02 Feb 09 How to Become a Successful Mystery Shopper

Mystery shopping is otherwise known as undercover or secret shopping. Mystery shopping is a business activity aimed to improve customer satisfaction. To carry out the process a mystery shopper is engaged by the business owner to find out how the mystery shopper is getting treated or gets products and services in the business unit. The feed back from the mystery shopper is got in the form of a report to improve the services or treatment. The mystery shopper too benefits either as he gets products or services free of cost for conducting such an inspection. Internet is a place where such kinds of jobs are abundant in nature. The nice thing about this job is that anyone can become a mystery shopper or can be hired as mystery shopper. Mystery shopping is not limited to only buying products, it can involve getting a new haircut, or gambling, or traveling to a place, or dinning in a restaurant or even finding out the customer service offered at a work place. The next best thing about mystery shopping is that the companies do not charge any kind of registration fees.

Tips on becoming a successful mystery shopper:

Since there is no fee involved for registration, a person can register with many mystery shopping companies, so that he gets a fair chance to mystery shopping. The manuals, training and instruction are all free of cost. This will enable find out the difference between genuine mystery shopping company and a fake one.

When the person gets his first assignment, it has to be utilized in such a way that the person gets more and more assignments from the company. The success in getting mystery shopping assignments lies on the acceptance of the assignment within short notice, complete it within the time limit and submit the feedback or report in a professional way.

Even though mystery shopping may seem to be a fun filled activity, it calls for a professional approach to the whole activity. Commitment to the job is very essential. If the commitment cannot be met within the time frame, rescheduling or extension can be requested.

A genuine mystery shopping company or agency will reimburse the money spent on shopping and also for the service provided by the mystery shopper. Even though experience provides enough earnings, many mystery shoppers do this as a part time work and consider it as a secondary source of earning.

It is also a good idea to apply with scheduling companies as they work with many mystery shopping companies. The scheduling companies normally provide a challenging task and more earning for doing so, than the original company.

A great tip is to become an ace mystery shopper. This can be achieved by developing a good relationship with a particular company and perform the jobs with utmost care and perfection. To become an ace mystery shopper may take time and it is only worth doing with reputed companies. The mystery shopper should keep his eyes always open and do the best job.

If the person gets certified through the mystery shopping providers association, he has a better chance of getting hired than others. Attending seminars on this field will also enhance the chance of developing good contacts with mystery shopping schedules, who will provide jobs in turn.

Tags: Business Activity, Business Owner, Business Unit, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Fun, Gambling, Job, Jobs, Mystery Shopper, Mystery Shopping Companies, Mystery Shopping Company, New Haircut, Nice Thing, Professional Approach, Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Jobs, Register, Registration Fees, Secret Shopping, Success, Time Limit

03 Dec 08 Midlife Career Change

Is it possible to wake up some day at 40 and think that you want to do something completely different? Is that just a day dream, to be thought about on the drive home from work, but nothing more than a dream?

Well it can be a pipe dream, or it can become reality. The choice really is yours. Many people find that once they have hit mid life, they know what they want from life and they aren’t going to compromise. Instead they want to make sure that they fulfil all their dreams and if that means suddenly throwing everything in to become something very different, then so be it.

But (and here is the cautionary note) make sure that your dream is all that you want it to be! If, for example, you dream of being a gardener or landscape architect then instead of jacking in your job, re-training and then finding out that you actually hate it, try to get some work experience first. You can either do this on a voluntary basis, working with a company just to see if you like it, or sign up with a recruitment agency, so that you can test it out and get paid for it at the same time!

Remember that life is short and one thing that we all have in common is that we all have only one shot at life, so you need to make sure that you don’t regret things you haven’t tried. Even if you try things and they don’t work out, you chased your dream and that counts for a lot. But chasing your dream usually means that it does work out, since you have so much vested interest in creating success. So mid life career changes can be the best thing that happened to many people: go for it!

Tags: 40, 40's, career, Career Change, Career Changes, Cautionary Note, change, Day Dream, Dreams, Gardener, Job, Job Training, Landscape Architect, life, Life Career, Mid Life, midlife, One Thing, Pipe Dream, Recruitment Agency, Success, Vested Interest, Voluntary Basis, work, Work Experience