Secret Shoppers turn high-tech
Oregonian
April 15, 2005
By Laura Gunderson

Christina Cartwright is a mother, wife and part-time spy.

She slips a digital camera out of her purse for a quick shot inside a store and fakes a call to her husband to record details using her cell phone's voice memo function.

"Everyone has a cell phone these days, and they walk around with them everywhere," she said. "It works as a simple decoy."

Mystery shopping has gone James Bond.

Mystery shoppers are independent contractors who help businesses evaluate their service, displays and ambience. In the past, their findings, jotted on paper, were compiled into monthly reports for business owners. In recent years, the secret shoppers have turned high-tech, finding jobs online and filing e-mail reports that are nearly instantly accessible. Some shoppers record observations on handheld computers and upload digital pictures for reports.

A few even record exchanges with clerks on video cameras disguised as shirt buttons.

"We're a lot more sophisticated," said Dave Meholovitch, who owns Excellence in Customer Service, a Bend firm that matches companies with mystery shoppers. His shoppers use an electronic voice changer that enables them to complete several over-the-phone evaluations to the same business without being detected.

Mystery shopping has been a way for stay-at-home moms, college students and retirees to earn extra money. It still is, yet its market -- grown far beyond retail to include a host of service industries -- has clamored for more detailed reviews in ever-faster speeds.

The shoppers have responded.

When Portlander Jennifer Posner started mystery shopping four years ago, she faxed reports. As with the estimated half-million other mystery shoppers nationwide, she now finds jobs online, submits reports on a Web page and in some cases knows clients will read her work in less than 24 hours.

Posner, who squeezes "shops" around a full-time job, has never filmed or recorded employees and stores she evaluates. That's more common on the East Coast, though the industry's trade group, Mystery Shopping Providers Association, said audio and visual reports are moving westward as they gain popularity.

Training tools

High-tech gadgets not only speed the reporting process but also help companies train employees.

With a video or audio clip, a manager can show employees they didn't smile at a customer or they skipped information in their pitch, said Michael Bare, president of Video Eyes, a firm with shoppers across North America. Bare's independent contractors use button cameras as well as "purse cams, pen cams, eyeglass cams" and equally cloaked audio recorders.

Reports enhanced by those devices help "an employee see that he didn't make eye contact or didn't ask how much a customer wanted to spend," Bare said. "When it comes from you, rather than me, it's much more accepted."

He estimates that as many as 200 video shops nationwide are completed each week. The trade association said as many as 75,000 of its shoppers are extreme techies, using digital cameras and wireless computing devices on each job.

Video shopping is most common in the United States and the United Kingdom, Bare said, although it's going global. He said at least one Pakistani company uses secret shoppers with hidden cameras.

The 7-year-old Mystery Shopping Providers Association lists available jobs, hosts blogs and maintains an ethics guide and a certification process for shoppers.

Training sessions

Shoppers don't need certification to shop, but can obtain silver or gold status through the trade group. About 75 local shoppers are expected to attend a gold certification workshop Saturday in Portland, which will provide some training on video shopping. That's a different focus from past training topics, which included how to measure servings, test drink temperatures and use stopwatches to gauge service.

"We can deploy shoppers with cameras into every single one of a client's locations," said Jeff Hall, the trade association's president. "It's really evolving into a very dynamic, rich tool."

Beyond supporting training, reports help marketing departments see whether companywide campaigns are executed as planned and give businesses a visual inventory of their properties.

As uses for mystery shopping reports multiply within companies, so does the variety of companies that want to use them.

Meholovitch, who owns the Bend company, focuses on community banks and resorts. Sue Bean of Lebanon observes gas stations and rent-to-own stores. Cartwright, the Portland shopper, has visited amusement parks, upscale restaurants and online stores.

A growing number of medical clinics are signing up for mystery shoppers, who pose as employees in need of a drug test or physical.

Veterinarian chains also have begun hiring secret shoppers.

In that case, it's not a cell phone, but Fido that acts as a decoy.