Wed 23rd Jul 2008 01:04AM
Mystery shopping is not just for bored housewives anymore. Thousands of men and women all across the country have discovered this exciting and rewarding way to make money and enjoy the benefits of dining out at local restaurants, visiting retail establishments such as clothing stores, malls and electronics stores, and patronizing entertainment hot spots like casinos and movie theaters. Practically any business in the customer service industry is bound to be professionally evaluated at some point.
While you may not get rich doing it, there is certainly money to be made in this ever growing field. It takes personal organization, time management skills, a strong eye for details and self discipline. With these skills, combined with a pleasant personality and a desire to achieve your goals, you may be surprised at just how well this line of work suits you.
Mystery shopping has been around for a while. Originally, it was used as a means to catch shoplifters. Later on, someone had the bright idea to monitor the service that their employees were providing to customers, which opened the door for a whole new generation of skilled, highly trained individuals to bust out in a new field that benefits all involved.
Businesses love it because it allows them to monitor the performance of their employees, and because it gives them feedback from a customers perspective, without having to receive nasty letters and complaints to acquire it. It helps them to fix problems before they become problematic. Mystery shopping helps businesses ensure the integrity of their organization, and it assists them in creating and maintaining employee training programs that will help their employees understand what valuable service means, as well as what is expected of them in the workplace.
The individuals that choose mystery shopping as a means to financial gain love it, too. They love it because they have the flexibility to accept or decline assignments depending on their time constraints and schedules. They love it because they routinely get to experience different atmospheres and locations, dining out, working out at gyms, visiting hotels, casinos, movie theaters, as well as hundreds of other businesses, all in the name of work. If someone want variety in their lives, this is a job that delivers.
In addition, the individuals become a part of a collective of professionals who take pride in their job. They understand the importance of the information that they are providing these businesses. They take their jobs seriously, even though they have fun doing it. People who work in this industry understand that it is their responsibility to anonymously report on the integrity of an establishment, they quality of service they received, as well as the quality of the product that they purchased. It does not matter how wonderful your waitress may be. if the food stinks, the managers want to know about it.
The bottom line is, businesses want their customers to be happy. Happy customers mean that their doors will open tomorrow. Mystery shopping is one of the most important tools in a retail establishments tool kit. With it, they can be proactive in their approach to customer service and employee training. It is also a fun, rewarding and professionally recognized way to earn a living, as more and more people are finding out, much to the delight of their bank account.
Tron Jordheim , director of operation at PhoneSmart ( a subsidiary of StorageMart ) will be interviewed by Syndicated News on 7/23/2008 6:00 PM. The topics of discussion will include Self Storage , Secret Shopping , property management , Self Storage Advertising and Self Storage Marketing .
The original article is located at: Variety In Mystery Shopping