Mystery
Shopping for Cars
and Vehicles for Sale
Mystery shopping for cars and vehicles for sale involves evaluating the customer service experience at a dealership from the perspective of a potential buyer. It's an effective way for an auto dealer ownership group and their managers to assess how effective their sales staff are doing to increase sales.
You apply for an assignment off a job board with a mystery shopping company. They will award the assignment to one of the shoppers in their database. Once you are accepted, you will be given a list of instructions on what to do and when to make your visit. Most of the time, you can visit anytime within a stretch of 3 or 4 days. You will also see the questionnaire that you will fill out after your visit. There may be around 50 questions to rate your service and a couple of sentences to write about your experience. You submit that report within 24 hours after your visit, unless you have a follow up question.
The salesperson is supposed to follow up with you with either a phone call, text or email. Many times, the salesperson sends a follow up minutes after you leave the dealership. If they do that, you can submit your report right away.
If the salesperson doesn't respond right away, the follow up period is usually three to five days. You can submit the report as soon as you get a response. (You don't have to respond back.) If you receive no communique after five days, you can submit the report. It always looks bad on the salesperson if they don't follow up.
Your role for the cars and vehicles for sale assignments.
You don't have to be an expert on automobiles to do these assignments. Some knowledge is helpful, but as long as you're able to follow all the guidelines listed in the instructions, you should be good with these assignments.
Most of the time, when you shop for cars and vehicles for sale in a mystery shop, you will enter the showroom and wait for a salesperson to approach you. Once they do, you will interact with that person and listen for important points made in their presentation. The shopper will be asked on the questionnaire to rate the person's knowledge of the product and their professionalism. Was the person friendly? Did they ask a lot of questions about your needs and desires?
Did the salesperson give buying clues like asking you what you like about the vehicle? Dealership owners and managers want to see the negotiation tactics of the sales person. You have to throw in objections to the salesperson to see how they respond. That is a very important part of the mystery shopping process for all assignments.
Many of these assignments require a test drive off the property. I have driven a vehicle quite a few times to see if this car would be to my liking. However, liability issues may factor in for some dealerships and they won't allow a person to drive the vehicle. The salesperson would be the driver instead. In every case I've done this assignment, I never drove a vehicle alone.
The test drive is an important part of the evaluation process. It's an opportunity for a salesperson to apply more sales tactics to get you to buy. Managers want to know if the salesperson was talkative or extremely quiet.
If the instructions tell you to take a test drive, you must say "yes" if offered. If you say "no," you risk not getting paid for the assignment. The same could happen if the instructions tell you not to take a test drive, but you accept an offer. You may not get paid for that as well.
A typical visit takes about 45 minutes. You listen to the terms of purchasing the vehicle. Managers want to know about the financing options offered, any promotions, and how they respond to objections. Ultimately, you'll say "no" to purchasing the vehicle and leave the dealership. You will not go through the credit process.
Many assignments for cars and vehicles for sale that I've done have been with hidden video and audio equipment. Owners and managers get a better idea of the dialogue and sales techniques when they can see and hear the salesperson. They can play back the presentation to the salesperson and point out the good and the bad.
Auto dealership assignments pay anywhere from $50 and above. If you have to travel 100 miles or more, you can make $200 or more. Video assignments pay double the amount. I had video shops at three dealerships that were located 200 miles away. I was able to do each assignment in one day, earning $300 for each assignment. Even though it was 400 miles roundtrip, it made for a profitable day.
The mystery shopping business is always looking for new faces to visit different places. Learn how you can start your own mystery shopping business from my book, "Take That Job And Mystery Shop It!." I also list close to 200 mystery shopping companies that you can click on their website and fill out an application. There's information about each company and I indicate which ones I've worked with.
