Confessions of a Mystery Shopper
Funny things happen when you lie for a living
I work in market research, designing surveys and focus groups for big brands and analyzing the results.
The field of market research is diverse and occasionally I get to try something outside of my typical responsibilities. Twice in my career, I’ve been a mystery shopper.
If you’re not familiar with the term, a mystery shopper is someone who’s paid by a retailer or service company to pretend they’re a customer and report back on the service they received.
Mystery shopping is a great gig because you’re paid decently for easy work that requires no special skill sets.
Both of my mystery shopping experiences were for banks. I’m told banks use mystery shoppers frequently because they expect high levels of courteous and professional service from their staff. Mystery shopping helps banks assess how would-be customers are treated and if staff are using the messages they’re trained to give.
In the first go-round, I was given a “backstory” that I had just inherited a million dollars, and I was a rookie investor who didn’t know what to do with the money.
My job was to share this story with a bank teller to see how the situation was handled. I was supposed to note who I…
