need a private investigator license to mystery shop in Washington State? I'm having a hard time finding out. Thanks. Wes”

Answer from Coach Melanie:

I write about local regulations in my mystery shopping books, and here is a site that addresses the PI issue--www.crimetime.com/licensing.htm. For those of you who aren’t aware of this, some states require you to have a Private Investigator license in order to legally mystery shop. Nevada is one of them. Check to make sure you’re legal with this site and your local and state authorities.

Have a great day and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing

How-To Maximize Mystery Shopper Income—For Experienced Shoppers

A couple of days ago, I gave out the URLs for some of my articles on getting started in mystery shopping. Today, I have some help for those of you who have some mystery shopping experience.

As an experienced mystery shopper, you may have had some success, but are just not earning the kind of high income that other mystery shoppers earn. The number one comment I hear from experienced shoppers as an author, e-zine publisher and personal coach devoted to the mystery shopping field is this:

"I do some mystery shopping, but I just don't seem to be able to make the good money that I hear other mystery shoppers earn!"

Based on my work with other shoppers, you probably fall into one of the following groups:

1. You've got "paid to shop, eat for free" syndrome.

Too many mystery shoppers focus on this side of mystery shopping. It may be fun, but you pay a high price in terms of earning money to be a mall rat or a fast food junkie. Besides, there are many other shops out there that are fun too and pay a lot better.

2. You're an experienced shopper who has hit a plateau--much like when you work out or try to lose weight.

You've had some success, but you have not reached your goals. Assuming your goals are realistic for the amount of time and effort you are willing to put in; you are open to doing other kinds of shops; and there is good market demand in your area (or one that is reasonably close by), you just need some help. This usually involves creating an efficient system for yourself and taking the time to do some very simple things that will help you stand out from the crowd. Then you can break through and reach your maximum earnings potential!

There's a big difference between having years of shopper experience and actually making money at it!

For starters, check out my free articles "3 Easy Ways To Maximize Your Mystery Shopping Income" at http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com/maximizemysteryshopperincome.html,
"3 Tips For Shoppers With Some Experience" at http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com/mysteryshoppertipsexperienced.html and "3 Mystery Shopper Income Drainers" at http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com/mysteryshopperincomedrainers.html. My entire free article archives can be found on my web site at
http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com/Articles.html.

Have a great day and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing

Meeting Other Mystery Shoppers

I found out about this intriguing site from one of my loyal readers who is a member of her local group in Arizona. For those of you who would like the ability to network face-to-face with mystery shoppers in your own area, or start a group in an area where one does not exist, check this out:

Mystery Shoppers Meetup Groups
http://mysteryshoppers.meetup.com

Thanks for your time and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing

Getting Started In Mystery Shopping The Right Way

Hi again! Professional mystery shoppers who earn the top money in the field have a system in place for regularly finding work, and for standing out from the crowd of wannabe mystery shoppers who show their inexperience and lack of professionalism which often stand in the way of their reaching the level of income they desire. There’s no need to keep dabbling and trying to live off of pay that consists of little more than free hamburgers!

If you're a newbie or beginner, you may be quite overwhelmed with the whole mystery shopping field and not know how to get started in the most efficient way. For more information on this, please see my free articles "Getting Started In Mystery Shopping The Right Way" at http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com/gettingstartedinmysteryshopping.html
and "3 Tips For The New Shopper" at http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com/3tipsforthenewmysteryshopper.html. My entire free article archives can be found on my web site at
http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com/Articles.html.

One word of caution regarding the article “Getting Started In Mystery Shopping The Right Way”. This article was recently found in syndication on another web site by the President of a large, well-known mystery shopping company who was quite annoyed at my advice which flies in the face of conventional wisdom. That's because I said that companies don’t go through their own databases when scheduling shopping assignments because they usually outsource them. The key point is that there are exceptions of course.

While a shopper may get a job here and there applying directly to companies, I get hundreds of e-mails from shoppers wondering why they didn't get an assignment, and they think they can never be a shopper. They always find they get jobs when they follow my strategy of focusing first on applying where a job actually is available. In general, it is more effective and faster to apply to specific job openings, just like in the real business world, than to do a shotgun approach where an assignment may or may not be found.

On an interesting note, the company that contacted me, was one I have worked for in the past. They are a first-rate company. However, I never got an assignment from them as a registered shopper in their database. It wasn’t until I applied to a mystery shopper lead board posting that I got a gig and then became a regular with them for quite a long stretch of time. Enough said.

Have a great day and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing

Welcome to Mystery Shopper Coach’s Update!

In this first post, I would like to give you some background on myself and why you won’t want to miss a single one of my posts from now on!

I launched the Mystery Shopper Coach’s Corner web site back in 2001 to help take the mystery out of professional mystery shopping after publishing my first award-winning book on the subject "The Perfect Work-At-Home Job: Mystery Shopping”, and starting my internationally-recognized free e-zine “Perfect Work-At-Home Job Update”. Since that time, I wrote two more books on mystery shopping (“How-To Finally Make Money As A Mystery Shopper” and “Secret Mystery Shopping Sites Revealed!”), plus one on the complementary field of merchandising (“The Quick And Easy Guide To Making Money As A Merchandiser”).

I’ve had the pleasure of helping thousands of mystery shoppers either get started in mystery shopping, or learn to advance their careers to make the kind of money they were hoping to make when they began this work. And I have always taken the time to personally answer e-mailed questions from anyone who contacted me.

Often, you will find that I have a different point of view on mystery shopping from others. That’s because I have based my approach on business world marketing tactics from my work as a professional marketer in Corporate America. But I know it has worked for me and thousands of others who have read my articles, e-zine, books or been personally coached by me.

This blog and its companion feed, are my way of hopefully reaching and helping even more people. You can always count on me to “tell it like it is” based on my own personal shopping experiences, and those of the other mystery shoppers I am in contact with every day.

Expect on an ongoing basis to see quality feature article links, tips and resources for those who want to earn the top money in the field. I will also include my popular "Ask The Coach" Q&A (feel free to e-mail me at mysteryshopcoach@aol.com with a question to be considered for publication—even if not published, I’ll still answer you as my schedule permits), as well as amusing mystery shopping anecdotes and experiences from out in the field. I also am contacted from time-to-time by the media and will share some of those interviews with you as well.

Until the next post, why not take a moment to check out my web site Mystery Shopper Coach's Corner, where you’ll find a wealth of resources to help you begin or advance your mystery shopping career at http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com.


Thanks for your time and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing