Thu 31st Jul 2008 02:04AM
What makes a good secret shopping company succeed? If you search the internet you will see that there are many different companies out there bragging to be the best shopping companies out there. They have their flashy websites and they try to hook you in with their testimonials on how people have been very successful in doing this type of business. The truth is that there are scams out there that are trying benefit off of your desire and your passion to help out another company by taking your money.
Unfortunately the sad truth is that if you can find a legitimate secret shopping company , you better stick with it, and do not tell anyone. If you spread the word that is just let shopping opportunities that you have available to you. If you look at the average cost for a shop, you are looking at only five to ten dollars. You could luck out and find the company that will pay you twenty to fifty dollars a shop, but those are far and few between.
If you are looking for a good secret shopping company , you should first know what you are looking for out of that company. This information can go for those companies that are interested in using these services as well.
The structure
What does their structure look like? How many people work for the office and how many shoppers are out there in the field for your company to use? As said before there are many companies out there trying to do this kind of service, but are they going to be available when you need them? At the same time, do not be scared to use the small companies that are either just starting out or still growing. The biggest thing to look at here is if there is an issue, what does the reporting structure look like? How fast can you expect a turn around?
The process
With any secret shopping company you research, you must find out their process on how they conduct a shop. The short version is that many companies do the same thing. There might be one or two minor differences in the process, but the overall steps are the same.
� The information for the shop is given to the shopper
� The shopper visits, calls, or emails the company
� The shopper logs their findings and sends a report to the person they report to
� The secret shopping company then checks for errors, makes the report presentable, and send the information to the company requesting the shop
Other than what you see above, there are little differences in the process that are not tied to one of these bullet points.
The Follow up
How does the shopping company follow up with their clients? Do they just get a report together, make it look nice, send it off then forget about it? Is there someone in place at the shopping company that follows up with the clients to see if they need future shops, what did they think about the last shop, and what could they do better next time to serve them? That is a crucial part of the business. Repeat business or a good referral program is going to provide some extra income to the shopping company if managed correctly.
Pay
What does the pay structure look like and how long after the shop do you wait for the secret shopping company to give you what you deserve? Also another question to ask yourself and ask the shopping company, is do they have a start up fee and why? One thing that you have to watch out for is those companies that try to get some of their bottom line money from the people that are actually doing the shopping. Be careful on this and do not pay to join if you do not feel comfortable with doing so. In all actually the highest rated secret shopping company asks for a member fee.
Expectations
What do you expect from the shopping company and what do they expect from you? That is very important because you do not want to do one thing for a while and then realize that you are not performing up to the expectations of the company. That can go the other way as well. Is the company living up to what you expected? Do not get caught up in the allure of getting paid to shop. Really do your research and determine if this is right for you.
The original article is located at: Finding The Right Secret Shopping Company