|
The name may conjure images of women in trench
coats and dark glasses looming around the local mall buying
items in secret, but mystery shopping requires neither a
disguise nor undercover purchasing.The profession, often
portrayed as a way to make $40 an hour while dining free
at the best restaurants and getting freebies from stores,
is often misunderstood.
Mother-and-daughter team Beverly
and Tiffany Gleason and Trish Amburn own Mystery Shoppers,
a Knoxville-based company that coordinates a network of 35,000
shoppers. The pair said attention generated by a recent article
in the Wall Street Journal has prompted more interest in
the job, but scam artists are taking advantage.
Unsuspecting
people are mailing $20 or more to addresses in print or Internet
ads expecting employment as a mystery shopper. If they get
anything in return, it's likely a list of companies like
the Gleasons' that hire mystery shoppers.
The Gleasons said
they receive telephone calls and e-mails daily from irate
people who want their money back. They tell callers someone
has scammed them and that it doesn't cost anything to become
a mystery shopper.
"Your heart breaks for them because you
know they probably can't afford to lose money like that," Tiffany
Gleason said.
Jeanie Hoskins, operations director for the
Better Business Bureau of East Tennessee, said the bureau
gets complaints from people who send money to ads they have
seen expecting employment but receive a list of companies
instead.
Hoskins said most of the information from
the list can be found by simply searching the Internet. The
bureau
usually doesn't have grounds to take any action.
"It's not
illegal to sell information," Hoskins said.
Many of the scamming
outfits are based in California, Hoskins said, adding that
many nationwide come and go rapidly.
Still, there are many
reputable mystery-shopping companies, and it's not a bad
gig.
How it works
Shoppers are independent contractors
hired by companies like Mystery Shoppers to assess customer
service
and file a report for the client.
Each time they go on a "shop," they
note things such as whether they were greeted upon arrival,
if a store is clean and neat and if sales associates know
their products.
Mystery shoppers can be paid by the hour
or with complimentary services, such as an oil change when
an oil change business is the client
. "We generally look
at the length of the shop, the time that the shop takes," said
Ann Moll, executive sales manager for TrendSource, a California
mystery-shopping firm that works nationwide.
Moll and Tiffany
Gleason say payment for shops will range anywhere from $5
to $25. Payments can be higher -- when high-end products
or services are involved, for instance. If an assignment
requires a purchase, shoppers typically use their own money
and are reimbursed after the shop.
An assignment description
for a shopper at a fast-food location said it would pay $7
for the job plus a maximum of $9 in reimbursement for food.
A shopping assignment at a sporting goods store offered to
pay $27 to $30, but it required a minimum of one hour spent
in the store and an additional hour and a half to two hours
spent reporting the experience.
Potential shoppers register
their names with a database, such as the list of 35,000 for
Mystery Shoppers. Hopefuls may or may not be selected to
shop.
"It is something to do if you really want to make an
impact on customer service. It is not something to make a
career," Tiffany Gleason said.
Shoppers who are willing to
search the Internet for jobs and are fortunate in being selected
by companies could find work as a mystery shopper on a frequent
basis, said Renee Barnett, who started mystery shopping three
years ago at the urging of a friend.
"At first you feel really
nervous because it seems like there are so many details to
remember," she said, noting that keen observation skills
are essential.
"It really does come to you naturally after
you have done it a couple of times," she said. "Even if I
am not on a shop, I always notice how long it takes them
to greet me, how well they are dressed. I notice their name,
the number of employees and, if there is a bathroom, I always
go and see if it is well stocked.
"I have to tell myself
to stop."
Barnett says assignments can be convenience
stores, grocery stores or a restaurant. Even the U.S. Post
Office,
hotels, airlines, movie theaters and hospitals have used
mystery shoppers.
Barnett said her strangest assignment was
to observe customer service at a funeral home.
"You do feel
like a little undercover spy," she said.
After shopping,
Barnett does the remainder of her work from home, sending
in reports from her computer.
Frank Shipley, president of
Pinnacle Sales Co., which owns six Jiffy Lube locations in
Knox County, said his company has used mystery shoppers for
more than eight years and he has no doubt customer service
has improved.
"We are like a lot of businesses. The owners
can't be in all of our stores, especially if you have multiple
locations," he said. "It gives us an outsider's opinion of
how things are running at your stores when you're not around."
Shipley
said his employees receive a bonus if they get a perfect
score on a mystery shopper's report. If a location gets a
perfect score, the company treats all of the employees at
that location to dinner at a nice restaurant.
Decade of change
The Gleasons say the industry has dramatically
changed since their company started nearly 10 years ago.
Back then everything
was done using pencils and paper.
Today all of the reports
and scheduling are done online.
Through a computer program
called Sassie, the Gleasons track which locations have been
shopped and which ones have not. The computer also tracks
which mystery shopper was used for each assignment.
All of
the final reports are sent to companies via e-mail.
"What
used to take a month, we can now do in 48 to 72 hours," Beverly
Gleason said.
Businesses also can request that shoppers
go in with a hidden camera to make a videotape of their customer
service experience.
Beverly Gleason said she started the
company because she and her daughter wanted to make a difference
locally. Today clients include Sprint PCS, Pilot Corp., Dell
Computers and Petro's.
"You make your money back by using
this service," Beverly Gleason said. "If you save one customer,
you make your money back."
Beverly Gleason is also a founding
member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, which
was formed to disseminate information about reputable companies
and improve customer service.
The organization's Web site
has a list of mystery shopping jobs. The organization has
also started a certification program for shoppers.
"Mystery
shopping is sometimes viewed as a way to catch people doing
something bad," Tiffany Gleason said. "That's not the case.
It's a training tool. It's for the businesses, but it's the
customer that gets the benefit."
|
