These days, you see a lot of new things happening, and Mystery jobs are one of those new things that have risen to the scene in the world today.
Basically, the mystery shoppers are people that will be paid to act like regulars and casual shoppers. After they shop, they will have to give their feedback on the shopping experience they had when they shopped at the store.
If this sounds fun, and you have decided that you also want to be one of those mystery shoppers, then it’s best to sign up with mystery shopping companies that are hiring nearby.
All you will have to do is choose your assignment and start purchasing. Mystery shopping has been highly endorsed in today’s age and there are a lot of people making extra money by mysteriously shopping at a Store.
But, What is a Mystery Shopper?
A secret shopper is an individual that shops from a specific store and provides feedback on their shopping experience, and in return, they are paid for it.
Renowned mystery shopping companies will give the hired secret shoppers a checklist of activities that they will have to complete.
This may include asking specific questions about a product or a service.
After their visit from the store, the secret shopper will base their review on things such as the cleanliness of the store, the attitude of the employees, and other connected details.
If the mystery shoppers incur any kinds of expenses, the hiring company will also return them in a usual case.
Now that you know what secret shoppers are, and how to be one, then let’s discuss all the companies and the secret shopper jobs that are available to you after you sign up with them.
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13 Best Mystery Shopper Jobs & Companies:
1. Ath Power Consulting
(For Banking and Financial Industry)
With so many secret shopping companies, there are only a few that focus on specific secret shopping jobs.
This is one of those platforms.
Ath Power Consulting is a part of MSPA and is known to be an Elite member for five successive years.
According to their website, they have about 10,000 secret shopping jobs available for the month and have astonishing 500,000 mystery shoppers signed up.
This platform only offers secret shopping jobs in the financial and the banking industry. If you want to work with them, this platform will ask you to go to a bank and give your feedback.
Some of the jobs on this platform also involve taking a trip to the airport.
However, these jobs are only provided to the people that have security clearance.
For working with Ath Power Consulting:
- Go to their Website and sign up.
- Use your email address to sign up.
- Give your personal information.
- Go through the privacy policy, and you are ready.
2. BARE
(For In-person or Over the Phone Customer Chat)
This is one of those secret shopping platforms that hire people to either physically or over the phone engaged in a customer chat or video visit.
Having received an award from the MSPA in the year 2019, This is also one of the best platforms for secret shopping jobs.
MSPA awards the platforms on the basis of the people that work secret shopping jobs, and the signed-up people chose BARE as one of their all-time favorites.
Once you set up with them, you will be able to list five different area codes. These area codes will be of the areas in which you want to do mystery shopping jobs.
This feature comes in handy as it allows you to choose the place of your convenience and gives you a chance to have maximum earnings.
How to work with BARE:
- Sign up on their website.
- Choose your primary language.
- Add your email address.
- Choose the residential country.
- Enter your demographic information.
- Go through the privacy policy.
3. Secret Shopper
If you are looking for a trusted platform to do secret shopping jobs with, then this website is a great choice.
A secret shopper is one of the most established companies that are inclined to helping their clients improve their business by utilizing mystery shoppers to collect data.
The secret shopper has been around for a good long time now and laid its foundation back in 1993.
This platform is known to be one of the most credible options on the list and has won the MSPA award in 2018.
How to Work with Secret Shopper:
- Sign up on their main page.
- Choose the residential country.
- Go through and agree with the basic rules and guidelines.
- Go through the basic certification test that will ensure that you read all the rules thoroughly.
- Put in your personal information.
- You will be provided with a shopper ID and a password.
4. Market Force
The market force has a variety of secret shopping jobs. Out of a lot of options, you will be provided secret shopping jobs that revolve around banks, restaurants, and shopping stores.
You will be required to give your feedback on things such as the place’s cleanliness, the product selection, and the customer service.
Market force is also one of the best platforms and has been awarded a Shopper’s choice award from MSPA.
How to work with Market Force:
- Head on to their website and sign up with them.
- If you have a criminal background, you will have to answer some questions.
- Sign and date the terms of the agreement, and you’re done.
5. Pinnacle
As far as the trustable options go, this is the right one! This secret shopping platform has been around for a good time period of 20 years. This platform has secret shopping jobs regarding services and sales quality.
A lot of businesses have stood to benefit from the work that pinnacle does. When you sign up with pinnacle, you are specifically going to be working with service providers such as credit unions and banks.
