Secret Shopping

I look orange. I am not kidding. A day later and now my skin is looking more and more "orange" from that sunless tanning session I had yesterday for my secret shopping job. I am starting to wonder if that one was worth it?! I think about my time, payment, gas mileage, report time and  out-of-pocket money expenses before accepting a job. I don't think I will be doing this one again. I guess looking orange for a few more days goes with the territory.

I've had so many people asking me questions about my "job," that I thought I would blog about it to share my experience. It definitely has been a great conversation starter and keeper. People just find what I do fascinating for some reason. Some days I even find it fascinating. I must say my life has been very interesting since February when I became a "mystery shopper" or "shadow shopper," whatever you prefer.  I pretty much 'bumped' into this job by accident. A friend of mine is also a secret shopper, and we got to chatting about it one day at the gym. She happened to mention it in passing. It sparked my interest, so I asked her for the website information. I registered with the company, and I began to be assigned mystery shops. It was that simple.

My first mystery shops were for cell phone stores. They didn't pay much, but I was after the experience more so than the money at that point. I was assigned to go into a certain cell phone retailer and "pretend" I was interested in purchasing a smartphone. I was given complete, detailed instructions I needed to follow. Then I needed to complete an online report about my experience, upload a business card and evaluate the sales process. That first one went pretty smoothly and was easy enough, so I signed up for more shops.

I moved onto college admissions, apartment leasing, gym memberships, audits, phone mortgage inquiries, restaurant reviews; furniture, mattress, and jewelry "shopping." The list goes on and on. The best part has been test driving a brand new Porsche, Infinity and Kia. Or when I "tried on" a $2,500 diamond necklace. Darn! I really wanted to take that one home with me.

It has been kinda' fun to take on the role of  'the lady interested in buying that brand new Porsche' when I drive up in my 14-year old, about-to-drop dead rusted Mercury Sable. The scenario I provide can be quite outrageous and humorous, but believable. I am just following a script and role playing for the most part; I think I've found my niche.

I am not sure how long this job will last for me, but I must say it's been fun, very interesting and worth my time, for now. I am considering an editing position with one of the companies I work for just to keep things interesting. I am very thankful. I like to pass along the information for those of you who are interested. I've met many new people and have a brand new awareness of customer service; that's for sure. I find it hard to get out of secret shopping mode when I go anywhere now!

For those of you who asked me for the mystery shopping information, here it is: sign up and register for the "free" first month at www.shadowshopper.com. They will email you companies that are looking for secret shoppers. From there, you will need to register with each company, which can be time consuming but worth it. They, in return, will send you emails when they have job assignments in your area. Good luck and have fun! Any questions? You know where to find me :)