How I Earned $145 In My First 3 Days As A Mystery Shopper...
February 13, 2006
This is weird, I admit it.
I read an article in the Albany Times Union one Tuesday afternoon last
Summer. The article was about an unemployed woman who had discovered
the wonderful world of "mystery shopping". The previous month she made
nearly $7000. She started doing this last summer.
Mystery shoppers get paid to sample a company's service or products and
write a report on their experience. For companies, mystery shopping is
a popular way of checking on quality.
I've always been aware of mystery shopping but figured most of it was
just a scam. I recalled recently seeing a lot of "jobs" for
mystery shoppers in the help wanted classifieds.
I dug one of papers out and called. Sure enough, they wanted $40
to sell me a book of large companies that may or may not use mystery
shoppers. (I thought to myself "yeah I already have one of
those...it's called a phone book!)"
Back to the Internet...
After several hours I found a resource that included a directory of
available "mystery shopping jobs" across the country and it was updated
daily.
I'm glad I did. I found 6 "jobs" in the Albany area.
One was a job for counting heads at one of those "make tons of money in
real estate with no money down" type seminars. Surprisingly, I hadn't
heard this seminar was happening but I can certainly count!
I fired off an e-mail to this company and on Wednesday afternoon (one
day after reading the article) I was counting up to the number 47 at
the Holiday Inn Turf on Wolf Rd. True, I had to sit in the seminar for
90 minutes but for $25 it wasn't a bad deal since I was interested in
real estate anyway. Interesting side note...an area
meteorologist (TV weatherman) was in the audience at this seminar.
(interesting to me anyway)
At the same time I found this "shop", as those of us in the industry
call it :>), I found a company that shopped a local bank
chain, once per month. I contacted them because they needed a
shopper at a bank near where my grandmother is in a nursing home.
The handler wrote me back and asked me to go to the web site and
fill out the application.
When I completed that I gave her a call.
When she found out where I lived, she assigned me 4 other banks on the
spot.
Those four shops paid $15 each and the one near gram paid $30 since it
was a bit far out in the boonies.
In the meantime I picked up two other banks that were sort of on my way
home from the boonies....another $15 each.
These bank shops required me to go in and ask for information related
to one of the banks products (checking, savings etc.) and report back
on my experience.
Here is a sample of what they wanted to know...
YES NO
1. Were you acknowledged within 20 seconds? (Verbal or
non-verbal; look up, smile, nod)
YES NO 2. Did the
representative stand up to greet you and greet you warmly? (Must do
both for Yes)
YES NO 3. Were
you offered introductions and a handshake? (Must do both to receive YES
Answer)
YES NO 4. Were
you offered a seat?
YES NO 5. Was the
representative friendly, show enthusiasm and seem eager to assist you?
YES NO 6. Was
your name used anytime during your visit?
YES NO 7.
Did they ask questions to understand your current needs?
YES NO 8.
Did they ask questions to uncover your future needs? (education, home
loan, retirement)
YES NO 9. Were
the products and services explained to you in an easy to understand
manner?
YES NO 10. Did the
representative make it easy for you to do business with them? (if NO
explain)
YES NO 11. Were you offered a
business card? (No = Shopper had to ask for it)
YES NO 12. Were any
additional products or services mentioned? If so, what? _________
(i.e., Online Banking, Investments, Overdraft)
YES NO 13. Did the
representative ask for your business or attempt to close the
sale?
YES NO 14. Did the
representative sincerely express appreciation or thank you for your
business?
YES NO 15. Did the
representative attempt to build a banking relationship with you,
personalize
the
service and make you feel like a valued client?
YES NO 16. Was your product
inquiry completed promptly?
YES NO 17. Did the
representative offer further assistance? (Ex: Is there anything else I
can help you with today? )
YES NO 18. Did the
representative ask if they could call you to follow up?
Pretty simple huh? 10 minutes was the most I spent in
any branch.
I then had to write at least 5 sentences on my overall impressions of
the encounter and submit it at the web site.
After the first of next month I'll be eligible to go to the other banks
in the area and "shop" them. Then I'll grow a beard and shave my
head and I can go back to all of them again! Well, maybe not.
:>)
So that was $145 from Tuesday to Friday starting from a dead
start. Will next week be the same? Not likely. I'm
the first to admit I was very lucky to have all those jobs line up so
quickly. The point however, is that mystery shopping is real and
you really do get paid.
I knew immediately that this is something YOU would be interested in
doing at least on a part-time basis. I don't think many people could
make $7000 per month but $200-$400 per month would make a difference in
your life right?
Most mystery shopping is stuff that can be done on your lunch hour or
on the weekends. If you can get just two mystery shops per week
paying you $15 each, at the end of the month, you'll have earned
$120+. Three $15 jobs a week would be $180 a month. Not a
bad hourly rate when you do the math and maybe that pays your phone
bill and computer bill?
Now
don't get me wrong. This isn't magic. I would have some
work
to do to get to a point where I get called for jobs consistently.
You will too. I now get emails every day with available
"shops" I don't apply for them all in my area and I don't get all
that I apply for.
Some jobs won't allow you to bring your kids with you, although some
will. Like anything worthwhile, it's a process. Of course,
I can't guarantee you'll make anything
After you string together a few weeks of mystery shopping then the
money
will be coming in consistently. I know one company, for example
pays you the last week of the month after your shop was completed.
Assuming you are reliable, observant and can compose some intelligent
sentences describing your experience then it's likely you can make some
good extra money as a mystery shopper.
There are over 140 different companies that offer mystery shopping
services to companies of all sizes. You can register with as many of
those as you wish. Obviously the more you register with the more
likely you are to get jobs.
If you like what you've read so far then I'd recommend that you get
access to the info Start Getting A Paycheck
For Shopping And Eating Out! by clicking HERE
You'll really be amazed at the type of stuff you could get to do as a
mystery shopper. I've been paid $24 to play mini-golf for
instance. Not too bad for a couple hours work. I've also
evaluated a JCPenny vision center, video store and Greyhound Bus Stop
among others.
Get
started
by clicking here right now!
Thanks.
P.S. I often
get email from people saying they were told they don't have to pay for
"Mystery Shopping" jobs and that is 100% correct. When you make
the investment in this program you are not paying for jobs. You
are paying for information on legitimate companies that hire mystery
shoppers. You could spend weeks researching this same info
yourself or you could make this small one time investment and use those
weeks to actually be doing the jobs.
Get
started
by clicking here right now!