Devoted to WAHMs -Work at Home Moms

Do you just love to shop? Do you pride yourself on being able to spot bad customer service and applaud good customer service? You might have heard the 'get paid while you shop' tag line. Sounds like a shopaholic's dream come true right?

You might have read, listened to, or been bombarded with email or spam that asks you, "Do You Love To Shop?" There are many claims out there stating you can make a living by becoming a mystery shopper. Let me give you a bit of insight and insider info 'kay?

First, what exactly is a mystery shopper? Some retailers and service oriented businesses hire marketing research companies to evaluate the quality of service in their stores, restaurants, and other establishments. These companies then turn around and hire mystery shoppers to anonymously get information on their customer service, store cleanliness, etc.

Typically a mystery shopper makes a purchase of a product or service and gets to keep the product or service in lieu of payment. The funds for the purchase come from the market research company. They might also be paid a small fee in addition to or instead of being able to keep the product. Another type of mystery shopper assignment is what is called an exit interview. This is when you stand outside the entrance to a business and ask detailed questions about their visit and shopping experience.

How do you find these jobs? The scam sites out there would have you believe you need to pay for their clearinghouse service but there is no fee required from legitimate mystery shopper companies. You can search for these legitimate companies online, remembering that if they ask you for money they are NOT a legitimate shopper service, and you can also visit the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) at www.mysteryshop.org.

I tried this as a form of working from home because you can choose to accept a job or not and work around your schedule. The thing is you have to be constantly checking your emails because typically an email is sent out to all registered mystery shoppers in the area and it is first come, first serve for available positions. Also, in order to make any amount of money you need to be signed up with multiple companies and be available all days and hours.

As a source of fun and a bit of side income or source of products and free services mystery shopping can be a great choice but if you really need to count on it as a large part of your income it is not as viable. Another and better source of income is merchandising jobs and I will cover that in tomorrows blog.