Frequently Asked Questions

Mystery Shoppers get the chance to have a lot of new and exciting experiences in their daily routines. From visiting hair salons to bowling in new game arcades, Mystery Shopping gives you the chance to have experiences that are fun and are paid for at the same time. By Mystery Shopping or service checking, you can help improve the level of services in your hometown or city and speak out about the services that affect you every day. Not only can you do all this in your spare time, but you can also earn some money along the way.

Essentially there is no difference between a Mystery Shopper and a Service Checker. Test Customers, Test Buyers, Test Guests, Secret Shoppers, Store Checkers and Shop Controllers are all terms for the same thing. In the end, all of these terms describe the job of checking on the quality of customer services in any field.

1. Register
First you have to register with International Service Check® to become a Mystery Shopper. You need to fill out an application form with your personal details and shopping preferences. To register, click here.

2. Selection
Our clients usually ask us to provide them with Mystery Shoppers of a particular profile. Profiles include age, shopping habits, likes, dislikes, location and a variety of other factors. If your profile matches the client’s Mystery Shopper request, we will contact you by phone or email to ask if you are available for a particular assignment.

3. Assignment
If we contact you for a particular assignment, you will be informed of the type of service outlet you will visit, its location, details of the business and a clear explanation of what you will be required to do during your mystery visit. If you accept, we need you to complete the assignment by a given deadline. Upon acceptance we will mail you a comprehensive questionnaire or Mystery Shop report as well as detailed instructions on what you have to do.

4. Completion
When you complete your Mystery Shopping assignment, you will need to fill out and send us your completed questionnaire or Mystery Shop report within the given deadline along with an invoice form for your services rendered. After that, our editors will proofread your report to see if you have answered all the questions correctly. At this stage, you are required to be available by email or phone for 48 hours after we have received your report. Our editors and project managers may need to contact you for cross checks and to make necessary amendments to your report. On the successful completion of this entire process, ISC will credit your bank account or pay you directly for your Mystery Shopping Services.

See ‘What will I earn per assignment?’

Not always. In each Mystery Shopping assignment, the conditions of the project vary. As a result, we will thoroughly explain every situation to you before you conduct an assignment. In case a scenario calls for the unforeseen purchase of an item, International Service Check will give you the opportunity to keep the item at a reduced rate or return the item to us for a refund.

Each Mystery Shopping assignment is different and asks for different criteria to be tested. Therefore, the larger the project is, the more you stand to earn. For each project you will be told beforehand how much you will earn on the successful completion and submission of your shopping report. It usually takes less than an hour to conduct a Mystery Shop and for each report you submit successfully, we will make payments directly to your account within 25-50 days of report submission.

No. If you register with International Service Check® for Mystery Shopping assignments, you are considered an independent shopper who is simply conducting assignments for us in your own time, as and when assignments become available.

Mystery Shopping is just a way of earning extra money in your spare time. By accepting an assignment, you are agreeing to conduct a one-off service evaluation for International Service Check® and for this you may be paid a pre-agreed fee.

No. If you cannot accept an assignment for any reason, we will contact you again when you fit the required profile for a Mystery Shop in your area.

If for some reason you cannot complete an assignment you have accepted, all you have to do is inform us before the test date so we can assign another Mystery Shopper to conduct the test.

If you do not inform us of your inability to conduct a test and the report deadline expires, we will consider this to be a breach of our agreement for Mystery Shopping by you, and we shall remove you from our Mystery Shopper database.

We usually ask you to go Mystery Shopping in your spare time or within a certain time frame. For example, we could ask you to go shopping at a store between specific opening times, or between 3 and 5 pm on the 10th of January or simply any time between 10th and 15th January. Mostly you get to decide when to conduct your service check so long as you send back your Mystery Shopping report to us before any allocated deadlines.

However, our clients do sometimes ask for assignments to be carried out on specific days and dates. In these situations, you will be informed beforehand of any specific dates or deadlines for your Mystery Shopping assignment.

Usually, the only fixed date or time we give our Mystery Shoppers is the deadline for the Shopping report.

If the sales staff find out that you are a Mystery Shopper or you cannot fill out the questionnaire properly because you missed out specific details during your shopping trip, we will consider that Mystery Shopping assignment to be null and void. As a result, we will have to conduct the entire Mystery Shop again, with another service checker. As a result, any expenses incurred by you on the failed trip shall be non-refundable and you will not be paid for that assignment.

No. Service Checking is a part time job and our Mystery Shoppers conduct their assignments on weekends or after they have finished their daily work. Service Checking is simply a way of earning extra money as a secondary source of income and not a full time job opportunity.

Whenever you complete an assignment with ISC, your reports will be checked and rated by our expert editors. You will then receive an e-mail with a grade for your report and any feedback on how you could have conducted the shop better. If you become good at providing detailed reports after your Mystery Shopping assignments and you achieve good grades consistently, you stand to be chosen more frequently than less experienced or less attentive Mystery Shoppers. If we have not contacted you in a while it is only because our Mystery Shopping assignments do not require your customer profile at that time.