Profession "mystery shopper" - reviews on weight of gold

Every day we visit various shops, buying food, household goods, clothes, household appliances. But if you want to know how to earn money on this business, you can try to choose a profession like a secret buyer. Reviews about the outlets that ordinary visitors leave, of course, are significant for the owners of the company and can affect the standards of service. But the "mystery shopper" (secret client) works according to a certain scenario, and his opinion will be more significant.

A driver at a gas station, a student standing in line for a hamburger at McDonald's, or a married couple who applies for a mortgage loan at a bank - they can all be united by one profession - a secret buyer. The feedback they leave should serve to study the quality of service at a given point. This way of earning and occupation is quite new for Central Europe and Russia. There are only a few professional companies on the market that offer such services to trade enterprises, banks, car dealerships. Just recently, there was another specialization - a secret buyer of new buildings. It seems incredible? However, developers and developers, owners and management of real estate agencies also want to know how their agents - middle and junior managers - serve their clients. The need for such marketing research is understood by more and more companies. With such tough competition, which currently exists on the market, businessmen can not afford mediocre and poor-quality customer service. After all, no matter how great the design or project, no matter what discounts the owner of the outlet offers, if the waiter or the seller is impolite or incompetent, customers will vote against it. With their money, which they will leave elsewhere.

The main purpose of the study by the "mystery shopper" method is feedback received after real communication, after a staged or actual purchase or visit to a given point. The study of the quality of customer service is carried out not only through detailed questionnaires. These can be audio recordings of conversations registered with a hidden dictaphone, and photographs. The whole process of customer service as a whole is assessed: the appearance of the facility, the waiting time for personnel assistance, the way and the way of solving a particular issue by the employee, cleanliness and comfort, the result is a successful completion or refusal to purchase.

Having passed a special instruction, training and visiting the specified place, the secret buyer reviews the notes in a detailed questionnaire, evaluating all areas that the company management wants to check. He must also express his own, subjective opinion on this issue, describe his emotions and impressions. Some secret buyers work with shops, others with banks and restaurants. In these last two sectors there is a huge competitive struggle for the customer. And if he is dissatisfied with the service, he most often will not file a complaint, but he will simply go to another restaurant, change the bank, and also tell his friends about all the troubles he faced. And this is the most powerful way of advertising (or anti-advertising). A satisfied customer will bring friends and family, disappointed - can scare off a few dozen potential visitors. Therefore, reasonable managers of the company will do everything to make the guests happy. And in this they will help a secret buyer. The responses that these "secret agents" leave are carefully analyzed by management, and on their basis far-reaching conclusions are drawn. That is why such qualities as observability, scrupulousness, good memory, ability to express one's thoughts are very important for such work.

Do you want to try yourself in such a profession as a secret buyer? Vacancies should be sought first of all in agencies conducting marketing research. They are not limited to questionnaires only, but try to provide enterprises with the widest possible range of analytical services. Mystery shopper often conducts hidden surveillance of the service in various outlets (shops, salons, boutiques, exhibition halls), playing the typical client of the company. The purpose of the study is to assess the actual level of service, which means that the person conducting the research can not reveal its actual role. Sometimes auditors should record a conversation with a consultant on the recorder, but in such a way that no one notices and does not know about it. Secret buyers conduct research on the place of residence or in places where they sometimes happen, often at the same time guided by their own preferences, and not just the script. This is a suitable type of additional earnings for students, moms on maternity leave, freelancers.

Unfortunately, there is still a stereotype that the research method "Mystery Shopping" is a tool for firing employees. However, in practice this is far from the truth. The company that orders such a study will analyze the results and what weaknesses the enterprise has and what mistakes the employees allow. However, most often the management does not know which of the employees the auditors left their comments for, because this information is not disclosed. Competent businessmen understand that it is cheaper and faster to retrain and motivate to improve the existing employee, than to dismiss him and train a new one. Thus, the new profession "secret buyer" directly contributes to the improvement of service standards and positively influences the conjuncture.