More and more people are discovering how they can stay connected to friends and family through social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, and the fact is that there are also websites that allow you to network with your mystery shopping peers and colleagues, too. Mystery shopping has traditionally been a fairly isolated type of job, where you work on your own typically with your identity concealed. You may do dozens of assignments without even communicating with your mystery shopping providers, too. You just sign up to do the assignment, go through the motions of completing the assignment, and then submit your report. Before recently, you really had very little opportunities to meet other mystery shoppers. However, thanks to mystery shopping online forums, this has all changed. When you join the communities online for mystery shoppers, you can benefit in many different ways:
Industry News. Who would have known that mystery shoppers love to talk about their jobs so much? The fact is that as mystery shoppers, we have a lot to say about our experiences with trends in assignments and shop pay, working with various providers, and so forth, but we don’t have many people to share that information with face to face. When you are a member of a mystery shopping forum, you can not only share your own experiences from your day to day jobs, but you can also gain some incredible insight about trends and news in the industry from reading other mystery shoppers’ posts.
Scams. One of the most important things you can learn from mystery shopping forums is about possible scams targeting the industry. Mystery shopping is one of those industries that scam artists just love to prey on, and so it will really benefit you to stay updated on the latest scams by reading the posts other mystery shoppers leave on the forums. Of course, if you have been targeted by a scam yourself, you should immediately take time to let your fellow mystery shoppers know about it so they can help you shut the scam artist down and get caught by the authorities.
Tips for Success. When you are a mystery shopper, you don’t really go through any type of training, and yet you can benefit from training. Forums serve as a great educational tool for mystery shoppers because they quite simply can allow you to learn from the experiences other mystery shoppers have had, both on the job and with their providers. Many mystery shoppers have applied tips and advice they have gleaned from the forums in their actual assignments, and those tips and advice have spared them tons of heartache and grief, and have also saved them some money from time to time, too.
As you can see, there is a lot you can learn and benefit from when you take time to visit the mystery shopping forums regularly. You should absolutely make it a regular part of your work day as a mystery shopper to spend a few minutes online so you can share your own stories and tips as well as learn from your fellow mystery shoppers, too.