No matter where you reside, whether it’s a small town or a bustling city, there are opportunities in your area to visit businesses and evaluate various performance attributes, including the quality of the intended customer experience. This is where becoming a mystery shopper in Australia comes into play.
If you love shopping, then being a mystery shopper might seem like the ideal job, as it allows you to get paid for doing something you enjoy. In some larger cities, there may even be enough work available to make it a full-time job. However, mystery shopping in Australia involves more than just visiting your favourite businesses, making purchases, and getting paid for them.
In this article, we will provide a guide to how to become a mystery shopper. This guide will cover everything from their responsibilities to their earnings, as well as the steps to becoming a mystery shopper and the qualities required to excel in the role.
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What Is a Mystery Shopper in Australia?
A mystery shopper, also can be known as a secret shopper, is an individual who is hired to evaluate the overall customer experience provided by a company. The shoppers are given specific instructions on what to look for when visiting the business, and they act as regular customers during their visit. They may also have specific actions to perform, such as requesting advice on what to buy or asking for a particular item.
Mystery shoppers are typically hired by agencies that specialize in mystery shopping, customer experience, or market research. These agencies are responsible for evaluating various aspects of a business’s customer interactions. The evaluation may be requested by the businesses themselves, or it may be initiated by competitors or regulatory bodies such as the Better Business Bureau.
Secret shoppers are utilized in various industries, such as retail, hospitality, and healthcare. They may interact by visiting establishments in person, making phone calls, or engaging online.
Shoppers typically provide feedback on their experience after their interaction or visit, often through a standardized evaluation form. This feedback data provides insights into the current customer experience offered by the business and how it aligns with the intended experience. Companies use this feedback to identify areas for improvement, such as operations, employee training and support, and customer service.
The value of this feedback lies in the fact that it is a leading indicator of a business’s health and performance that focuses on its two most important assets: its employees and customers. The feedback is impartial, fact-based data obtained from the customer’s perspective. In most companies, decision-makers are usually isolated from the experiences of front-line employees and customers. Understanding the current situation allows decision-makers to make strategic changes with a greater insight into how they will affect both customers and staff.
How Much Can a Mystery Shopper Earn?
The payment you receive for a mystery shopping assignment will depend on the client and the complexity of the task. Generally, a more complex task that requires more time and effort will offer higher compensation compared to a simpler one.
Your level of certification also determines the complexity of tasks you can undertake. Without certification, your options will be limited, and the payment for those assignments will be lower.
As a rough estimate, a beginner-level secret shopper can expect to receive $20 per assignment, while a fully qualified and certified agent can earn up to $250 per assignment. Some clients may also pay you extra for purchasing products or services as part of a mystery shopping job and allow you to keep the products after the task is completed. The value of the freebies provided will affect the payment you receive.
What Tasks Might a Mystery Shopper Have to Perform?
An in-person mystery shop requires the shopper to visit a physical store or business location. During the visit, the shopper may be asked to perform several tasks, such as making a purchase, seeking assistance or advice from the staff, or taking a picture of any unclean area.
Online mystery shopping involves checking out different aspects of a business that are available on the Internet. This can include the business’s website, digital storefront or social media channels. The shopper may be asked to perform tasks such as buying a specific item from the website, interacting with a chatbot, or sending a direct message to a social media account about a product. The feedback from the shopper will be used to evaluate the user-friendliness of the website, the quality of customer service provided by online representatives, and the effectiveness of the AI chatbot.
Telephone mystery shopping is intended to assess the customer experience provided by a business’s telephone operatives. This could be a helpline, complaints line or a similar service. The shopper’s task may include:
- Calling the complaints line with a particular issue.
- Seeking help with a product.
- Requesting advice.
This will help evaluate aspects such as the operator’s knowledge and phone manners, as well as the time taken to answer the call.
In addition, shoppers may pose as job candidates to evaluate the interview process and ensure company values are represented properly.
How to Become a Mystery Shopper?
Becoming a mystery shopper is as easy as registering with a reputable agency or a mystery shopping company through their website. You will need to fill out a registration form and an agreement that outlines the terms of your contract. The Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) site is a reliable source for finding legitimate companies.
You can register to be a mystery shopper in Australia with Service Integrity. After heading to their website, you need to click the link. Once you have done so you will need to enter some personal details. Afterwards you will need to check your inbox to confirm your email address. After everything, you can then go check out the job board for jobs in your area.
To be certified, you’ll need to complete all the required tasks to become a Research Participant, provide comprehensive demographic information, and read the Brand Agent Certification Program. You’ll also need to be tested on it. Passing this test validates your understanding of Service Evaluation Concepts’ market research methodologies, procedures, and policies.
As a Brand Agent, you’ll be called upon for much more specific assignments than a Research Participant would. For instance, if you’re a man in his 20s, you may be asked to visit a clothing store that caters to your demographic, such as Supreme or Under Armour. However, these opportunities are not available to uncertified Research Participants, as they are only required to provide their name and gender.
Moreover, as a Brand Agent, you can become a “Client specific” Certified Brand Agent (CBA), the top-tier Service Evaluation Concepts agent, and the highest standard in the mystery shopping industry. CBAs are tested and certified to verify that they have a thorough understanding of a given brand’s specific nuances and governing brand guidelines. Only CBAs are eligible to assign themselves to particular engagements.
To become a CBA, you’ll need to read client engagement guidelines and pass an exam that certifies your qualifications for a given assessment. If you fail the exam on your first attempt, you can still retake it two more times. Once you pass, you’ll be a Certified Brand Agent for that particular assignment until the engagement’s specifications change. When completing your first certification, you’ll only be able to assign yourself one secret shopping job. After that, you can assign yourself additional jobs.
What Makes a Good Mystery Shopper?
Becoming a mystery shopper doesn’t require any formal qualifications, but there are specific skills that will make a person successful in this role. A good shopper should be able to make multiple visits to a location without the staff realizing that they aren’t a regular customer. In order to ensure that they aren’t identified, a shopper should make an effort to blend in as a member of that store’s clientele and not behave in a way that might arouse suspicion.
Things that may tip off a store employee include:
- Taking notes in a place that is visible to staff.
- Staring at nametags.
- Asking questions that would reveal the individual as a mystery shopper.
A shopper should also be able to think on the spot and improvise to maintain their cover. If a shopper is identified by the staff at a location, the client will not let the shopper take another assignment at that location and may refuse to accept their report. If the report is not accepted, the shopper will not be paid.
Mystery shoppers should also be reliable, ethical, and trustworthy. They should follow through on the shops they have committed to, visit at the right date and time, follow the objectives they were given, and submit their report in a timely manner. All reports should be unbiased and contain accurate representations of what occurred during the secret shopper’s visit. Some companies will cross-check the details of a report with video surveillance to ensure that it is accurate.
Conclusion
So, if you really do enjoy shopping and want to try to make a quick buck on the side, then becoming a mystery shopper in Australia is perfect for a side hustle. It is easy to get started; you can do it in most places, and you don’t need to do extra to earn the money. The sound of that in itself makes it easy to profit from mystery shopping Australia.
If becoming a mystery shopper Australia isn’t something that interests you after reading all of this article, then be sure to check out other avenues on our site; there is bound to be something that you can both enjoy doing while at the same time making money on the time side. Happy Profiting.