Can You Tell Good Service From Bad; Recognise Value For Money; Compare Prices, Staff Efficiency, Product Range, Customer Service Between Rival Firms? If so you might easily find work as a 'Mystery Shopper' and be paid to comment on service in shops, banks and building societies, hotels, cinemas, veterinary surgeries, restaurants, even on long distance flights and holidays.

Mystery shoppers go undetected into a business, seeing things as they really are, through the eyes of people who really matter - customers! What they see and the service they receive will not be affected by who they are and what influence they have over staff!

As competition grows, especially in a recession, and pressure increases on companies to maintain or better still improve their own market share, more openings will appear for mystery shoppers in all areas of commerce, including banks and building societies, shops and supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, and more.

Not all 'mystery shopping' involves buying something:

So you might have to telephone a company service hotline, posing as a customer with a problem to see how well your case is handled and how long it takes.

Or the manager of a high street supermarket might commission mystery shoppers to stand outside another firm's store to count the number of customers entering the premises and determine which are the busiest times, what complimentary transport is offered, how many packages are carried out, whether staff help customers to their vehicles, and so on.

Most tasks are simple and quick and involve little more than shopping, making a mental note of the event, and later submitting a written or telephone report to the employing company.

Marguerite Hegley who has several years experience as a mystery shopper helped me research the mystery shopping business. She says:

"I first mystery shopped a supermarket. It was a lot of fun being asked to spend a specific sum of money on goods which I kept, and I also received expenses and a tidy fee for my work. The pubs were fun too and I was asked to order a meal and a drink in some and just a drink in others. The eight pubs I had to visit over a ten day period were in a twelve mile radius of my home.

She reveals that work can be found from:

1) Market research companies and specialist mystery shopping agencies;

2) Media advertisements placed by market research companies, specialist hiring companies, companies themselves requiring shoppers;

3) Listings on Internet bulletin boards, newsgroups and discussion groups, or emailed to known candidates.

4) Team leaders for companies having your details on file.

5) Word-of-mouth from friends and associates involved in the mystery shopping business;

6) Your own mystery shopping business.

Once you have an assignment, be as professional as possible and you might find yourself indispensable to some major companies.

These tips will help you become a mystery shopper in great demand by several hiring companies and can be relied upon to do a good job - always.

* Be careful to be seen as an ordinary shopper, not as someone obviously spying on staff or noting prices, selection, store layout, and so on. Try to blend in with the surroundings by dressing like the 'average' customer and not spending too long in any particular area or staring continuously in one direction.

* Practice being a mystery shopper before applying for work. A friend, now a very successful mystery shopper, shortly to start her own business, offered to mystery shop for acquaintances in various lines of business.

* Look for work with several companies, thereby reducing the chance of becoming well known and harder to employ. Anyone contemplating a full-time career should approach several recruitment firms and be willing to accept most kinds of assignment in various commercial sectors over a wide geographic area.

* Make yourself available at all times, at short notice, and look forward to a hectic and well-paid career as a mystery shopper. In time you can expect to receive plenty of referral business from firms you have worked for previously, as well as through fellow mystery shoppers and their supervisors who are happy to recommend you to others.

Above all, enjoy yourself - this isn't hard work after all!