Five Ways to get more Assignments

If you are new to the mystery shopping industry, you might be wondering how to land more mystery shopper assignments. There are many ways to find shops but it takes due diligence and effort. A good way to start is to first read all you can about mystery shopping or secret shopping. Both terms are used to describe this type of work.

1. Sign up to at least 100 companies. You read that correctly! To increase your options of finding work within your defined area of 20 miles, or 50 miles or 100 miles or more, choose many mystery shopping companies because many shops are available on a rotation wheel. Companies can be found by joining MSPA, which means Mystery Shopping Providers Association. There are approximately 500 companies listed on their website so you will have plenty to choose from in your search.

Find them at this url: http://mysteryshop.org/

Jane will be discussing some of these companies later on.

2. Find blogs by mystery shoppers to help you gain an understanding from the stories of their experiences. Don't worry, Jane will be exploring some of those blogs with you.

3. Join mystery shopper discussion groups and get into the conversation. Mystery Shopping Providers, Shoppers and Schedulers all get involved in these groups so it is a great place to learn, to share and to discuss any problems you may encounter.

4. Be willing to travel at least 50 miles in any direction from your home base. That will greatly increase your chances of finding enough work in your area. Route shoppers are in high demand so even if you are not prepared to travel far on a regular basis, at least consider fitting some work into your vacation time as you travel to and from your destination.

5. Remain available to the schedulers, who are the ones that match the assignments with the shopper. Have a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, an audio and video recorder. Be ready to accept emails and to check your email every day or two to three times per day. Be willing to accept text messages from schedulers. Also sign up for the text shop notifiers that you will find most companies have joined. The software is available for free download on any smartphone.

Now this is only a beginning. Set this good foundation for your secret shopping business. You will learn many ways to help improve your business as you gain experience.Meanwhile, I will be thinking about what tips to give in my next post.

Have fun at your work!