As you start your mystery shopping career, you may suddenly have mixed feelings inside of you that may cause hesitation. You begin to question if the decision to become a secret shopper will become more of a hindrance than a benefit.
Our fear of failure often hampers us when we begin to undertake changes in life. We start to doubt ourselves and our capacity to succeed instead of focusing all our mental energy on success. This can be a major dilemma because we are all too often short-changing our own abilities at the expense of our productivity.
Fortunately, you are not alone. Many mystery shoppers experience this fear, especially when encountering a new chapter in their life. Yet, we should realize that such undertakings are actually good for us. If we have the right attitude and perspective, we will become more successful in our chosen career paths.
3 Tips Overcoming Fear to Become a Successful Mystery Shopper
Here are some tips on how you can overcome these fears and move into your career as a successful secret shopper:
- Know your fear. Is it a fear of failure or of success? Identifying your fear will give you a better perspective of how to handle that fear. Identifying a problematic situation is the first step in reconciling it. Do you think your writing skills are not up to snuff? Use writing tools like spell check and Grammarly to help you be sure your comments will not be dinged for basic skills. Are you fearful you may ‘give yourself away’? Remember that the purpose of a mystery shop is to report the experience of a typical customer. So just act naturally as you would in a store, but take mental notes to remember more of your experience.
- Analyze the best and worst possible outcomes of taking action. Really, what is the worst that will happen? You will be asked to rewrite your report? We always learn from experiences. There is no ‘bad’ experience – just a lesson to be learned. Including perhaps not doing that type of mystery shop again. This will give you a way to measure the costs and benefits of your endeavors.
- Visualize yourself as being successful. Encourage yourself by creating a positive goal, sticking with it, and striving to achieve it. Seeing where you want to be will help you to get there.
Continuous Effort Pays Off
If you make a constant, continuous effort to overcome your fears, you will not only be successful as a mystery shopper, but you will develop a healthy mindset regarding your work in general.
If you liked this article and want more information to help you become a better mystery shopper join the Market Viewpoint community by clicking here.
Click here if you want to join Market Viewpoint’s team of mystery shoppers.
Do you know someone who would be a good mystery shopper? Please forward this post to them! You’ll be sharing the wealth and spreading happiness! And, after all, isn’t that what we all want?
Originally posted on October 23, 2013. Updated October 16, 2017.