Ever wondered what on earth a mystery shopper is or does? Sneak about stores looking like Inspector Clouseau dressed in a trench coat and dark fedora? Nope, mystery shoppers are in fact just like normal people.

Private Investigation

Mystery shoppers are actually tools (people) who do market research on the quality of service provided or get information about specific products and/or services. The really interesting thing about mystery shopping, is that it actually got its start in the 1940s when it was used as a method to test employee honesty etc. What happens is that the “shopper,” who is posing as a regular customer goes into the targeted location and does regular customer things – such as register a complaint, buy something, ask questions or act in a certain way.

At the end of a day, a mystery shopper gets paid for their services and for the detailed report they write up about the particular location they visited. A mystery shopper may be equipped with a number of different tools to do their job and those tools might include using a video cam or tape recorder.

These days there are a large number of mystery shopping companies that are totally run on the Internet. There seemingly aren’t very many brick and mortar companies that offer this kind of a service. Where do mystery shoppers go, who do they get the inside info from? A mystery shopper is never out of work as they can shop in retail stores, fast food chains or even health care facilities.

In the UK there is a newer trend to providing mystery shopping services to get feedback on services offered by non-profit organizations(churches, etc.) and by local authorities. Mystery shoppers make it a point to try and do something different when they are about to buy an item, whether that is ask an unusual question about it or just do something unusual while they are in the store.

Covert Surveillance

While they are allowed to be “unusual” on their assignments, mystery shoppers are not encouraged to draw a lot of attention to themselves. The idea is to test the employees in the store on their service skills, and their knowledge of their duties.

Are you missing important documents or find that projects you are currently working on are being sabotaged? If things like this are going on, then it’s time to call in the experts on company infiltration in order to maintain a secure business environment.

You don’t want to make a big deal about things going missing, but you do want to get to the bottom of it. The information you are provided will allow you to make crucial business decisions as to whether to take action internally, or involve the police.

Here is another potential Mystery Shopping assignment that involves a shopper in a restaurant explaining to the server that they are gluten intolerant and must not have wheat, rye, barley and oats or any products made from them. Mystery shoppers want to know how the staff acts and reacts to questions etc.