If you have ever found yourself muddling through a sticky situation as a mystery shopper on your own and trying to figure your problem out on your own, the fact is that it didn’t have to be that way. If you have ever wished that you had someone to turn to for guidance, you actually did have hundreds of people that were willing to offer advice.
Mystery shopping forums are the place where hundreds of mystery shoppers of all experience levels meet online. At these forums, they exchange ideas, share their good experiences and their bad, and offer advice for any problems others are having. Here, you will find mystery shoppers who have not yet completed their first assignment as well as a few who have been mystery shopping since before the Internet really became popular. There is much to gain by visiting the forums regularly, and here are some ideas for getting the most of of the forums:
Read Everything. The forums are filled with tons of valuable information, all there for the taking if you spend some time reading. The truth is that you really don’t know what tomorrow will bring. You cannot predict what questions or problems you may have yourself. When you read all of the posts on the forums, including those that don’t seem to apply to you, you will have a stockpile of information that will help guide you through any problems you may run into. You simply never know when you are going to run into the same problem during a site visit as another mystery shopper had, but if you had read the forum post and stored up all of the advice other mystery shoppers offered, you would be able to sail through your problem during your site visit. This is just one example of why it is good to store up on information by reading everything, even if it doesn’t seem to apply to you.
Visit the Forums Regularly. You don’t have to visit the forums on a daily basis, but if you can visit every few days or even on a weekly basis, you will find that you can peruse the new posts in a short period of time. If you wait long periods of time between your visits, you will find that you really need to spend an hour or longer to catch up on everything that has been posted. Busy mystery shoppers just don’t have time for that, and so they may end up missing out on the chance to read valuable information. You may not have an hour or two to devote to forums, but you can likely find a few minutes every few days to catch up on what’s been happening on the forum.
Make Some Posts. If you have questions about mystery shopping, by all means, make a post to get some answers. There is no reason to suffer through a problem you are having when there are so many helpful mystery shoppers who are eager to guide you through a tough spot. On the flip side of that, there are also plenty of mystery shoppers who have posted a question that you probably have some insight into, so take some time to provide a helpful response to a few posts. When you find yourself regularly posting questions and answers, you will become a recognized member of the mystery shopping community online. There is some satisfaction you gain from this that you can’t get anywhere else in the mystery shopping world.
Today is the perfect day to get started becoming a more active member on the mystery shopping forums!