Many seasoned mystery shoppers just seem to breeze right through their site visits without any issues at all. If you compare some of their comments on online mystery shopping forums against those comments from new or inexperienced mystery shoppers, you will find that the more seasoned professionals often have less issues with their site visits or reports and they complete their assignments far more quickly, too. You may think that some of this comes with experience, and that is indeed part of it. However, you will also find that learning how to properly prepare for your site visits contributes quite a bit to the speed and ease with which you can get through your assignments. Here are a few tips to help you better prepare for your site visits.
Understanding the Requirements
Each mystery shopping assignment of course has its own unique list of requirements that a mystery shopper must fulfill during the site visit. While the requirements often seem very similar from assignment to assignment, the fact is that there is quite a bit of variation in the minute, but all important, details. You will want to not just read through these assignments before you step foot on location, but you will also want to fully understand what they are asking you to do. If you have any questions, you want to ask your provider for clarification well ahead of time.
Committing Them To Memory
There are so many reasons why mystery shoppers may be forgetful. Sometimes it’s due to the stress of the job or outside stresses from your personal life. Other times you may just be plain forgetful for no reason at all. You do, however, want to commit all of the requirements to memory, and if you have trouble doing this, you can put some “cheats” to use. .You can jot down a few notes on a faux “shopping list” or you can even pull up the requirements in digital format on your smart phone. Of course, you will want to take extra precautions to keep your list hidden from view of other shoppers and on-site employees.
A Mental Walk-Through
It sounds like doing a mental walk-through of your site visit would take far too long to complete, but the fact is that it actually doesn’t take that long to do. You simply have to visualize yourself performing each of the requirements in the order in which you plan to do them, paying attention to whatever items you need to pay attention to according to the requirements. In the long run, this can actually save you time and effort by making your site visits more efficient. Plus, it will also help you to determine if you need to think outside the box for a site visit, such as employing the use of a cover story, determining a way to jot down notes of the details of the site visit, and more, well ahead of time so you aren’t caught off guard or overwhelmed while on site.
As you can see, preparing for a mystery shopping site visit is not just beneficial but often times is necessary for you to do the best and most efficient work you can. You may think that it would add additional work to your already full schedule, but over the long run it will save you time and likely even money, too.