- Image by Evil Erin via Flickr
One of the things I love about the mystery shopping industry is that I get to interact with a lot of different kinds of people. Our business truly brings in all walks of life in order to best serve our clients. And while it’s true that variety is the spice of life, it does not come without its quirks and horror stories!
Typically, these mishaps come from the people who are given very, very clear instructions on what to do and – for some reason or another – just choose not to do it. Then there are people who seem to go over and beyond the call of duty simply to shock us. (Let’s just say I have plenty of material to entertain groups of people at parties.)
Here are a few that we’ve seen at Measure CP:
- We had one shopper who wore pajamas on her shop — not the easiest way to blend seamlessly into the public!
- Instead of asking about store products, a 75-year-old shopper propositioned an 18-year-old employee.
- One mystery shopper dutifully was following directions when taking a photograph of a product she was suppose to purchase. Unfortunately, she unknowingly captured herself in the nude in the picture.
- How about this for going rogue on mystery shopper instructions: One shopper decided to urinate on the floor of the establishment he was shopping. According to the mystery shopper, he did this “to see how the employees would react.” Their reaction: complete and utter disgust. So was ours.
- One shopper was identified because she was caught having sex on a shop. On the premises. With the manager of the business she was mystery shopping. (Needless to say, this wasn’t on the list of instructions from us.)
- Sometimes, it’s not what our mystery shopper did, but what he or she experienced: We had one unfortunate shopper who caught two employees having sex behind the restaurant!
Luckily, the above stories are the extreme cases of mystery shopper disasters. For every bad one, there are many, many more great mystery shoppers who are paramount to our success as a business.
What’s the worst horror story in your mystery shopper experience?
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