Video Mystery Shopping Overview
This Video Mystery Shopping Overview comes from my own experience doing video assignments. Moving into video mystery shopping gave my income a substantial boost. The assignments often paid considerably more than traditional mystery shops, and I spent much less time writing long narratives afterward.
Video shopping does have some additional risks. If your equipment doesn't work or you don't capture usable video, you may not get paid. But once I became comfortable with the equipment, video assignments became some of the most profitable mystery shops I performed.
Want more help getting started? My book, Take That Job And Mystery Shop It!, walks you through finding assignments, completing shops, writing reports, and avoiding many of the mistakes new shoppers make.
What Is Video Mystery Shopping?
Video mystery shopping is exactly what the name suggests. You visit a business as a regular customer, but a hidden camera records the interaction.
The client gets to see and hear what actually happened instead of relying entirely on your written description.
Video shops can be conducted at apartment communities, new-home developments, automobile dealerships, retail businesses, and many other locations. You're given a scenario and instructions just as you would be with a traditional mystery shop.
The big difference is the camera.
You have to make sure the equipment is working, positioned correctly, and recording what the client needs to see.
Video Mystery Shopping Overview: Why I Prefer Video Assignments
The biggest advantage for me has been the money.
I've found that video assignments may pay more than double what I could make doing similar traditional mystery shops. Mystery shopping companies may also add bonuses when they have difficulty getting an assignment completed.
Maybe the deadline is approaching. Maybe the location is a long distance from the nearest available shopper. Sometimes a shop simply sits on the job board because nobody wants to drive there.
That's when an assignment can become much more interesting.
I've seen fees increase substantially when a company needed a video completed.
Another video mystery shopping overview advantage is the report.
With a traditional mystery shop, I might spend a considerable amount of time writing detailed narratives about what happened. With many video shops, the client can watch the interaction for themselves.
I still have a report to complete, but I've found the writing requirements are often substantially shorter.
That means I can spend more time doing assignments and less time sitting at my computer describing them.
Listen to my interview with Mystery Phil, who works the mystery shopping business full-time.
A $600 Day in Houston
One of my better video mystery shopping trips involved three luxury automobile dealerships in Houston.
Houston is approximately 200 miles from my home, so this wasn't a quick trip across town. Normally, I wouldn't drive that far for an ordinary mystery shopping assignment.
But these weren't ordinary assignments.
Each dealership paid me $200.
That gave me $600 in assignments for the trip. I could drive to Houston, complete all three shops, and make enough money to justify the distance.
The business mileage associated with my mystery shopping work could also have tax implications, so I kept mileage records for my business. Tax rules can change and individual circumstances differ, so shoppers should check current requirements or consult a qualified tax professional rather than assuming every trip is deductible.
For me, the Houston trip was well worth making.
That's another advantage of video mystery shopping. If you can schedule several assignments in the same area on the same day, the numbers can become much more attractive.
Video Shopping Has Its Risks
Higher pay doesn't mean everything is easier.
Your equipment matters.
I've had equipment problems during video assignments, and there is always the possibility of something going wrong. A battery can fail. A connection can come loose. The camera can shift position. You can think you're recording when you're not.
With a written mystery shop, you can still write your report if something unexpected happens.
With a video shop, an unusable recording can mean an unusable assignment.
Before leaving for a shop, I learned to check my equipment carefully. You don't want to drive a long distance, spend an hour with a salesperson, and then discover that you didn't capture the video the client needed.
Video Shopping Lets Me Do More Assignments
The combination of higher fees and shorter reports changed what I could accomplish in a day.
Instead of performing one assignment and then spending a long time writing about everything that happened, I could sometimes schedule several video shops in the same area.
That's where video mystery shopping really improved my earning potential.
It wasn't simply that one shop paid more. I could sometimes earn more per assignment while also completing more assignments in a day.
That made a tremendous difference in my mystery shopping income.
Is Video Mystery Shopping Worth It?
Video mystery shopping won't be for everyone. You have to learn the equipment, follow the client's instructions, act naturally, and capture a usable recording.
I wouldn't recommend buying expensive equipment simply because you read that video shops can pay more. Learn about the opportunities available to you first and understand what the companies you're working with require.
But for me, learning video mystery shopping was one of the best decisions I made in this business.
My video mystery shopping overview is this: The assignments paid better. Bonuses sometimes made difficult or distant shops especially profitable. My narrative writing dropped substantially, and I could complete several assignments in a day.
There were equipment problems along the way, but the overall increase in my income more than made up for them.
That's the most important point in my video mystery shopping overview: once I learned how to do these assignments successfully, video shopping changed how much I could make from mystery shopping.
About the Author
I'm Mystery Don, and I've completed mystery shopping assignments for restaurants, hotels, apartment communities, automobile dealerships, and new home builders.
I created this website to help people avoid the mistakes I've seen—and to show new shoppers how legitimate mystery shopping really works.
My book Take That Job And Mystery Shop It! lists over 150 mystery shopping companies to contact. I offer beginner-friendly tips and honest guidance without hype.
We're always looking for new faces to visit different places.
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