Just Who Are These ‘Mystery Shoppers’?

Mystery shoppers come in all shapes, colors and sizes and from all walks of life, experts said, and the more ordinary their backgrounds, the better.

“Some are retired, some are semi-retired, some may be salespeople themselves picking up some extra cash on their day off. Some own a home-based business or are full-time moms who want occasional work,” said Susan Hyland, whose Hyland Bay Co. of Phoenix conducts about 80 mystery shopping encounters a month.

What mystery shoppers all have in common is an interest in new homes and a little bit of actor deep in their souls. “These people have to be able to articulate and present themselves in need for a home,” Hyland said. “They have to be credible.”

When Martha Marquez, 37, did frequent mystery shopping assignments--she got a desk job after becoming too recognizable in the industry--she was told she fit the typical profile of a first-time home buyer. “I went into the lower-end type of product, never into the customized, country-club types of homes,” she said.

Mystery shoppers are typically sent out on a weekday--so as not to take away a salesperson’s time from a legitimate potential sale on a busy weekend. They are paid a set fee, somewhere between $125 to $200 depending on the company they work for and usually with compensation for travel. The shopping encounter may last from 10 minutes to two hours, depending on how interested and aggressive the salesperson is.

“The shopper presents himself as a very motivated, extremely serious shopper. They put out signals like, ‘I like what you have, you meet my needs, now sell me,’ ” said Mary LeBlanc, of the shopping evaluation firm LeBlanc & Wright in San Diego.

Mystery shoppers typically spend four to 20 hours in training before being sent out on an as-needed basis with tape recorders and microphones concealed beneath their clothing.

“They’re not given a script but they are given a story that explains why they want to buy in this community and what income parameters they need to have to qualify,” LeBlanc said.

If the shopping scenario gets to the point where the phony couple has to fill out paperwork, they have been briefed on what names to use and given job titles and a telephone number where they are supposed to work.

Once the shopper completes a session, he or she must fill out a two- to six-page analysis covering more than 50 points ranging from the cleanliness of the office to whether or not the salesperson shook her hand and demonstrated the appliances in the model home kitchen.

After she was finished with a shopping experience, Marquez said, she usually drove to the nearest park where she could fill out her evaluation form while the encounter was still fresh in her mind. “If you do this a lot, you remember what you saw. If you see anything out of place--like cigarette butts in the sink, garbage thrown around, walkways dirty or models all messed up--you would remember it,” she said.