Interviews with shoppers!
We had a lovely shopper who gave up some of their time to have a short interview with us! This shopper is one of our experienced and possesses self assign status on our system, meaning that they reliably and exceptionally completed mystery shops for us! They can instantly pick and assign themselves certain mystery shop assignments.
Interviewer: Proinsight
Interviewee: Helen, Self-Assign status shopper, experienced Mystery Shopper.
Interview with a Proinsight Mystery Shopper!
How long have you been Mystery Shopping for?
Probably about 2 years now and still going!
Why do you Mystery Shop with Proinsight?
Proinsight cover a wide range of locations and provide a varied selection of jobs, which is great! I am based in Kent and when I am not mystery shopping, I work as a live-in carer and I travel 5 hours to get to work and home. Because Proinsight have jobs all over the UK, during my travels I can easily hop off the train to complete a few assignments and hop back onto the train! It helps to fill out my day and I get to do it during my journey. The jobs are easy to understand, and I can pick assignments around my journey or I can work my journey around the assignments!
What intrigued you into doing Mystery Shopping?
I would have started mystery shopping earlier if I was made aware! As a single parent it can be difficult and a bit tight on cash, mystery shopping can supplement this and really help! The assignments where I can bring others too are really good fun for the family! Being able to include my family, such as the kids, on assignments provide a good day out for the kids. The assignments where I walk away with an item are great too as I get to provide gifts for the family.
Mystery shopping is perfect for me, it isn’t all about the money but more so the experience! Getting to try out new things and it also provides a nice little family day out. Such as when I am with the kids, I can make it into a little game such as ‘Watch out for the staff members name!’ or ‘What is the Staff members name?’ However, I do have to be careful as some briefs specifically state you cannot bring any additional people with you and this has resulted me in losing pay one time.
What is your favourite aspect of Mystery Shopping?
The variety of assignments that I can do.
What are your favourite type of assignments?
I love the retail and pub based assignments. With the pub based assignments, I can travel and grab a pub lunch for free! Or with retail assignments, I can do a bit of retail shopping – I find retail therapy very soothing.
What 3 skills or traits would you say is required or a great benefit to being a good Mystery Shopper?
1) You have to be reliable! If you are agreeing to do a job, you got to do it!
2) You have to have a good eye for detail.
3) And finally, good report writing skills.
What is it about yourself, that you makes you a good shopper?
I guess I have been doing this for a while now, so I have had a lot of practice and have a fair bit of experience. I always take on assignments and over time you just become more aware of what to do and what you need to look out for. I automatically go into stores and start counting how many sales assistants there are, checking their name badges etc. I believe it is just having the experience, time, commitment and good report writing skills.
If you were to introduce someone to the Mystery Shopping world, what would be your number one tip or advice?
Always check the brief! Always take a photo of the front of the location, regardless if it is required or not! It can be used as proof of the shop. The photo can be used to see the time it was taken which is really useful.
