The next time you are standing at a supermarket counter, and you see a teenage girl behind you in the line, you could be looking at a mystery shopper.

So what’s this mystery shopper? A secret shopper is a freelance, professional shopper hired by retail stores, restaurants, malls, banks and movie theatres in order to make sure that customer service is excellent, stores are clean and food quality is up to the mark.

For instance, suppose "X" company has a franchise or chain of stores. To know the stores performance and its capability, the franchisee asks a mystery shopper to visit that store and do the performance appraisal. These mystery shoppers then give feedback. This concept is used by food chains like McDonalds, KFC and Subway to keep an eye on all their chains and have a centralised food quality check.

You, the undercover customer, get a free meal or reimbursement on your purchase while the company gets to see if the employees are following the correct protocol when dealing with customers

So, how can one break into this career? While you don't need to be an expert shopper to make it in this field, the job requires the same skills essential to any support position, namely patience and a perceptive nature. Good writing skills for submitting reports, keen observation skills, are other qualities that will put you on the right track of this amazing career. "It is not that easy being a mystery shopper.

Sometimes you also have to perform an undercover sting operation by using the video technology including mobile cameras and spy cameras. Video taping of shops saves the report work and you have a video shot as proof of what you have seen. You have to fill online forms and give a report about the place before the given due date.

Mystery customer evaluations are always looking for experienced mystery shoppers throughout the UK. We’re a leading mystery shopping agency that helps mystery shop companies.