If you have a background in finance or whether finance has always been your niche, then this is the right choice for you.
How to Work with Pinnacle:
- Visit the website.
- Sign up with them.
- Provide your email address.
- Provide your Personal Information.
- Answer Demographic questions.
- Agree with the terms.
6. A Closer Look
When it comes to winning awards, A closer look is a platform that has won some awards, including the award “elite company” in 2018 and the other Awards such as the shopper’s choice awards in the later year.
A closer look is a secret shopping jobs platform That allows the users to be able to work secret shopping jobs such as restaurants, specialty retail, senior living, hotels, and entertainment.
This is one of the best shopping platforms out of all the options that are available in the market right now.
How to Work with A Closer Look:
- Go to their website, and sign up with them.
- Add an email address.
- Wait for your Email address to be approved. Once your email address is approved, you will get a link to the application page.
- For the next step, you have to fill out your personal and demographic information.
- You will have to write a sample essay which will have to be at least based on two paragraphs to describe your casual or fine dining experience.
- The platform asks you to write the essay to determine your eligibility, so it’s imperative that you get this right.
- Submit and wait until you get a response.
7. Quest for Best
This is one of the most widespread platforms on this list. This secret shopping platform offers secret shopping jobs in over 40 states of the US.
However, most of these jobs are focused on the Midwest and the Southwest states.
If you want a more accurate picture, you can see their map.
This secret platform is a great choice if you are looking for secret shopping jobs that include eating at a restaurant, bowling, and attending a movie at a theater.
How to Work with Quest for the best:
- Go to the website and click the signup link.
- Go through the independent contractor agreement.
- Make sure to fill the online shopper profile.
- As soon as there is a secret shopping job available, this platform will provide you information about the job.
8. IntelliShop
This is one of those mystery shopping platforms that has a wide variety of mystery shopping jobs. Intellishop is a mystery shopping platform that provides its services to over 50 industries.
This will come in handy if you are picky about doing these jobs.
This will allow you to choose the jobs that only interest you. This company has been awarded several times by the MSPA and has been chosen as one of the best in 2019 recently.
Considering everything, this is one of the best platforms to work with.
How to work with IntelliShop:
- Go to their webpage and sign up with them.
- Provide your email address.
- Read the agreement.
- Add Basic Info.
- Complete the questionnaire.
- Provide your tax information
- Agree with the terms and contract.
9. Perception Strategies, Inc.
This platform is for those who are interested in doing healthcare secret shopping jobs. This Company is one of the best in this regard and has done over 150,000 healthcare jobs since 1998.
The secret shopping jobs on this platform require usually call a doctor’s office to get a quote for a specific service, visiting a doctor without making an appointment, or setting up a full-length visit.
How to work with Perception Strategies, Inc:
- Visit Shopper Application.
- Check the list of immediate openings.
- Fill out the required information.
10. Call Center QA
This secret shopping platform is dedicated to helping organizations improve their quality and the betterment of their call centers.
This secret shopping platform is a great choice if you like to chat on the phone and are equipped with a fine skill set of reading and writing skills.
If you have a strong eye for details, things are going to go even better for you!
How to Work with Call Center QA:
- Fill out the information on their website.
- This platform works only for US residents and those over the age of 18.
11. ARC Consulting
This mystery shopping service asks you to call the customer support of various businesses to see their responses to mysterious phone calls.
However, the secret shopping jobs and their price will depend on the opportunities that they will have available at that time. This platform hires from various countries and it helps your case very highly if you speak more than one language.
To work with ARDC Consulting:
- Visit their website and fill out the application.
- Add your contact details.
12. Yardi-Matrix
If you like answering surveys online, then this is the best mystery shopping platform for you. This platform has secret shopping jobs that require you to answer surveys concerning the commercial real estate industry.
If, and when you are hired, this service will require you to call apartment communities and you will have to play along as a renter. You will be provided with a set of questions that you will have to ask.
However, this platform requires you to have high-speed internet and a phone. For every hour you work, you will get $6. However, there are additional pays for completed surveys.
How to work with Yardi-Matrix:
- Send a copy of your resume to the Yardi Matrix Contract.
- If they are interested, the company will get back to you with more details.
