hey guys, very cool forum.
Just getting started here, I am a retired retail manager and I was shopped dozens of time before!
I worked at IKEA and MOST of the shops were inaccurate...Name of employee, descriptions of what happened...Also most shoppers are soooo obvious, asking all the questions verbatim in the same order...We can smell them a mile away...and when one enters the store, there is a bunch of calls to "warn" the next departments! LOL! Anyways, I am looking forward to do my own shops, and hopefully be "under the radar", and as accurate as possible!
***FYI*** Companies use the shops for performance evaluations of the employees...a bad shop can mean no salary increase! So mystery shoppers beware...Please don't make up answers when you don't know or forgot to ask! You may get someone fired!
They are taken very seriously. And when the descriptions are wrong, the shops get rejected by the company who asked for them...and credited. So I'm guessing that means low marks for the mystery shopper...?
Looking forward to contribute to the forum and keep on learnin'!

Hello Skinnydog - Welcome to retirement and mystery shopping. Your retail background will be a great strength, but in the words (more or less) of Dr. Phil, you're about to have a life changing experience. This is a bunch of work for not much money, but after you find out which shops you like best you can actually enjoy it. I've never done the Ikea shop so I can't comment on that one way or the other. You might find some of the posts on this forum about the Ikea shop to be enlightening and entertaining. All serious shoppers know this is serious business for the employees of the companies we shop. Every instruction I've ever received recommended giving the employee the benefit of the doubt, and I think that's a good policy. An ethical shopper would never report false information, or fabricate information. A dedicated shopper aims to follow instructions, touch all the bases, and report the facts. Best of luck, and I hope you love this as much as some of us do.

Ikea is the worst shop to do...read the posts about Ikea. This should be a cinch for you, knowing both sides of the business. Money not so great, but
nice to have an income during retirement, and something to do to keep the'
mind working.

My earlier career was spent in retail management. I'm guessing that skinnydog is used to working pretty hard for not enough money. I think the retail experience helps a lot as you have an idea of the retailer's expectation of the associates. Before starting to do this myself, I always thought that this would be something that I might be good at. Over the years I have seen so many things that as a manager, I would have wanted to know. So much is riding in keeping those customers happy and coming back for more.

Happy shopping!

Hi Skinnydog,

Welcome to the other side! I have been doing shops for over 10 years and consider myself to be pretty good at them. I still get identified at times, and I usually can tell when I have been identified. Going unnoticed is sometimes much more difficult than you'd think.

I've never done an Ikea shop, but some of the shops have guidelines that force you to behave in a way that might seem unnatural to an experienced retail associate. For example, one popular fast food chain shop requires a drive-thru and walk-in during the same visit. The company prefers the drive-thru portion of the shop to be done first. If a crew member working the drive thru happens to see you in the restaurant afterward, you most likely will be identified. There's not too much you can do about it, unless you disguise yourself?

I've also found that sometimes you just do not fit the demographic of the average customer at a particular location, making you stand out. I once had a manager announce to the crew "smiles everyone" the moment I walked in the door!!!! It was just purely because I did not look like their average customer.

Good luck. I am interested to see what you think once you have been doing this for awhile.

I think one of the easiest ways for a mystery shopper to be identified is when either the client or the Mystery Shopper Provider (MSP) insists the shopper act in a manner that is inconsistent to 'Joe Average'.

How many real customers would be asking for the first name, never mind the last name of coat check girl, the busser and the manager? I'd be suspicious of any person asking staff for their last names. What purpose could it serve for a legitimate customer? I can think only that it would make it easier to harass the person off duty, but some MSPs want it.

How many real customers would go to a health products store and ask for detailed assistance in finding a skin care regiment and then walk out with the only product in the store selling for less than $5. Not many.

Who gets out of their car at a full serve station in a snow storm just so they can go pay inside? It defeats the whole purpose of full serve!

How many times can you go to a small two teller bank to do a "normal transaction" and then ask a question about something, when you only have a list of three questions to choose from. Either you are a doddering fool (my usual line which goes well with my white hair) or else they have to conclude you are shopping them.

And there are many, many other examples of behaviours that mystery shoppers are expected to do without being discovered. No wonder we sometimes stand out! It's even worse when you work for an MSP that won't pay you because the client identified you.

Haha, very true. Even if you are identified, the report can still end up providing useful feedback for the client.


Bena Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think one of the easiest ways for a mystery
> shopper to be identified is when either the client
> or the Mystery Shopper Provider (MSP) insists the
> shopper act in a manner that is inconsistent to
> 'Joe Average'.
>
> How many real customers would be asking for the
> first name, never mind the last name of coat check
> girl, the busser and the manager? I'd be
> suspicious of any person asking staff for their
> last names. What purpose could it serve for a
> legitimate customer? I can think only that it
> would make it easier to harass the person off
> duty, but some MSPs want it.
>
> How many real customers would go to a health
> products store and ask for detailed assistance in
> finding a skin care regiment and then walk out
> with the only product in the store selling for
> less than $5. Not many.
>
> Who gets out of their car at a full serve station
> in a snow storm just so they can go pay inside?
> It defeats the whole purpose of full serve!
>
> How many times can you go to a small two teller
> bank to do a "normal transaction" and then ask a
> question about something, when you only have a
> list of three questions to choose from. Either
> you are a doddering fool (my usual line which goes
> well with my white hair) or else they have to
> conclude you are shopping them.
>
> And there are many, many other examples of
> behaviours that mystery shoppers are expected to
> do without being discovered. No wonder we
> sometimes stand out! It's even worse when you
> work for an MSP that won't pay you because the
> client identified you.

Welcome, I retired from grocery retail after 34 yrs. and have been shopped many times. I can feel for them, but still try to be objective and fair. I still see all the classic mistakes and I write them as I see them. I know the Companies take it seriously and the employees can learn from their mistakes. If they want to. I know I did, but not so much from the younger crowd that has never held a job before or know how to hold on to one. Good luck, skinny and tell it like you see it.

I have mystery shopped Ikea several times, and have no clue whether I was spotted as a mystery shopper or not. I do know that the time set out to do the shop was not realistic -- it took me 6 hours. And the reporting time took almost as long. For $66 (I think that was the pay), it was below minimum wage. Ikea is truly the MUTHA of all mystery shops. I will do it only when I see that ahead of me there will be a financial need that must be met, and that I have time to do the shop and get paid before I have to have the cash.

SkinnyDog, I wonder if you would give us some hints about how NOT TO BE NOTED as a mystery shopper at Ikea. I would really like to know these.

Richard94611 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SkinnyDog, I wonder if you would give us some
> hints about how NOT TO BE NOTED as a mystery
> shopper at Ikea. I would really like to know
> these.


A better hint is don't do the IKEA shop.

I think SkinnyDog gave up on mystery shopping already and has submitted an application to be rehired at Ikea.

That's fine. Just because shoppers in his area got information wrong (per him), doesn't mean everyone's like that or every shop is so ridiculously obvious. The only reason TO make them so obvious is to give employees a heads up on being shopped so they can get false positives to make their numbers look good. Talk about playing the system.