Grass Roots Mystery Shopping

I joined the Grass Roots Mystery Shopping website back in 2009 and have so far completed 41 assignments. To get on board in the first place you need to fill out an application form and also give a brief summary as to what you think makes a good mystery shopper. Of course at this stage you can only guess or add in some research you have done as you probably won't have done any up to this point.

After being accepted you are then allowed to accept an assignment that is emailed to all mystery shoppers in your area. There is an ability to add two areas with times that you are in either to help the unwanted assignments to not land in your inbox.

***Quicker than a cat

You need to be almost on top of your email for the good assignments and this is fairly easy these days as most? People have some sort of smart phone linked to their email. If you don't have this facility then you will need to check email on a regular basis as the assignments tend to go very quickly from the website.

***Assignments

When you receive an email concerning the availability of assignment you log onto the website and the terms and conditions of the assignment can be read. This may be as simple as if you have a bank account with the bank that is being looked at then you may not be eligible to do the assignment. Other times it might be necessary to have an account with a particular bank or even branch.

Assignments can range from Banks to retail outlets, High St shops, travel agents or supermarkets. As I have found in the past it pays to read the assignment in its entirety as there is normally more than one job to do and at times this can go way past a normal shopping experience as you ask yet another question of a member of staff. I believe that members of staff are on the lookout for mystery shoppers as well, so it can be easy to be spotted on your first few attempts. My tip here is to keep to a story and don't deviate, act like you own the place and they will just think you're arrogant and try to resolve your issues quickly.

***The report

During the assignment you will need to keep a good eye on the time and also be able to remember detail of the people you have spoken to. It is not enough to just remember names you will need to remember height, build, eye colour, hair etc. This can be practiced just normally during the day and I found with practice that it comes easy after a while.

When you get back the report is filled out on the PC and this should be done in most cases within 24 hours of the assignment being completed. I find the sooner I do it the better as I retain a good amount but only in the short term. One good trick is to look at the building you are going to enter on Google earth or Google maps to get a good idea of the surrounding area and the layout of the street to see if you can loiter to make notes before and after going in.

These quick notes afterwards have proved invaluable on a couple of my assignments especially during travel agent ones as these can go on for a while. The report also has a spell check button that allows you to re-check your work and this I have found is very useful as it is easy to ramble when describing things at times.

You then submit the report for it to be checked by Grass Roots and they will call you or email you if there is a query. They have also phoned me previously concerning the accuracy of information which I believe was to allow a particular member of staff to be identified. If accepted you are then entitled to the fee that was stipulated.

***Payment

Payment is made via BACS and I would suggest that you are not down to your last tin of beans in the kitchen when you see the words "payment pending" on the assignment that you have completed. Pay pal now takes about 5 min to transfer funds, Grass roots takes about 5 or 6 days to transfer funds.

Normal fee for a standard visit with no purchase requirement is about £10-£12.50. This depends on the requirement of the assignment. However some, especially supermarkets etc. will also reimburse mystery shoppers with any purchase they have had to make. This is normally between £1 and £5, the former for food shopping and normally the latter for electronic goods. Both the fee and reimbursement are paid at the same time, directly into the nominated bank account.


Overall

Don't do this to get rich - it isn't going to happen, however if you want to earn a couple of quid extra then it's not a bad choice of extra jobs. I personally do it to sharpen the memory and I find that you can train yourself to get better at recall the more that you do. Be careful not to spend more than you earn when carrying out the assignments.