After you have completed even a handful of mystery shopping assignments, you likely have developed the understanding that mystery shopping can cost your money just as it can make you money. There are a number of hidden costs associated with mystery shopping that many new mystery shoppers fail to take into account, such as the travel costs and the non-reimbursed portion of a required purchase. After you take these costs…
4 Ways To Prevent Identity Theft For Mystery Shoppers
Mystery shoppers often become the target of identity theft simply by the fact that their credit information is more often used and accessed. Your credit card or check card information can be stolen by the salesperson or wait staff on your mystery shop assignment can steal your credit card information with a simple swipe of your card through a special machine. There may be various false websites that appear to…
Spring Cleaning Tips For Mystery Shoppers
Depending what part of the country you live in, you may still be gripped by harsh winter weather or you may already be thinking about planting your spring garden. Regardless of the weather outside, now is a great time for spring cleaning inside! If you were too busy with the hustle and bustle of the holidays to prepare for the new year, seize the moment to clear the clutter and…
Make More Money By Being an Efficient Mystery Shopper
As the saying goes, time is money. In today’s economy, many of us are working two jobs, trying to make as much extra money as we can. We may be saving for a rainy day, paying off credit card, or simply trying to make ends meet. Regardless of our motivation, we all want to make more money! One of the benefits of mystery shopping is that you can make more…
What To Do With Your Mystery Shopping Assignment Paperwork
Most mystery shoppers print out their mystery shop assignment’s guidelines and report questionnaire to make completion of an assignment easier. Printing out the guidelines and questionnaire allows you to read the fine print more carefully, as well as to take the info with you and review before you walk into the assignment location. After you complete your assignment, however, you may be tempted to toss your papers in the recycle…
Balancing Mystery Shopping With Your Busy Holiday Schedule
The holidays can be a crazy and hectic time for many people. After all, you have the combination of long family visits, bad winter weather, the busiest shopping season of the year, and horrible travel conditions and delays all combined into about five “festive” weeks. And that’s not even counting putting up the holiday lights, searching for the perfect Christmas tree, holiday parties, and school Christmas pageants. It’s no wonder…
3Tips To Organize Your Mystery Shopping Business
You can run into a number of avoidable snags or delays mystery shopping, just as with any other business or job. Fortunately, many of these challenges can be avoided when the proper steps are taken to prevent mishaps from occurring. Back It Up! If you have ever had a computer crash on you, you understand what a complete nightmare it is to try to re-create the vital data you have…
Easy Ways to Get Your Shop Approved (The First Time!)
It can be frustrating to spend so much time and effort on a mystery shop, only to have the report sent back to you for revisions. There’s a lot of time involved in doing a shop – such as preparing for the shop beforehand by reviewing requirements, and actually completing the shop and filling out the report. When you push that “Submit” button to send your report off through cyberspace,…
Here Are Quick Ways To Manage Your Busy Shop Schedule
The flexibility of work hours with mystery shopping is one of the things that draw people to this job. Maybe you have a demanding full-time job, but want some extra cash with a flexible part-time job. Or maybe you’re a college student or a soccer mom, which both have changing work availability by the week. Chances are you are already a very busy person without shop assignments. Or perhaps you’ve…
Secrets of an Efficient Mystery Shopper
We’ve all heard the old adage that time is money. As a mystery shopper, the more shops you can squeeze into a busy day, the more money you can earn. Many of us chose mystery shopping as a job because of its flexibility, and because we need extra money but have busy lives, too. So it goes without saying that the more shops you can do in a day or…