set up own mystery shop business

Robert_Roberston

How would you envisage winning business? Would you write to all the local retai businesses or would you pick a cross section or even go into the store in person?

mummyplus3

Hi Mitch, I've found this thread very interesting as I am considering doing the same thing myself once i've moved. i shall keep up ith your thread and pehaps we could bounce some ideas off eachother.

mummyplus3

I think you would need to prepare a information pack by industry and some mock reports. Would you record the shops via video or audip to analyse them after the shop? How would you do that and how much is the equipment would those recordings be available to the store/resturant. have you the ability to edit those files? as they wont need a 2 hour film of you eating, just the important bits.

How would you factor in travel costs and expenses into the report? would you charge £25 + the receipted cost of the items/meal?, would you charge travel if a small chain wants you to do another of their stores out of your area?

jen_br

nehpets81 wrote: »

I have a few comments...

Great minds and all that

I would really see where the industry is heading and not where it is now.. because its fast moving and new technology and new ways of MS are starting to take over from the Report side of things. Telephone recordings etc.

As far as pitching, its more of a heres what I can do... Heres what your competitors are doing..... And ask the honest question -- "Can you use more customers through your door?"

What owner is going to say no to that?

I know of one company that started up.. he made a website and started quoting clients and sites and published video *that was used for reports for another company* he also pitched the clients of the companies he was working for and used the same reports etc. He was discriedted and basically bad mouthed around the biz... (also legal implications) however I dont suggest you really follow anyones suit like Gaps reports etc... it can get your in a lot of you know what.

mitch161

jen. indeed great minds think alike.

dont worry i wont be copy and pasting gaps questionaire. trust me my experience in business leaves me feeling that some fastfood restuarants have been suckered into such basic reporting for how much they charge per restaurant per week. my basic report will be more detailed using a camera phone to snap images of improvements while pretending im just texting while being a normal shopper. etc

and if i was to show reports to clients it would be their own reports or a demo template of a report just to show the scope of detail they will receive not actual results of a competitor.. and definetly not mentioning a competitor so no worries there

my improvements are that for instance in a independant hardware store seeing where lightbulbs are inconjuntion to lampshades.

for instance the big multinational electronic retailers i once earned a job as a merchandising advisor with thankis to CD pens.

basically noticing the sales of CD marker pens was low. went into stores and noticed CD pens were stashed on the office stationary aisle. simply moving them (with managers consent) over to where blank CD's and cd labels were, which made them go from selling 1 every 3 days on average to selling 3 a day. (900% sales increase)

seems simple but businesses love that they can find inspiration to see how to improve sales and that is only one example of the many things i want to provide businesses with.

for instance local grocery shops SHOULD put the nesquik milkshake powder next to the milk.

plus many other ideas. i go into so many shops and see soo many issues that need attention that i feel like pre filling in a report with these issues and then aprroach them mentioning that i can improve their business and regularly monitor it giving regullar feedback from customer point of view etc..

yes of course the more suggestions i mention involves a more detailed report involving higher charges. but this is the kind of idea of how i want things to escalate. but starting slow with just getting a basic report into their hands as my advert ..

technically wanting the basic £25 report as my foot in the door. and regular pocket money earner.. and then push for the bigger bucks which will be less regular but more detailed.

i do agree i dont want to give too much away for £25. but a little more then the likes of what some MS companies give for their basic £25 charges.

Disclaimer note: MS companies may not charge £25 to companies, this is just a imaginative example of what a shopper recieves plus admin costs. not actual figure

mitch161

robert:
how i see winning business. i would just spend a day walking around town going into shops off the highstreet (basically avoiding the large chain stores) and just browse around as a normal customer would.
id rate them. keep a ear open for how they talk to customers and then rate the attention to detail, issues, and anything else i can see. then on walking out the store id press record on my voice recorder to take quick notes on what i have found as a reminder for later. before entering the next store

starting with the worse stores id prepare a report with my findings and return,asking to see the manager. mentioning my credentials and experience and whether he be interested in a impartial report on his business which could result on him increasing business with minimum impact.

still dealing with the sales speech so dont take the last paragraph as anywhere near what i will actually say. but this is so far what i plan to be doing soon. just rating places as i do my usual walks around town looking for the most need-of-support independant shop i can find and show them what their potential can be.

ok.. so in 24 hours i went from just looking for a few extra "jobs/shifts" mystery shopping localy as a hobby, to now invisioning a more of a retail analyst role. ouch. better try slowing my brain down, i dont even want to know what ill have as a business plan tomorrow lol

mitch161

mummy+3
originally invisioned this to be where i was receiving a free meal and minimum wage when i was MS for companies.. to continue doing the same but not requiring the MS company to simply take my report and post it to the client

trust me i have seen it where a retailer that uses a MS company receives basically the questionaire, no additions no changes. no comparisons or any other analytical notes added. just the "shoppers" comments and answers on a MS companies letter head.

thats what my mind was invisioning me doing intially. and then offering more detailed proper audits at higher prices.

the travel costs and time will all come under the fee.. but yes a additional fee to cover product/meal purchases if the client requests a purchase is made.

this is why i want to keep it local to cover costs. and only keep it to independants at first to keep chances down of them wanting to use me for other stores they own 30 miles away lol

dont wanna run before i can walk as it were.

Kevie192

You would also need to think of tax and NI that you would need to pay on these jobs... That takes a substantial amount of that income away.

Also, you couldn't return to the shop to speak to the manager... Any members of staff working would see you do that and know something was up. If you then return as a 'shopper' they would be very suspicious and your reports would be skewed...

Good idea though

MSRyan

just do a very small mock report for each store and then speak to the manager /owner and tell them about what could be improved and then offer them the scheme. This way they can get a grasp on how well the full report will look

Lil_Me_2

I don't think your vision makes for a very good business I'm afraid. I think you're underestimating the time you'll need to spend in actually getting the owners to hand over any money, and I don't think that you're qualified enough to give them business advice which is what you think you'll do.

Also what happens after you've been in once? It sounds to me like you want to be a business analyst/mary queen of shops and not a mystery shopping business.

On top of this I think what you're proposing isn't good for the rest of us who do actually try and make money from doing this. Undercutting other companies by charging £25 undervalues the work that we do as far as I'm concerned. Yes it might be feasible for a single person working on their own to make a small profit on £25 but other companies who pay someone else to do the work (which is the only way you can actually make it a viable MSing company) can't compete with that and it drives down the fees even further.