My first mystery shop was at a regional Italian restaurant chain. It was for a $70 reimbursable lunch (I really lucked out)! What surprised me was how many details there were to remember. I had to report down-to-the-minute timings through an hour long lunch, and remember exactly what was said by the hostess, server, and everyone else I interacted with. I was required to order at least 3 courses, and to take advantage of the very generous reimbursement limit, we ended up ordering 2 appetizers, 2 main entrees, 4 sodas, and 2 desserts! I've never had such a filling or expensive lunch! But, every item had to be meticulously described, with a minimum of 3 sentences per item. It took me over 2 hours to get all the details I had recorded into the online reporting tool! I felt pretty stressed, being a rookie at this...

Well, fast foward a few years, and I have learned some tricks to make such a detail-intensive shop more managable. First off, I always have a small recorder with me (I use the MuVo from Creative Labs). I keep it running throughout the meal in my bag, so I can get timings and quotes as needed. For recording information that is not audible, I carry a small notepad and pen in my purse. I can discretely write names and brief observations down, until I can dash off to the bathroom to fill in more details. I have also done this exact same shop many times now, and am able to reuse my previous writeup as a template for the next one.

For more details on how you can get started mystery shopping, check out my Mystery Shopping pages on Mom's Wallet!

I'm really excited to be able to share the information I have found over the years in one consolidated place! I'd love to hear feedback, suggestions, etc. from my readers  If you'd like to exchange links, just send me an email at admin@momswallet.com.