From business.com By Mona Buchnell, December 21, 2017 Online review websites and an increase in low-cost mystery shopping companies have led to more ways for busy entrepreneurs to understand shoppers' minds. Implementing best practice policies, employing experienced managers and being hands-on all go a long way toward managing quality assurance, but hiring professional mystery shoppers to see how things really run when you're not around is still a tried-and-true method for maintaining high standards. Like most industries, the mystery shopper business has been impacted by technology in both positive and negative ways. With the advent of online review websites and...

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From cnbc.com By Kayleigh Kulp, July 4, 2017 Lori Cheek has been secret shopping on and off for a decade, making up to $75 per "shop" to various stores and fitness centers while trying to bootstrap her dating app business, Cheekd. She often gets to keep whatever she buys during the shopping test as part of her compensation. And if a company has a hard time finding mystery shoppers for a particular assignment, they may also offer a bonus. "I've even negotiated travel costs when they seem desperate for a shopper," Cheek said. She is one of over a million mystery...

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A mystery shopping company recently ceased operations, with very little notice to clients, employees or shoppers.  We were contacted by one of their clients in a panic, asking if we could take over their program “immediately”, because they had tied program results to their people’s monthly evaluations and bonuses, and they didn’t know what they’d do without it.  What a stressful, unnecessary thing for a client to have to go through.  Without knowing specifically what originally led the client to select this company, it reminded us that we are...

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From Kiplinger.com Don't Fall for This LinkedIn Mystery Shopper Job Scam Avoid getting conned on the networking site. Plus: Learn how to earn extra cash as a legitimate mystery shopper. By Cameron Huddleston, March 18, 2015   Mystery shopping is a great way to earn extra cash. And a message with an offer to work as a mystery shopper sent via the professional networking site LinkedIn might seem like a legitimate opportunity. But, unfortunately, it’s the latest approach scammers are using to target victims. Scammers have long used e-mail and traditional mail to promote bogus mystery shopping jobs,...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Andrea Parr Director of Public Relations and Digital Media (502) 574-9934 aparr@hqtrs.com Scam Alert  Louisville, KY (March 11, 2015) - The MSPA-NA (formerly known as the Mystery Shopping Providers Association of North America), the trade association representing the customer experience metrics industry, is warning consumers of a new scam that is circulating on the popular professional networking site, LinkedIn.  The scam that is appearing on LinkedIn purports to come from IntelliShop, an MSPA-NA member. IntelliShop has posted a warning on its website advising the public that it does not recruit from LinkedIn.  MSPA-NA...

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