13. Observa
This is a secret shopping app that can be found on both the iOS store and the google play store. In order for you to be able to do secret shopping jobs with this service, you will have to download this app.
This job pays in a range between $4-$20. This app pays within 24 hours after completion of the job.
How to work with observa:
- Go to the Application Store on your phone.
- Download the app.
- Start doing secret shopping jobs.
How to Avoid Mystery Shopping Scams:
When it comes to secret shopping jobs, it is a lot easier to get scammed than you might think. There are a lot of legitimate companies, but the scammers don’t stay behind either.
To avoid getting scammed on secret shopping jobs, This is what you should do:
Only Take Secret Shopping Jobs from a Reputable Company:
Falling for a scamming website is a lot easy when you are looking for secret shopper jobs. This is why you should only stick with companies that you know for a fact are legitimate and will pay you for your secret shopping jobs.
When you are about to sign up, make sure that you only choose from a list of reputable sources.
This will also keep your data secure as well. The scamming companies may also take your data and twist it in a way that your privacy is going to be at risk at all times.
For these reasons, it is essential that you consider only the options that are mentioned at a trusted source.
Now, there are also ways to know whether the company is legitimate or not. Before you sign up with a company for secret shopping jobs, make sure that the company that you are considering is a body of the MSPA.
This list can be found on the internet easily. If the website is listed on the mentioned list, then you are in the clear and you are all set for the secret shopping jobs.
However, if the company or the website has not been enlisted on this list, then you should be extremely cautious.
Check for the company’s name on platforms such as Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau.
If you come across the website on either of these platforms, you are going to be fine as well.
But if there is no clue or presence of the business online, then it is best for you to consider a lot of other options available on the market.
This means that the company is not to be trusted and you stand to be at risk of being scammed.
Make Sure that you Never Wire Transfer the Money:
This is scamming 101. If the company asks you to deposit a check in your personal bank account, take the amount out, and wire transfer the money to a third party, then it is only sensible and wise to back out.
This check is probably fake and the company is a sham. However, these checks are made in such a way that they appear very realistic.
Once you see that check, you are probably going to be under the impression that there is nothing to worry about and this check will clear out, and the money will also appear in your account.
But, here’s the thing: It will not be cleared. The banks can take a long time, to be precise, a few weeks to identify a fraud check.
And things only get worse from here. Once the bank has confirmed that this check is a fake check, the bank is going to hold you responsible and will ask you to pay back the amount that was deposited and withdrawn by you in the first place.
This is why it is always best to take a step back if you get handed a check and the business asks you to wire transfer the money. Doing secret shopping jobs doesn’t mean that you have to get in trouble with the authorities.
A word to the wise; once you get a check, you should ultimately take a step back.
For your own safety purposes, you should never deposit a check for some unknown person if you are going to be wire transferring the money.
Never Pay in Advance:
Not only does this apply to getting secret shopping jobs, but it also applies to everything. It is unwise and naive to pay in advance before getting the service.
When it comes to secret shopping jobs, there are some platforms that will ask you to pay beforehand they assign you secret shopping jobs, or when you sign up with them. You should play it safe and never bay beforehand, especially when you sign up with them.
All the secret shopping companies included in this list are totally free to sign up with. This is also one of the ways to know that a platform is legitimate.
When a business is legitimate, it will never ask you for payments upfront. And just like that, none of these platforms mentioned asking for payment beforehand either.
If you come across a secret shopping website that asks you to pay money in turn for signing up on it to avail secret shopping jobs, then you should know that it is clearly a scam, and you should never pay for it and back out immediately.
Once you pay them the money, you are never going to have it back, neither you are going to receive any secret shopping jobs from them.
Once you pay them, you literally cannot do anything as they run away with your hard-earned money.
This is why it is better to stay aware and cautious.
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Conclusion!
Secret shopping jobs are one of the most fun side hustles that you can do.
When you get free shopping jobs, you are likely to get free food, and in a lot of cases, you are going to be compensated for buying a specified product.
There are a lot of platforms that have secret shopping jobs available and they are waiting for you to sign up with them.
Just remember everything that has been mentioned above on how to avoid scamming secret shopping jobs and you are going to be fine and have a lot of fun!
However, some jobs can take longer than others.
This is why it is ideal for you to go for the smaller jobs in the beginning until you are experienced enough to know which ones are a scam and which ones will pay you legitimately.
