Mystery Shoppers are hired as independent contractors by stores, financial institutions, restaurants, retail establishments, department stores, service providers, and other similar businesses to measure customer service, product quality, and the general environment of the establishments above. Their primary responsibilities include making purchases and filing reports on their overall shopping experiences.  
  
Mystery Shoppers play an essential role in meeting clients' expectations by pretending to be ordinary customers while observing and determining various factors that might require improvement. Unfortunately, with the way retail stores operate, there is never enough management staff available to monitor all employer-to-customer interactions. So when the corporate office decides to use a Mystery Shopper, it is to assess how the store's employees are measuring up and, by extension, what more managers can do to train their employees to ensure only the best interactions in their store. 

Personality of a Mystery Shopper

• They are very observant

Mystery Shoppers must have a real knack for paying attention and picking up details about situations. They are looking for and picking up on cues from working employees, monitoring the level of customer service assistance they receive and whether it meets the company’s standards.   

• They are naturally curious

Mystery Shoppers should enter a store with a high level of preparedness to ask the right questions to test the level of customer service skills employees should be aiming for when assisting the patrons of any business or retailer.    

• They are friendly and customer service-oriented

Without these skills, Mystery Shoppers would be unable to gauge what level of customer service was acceptable for employees to meet to match the company’s standards.