Networking, networking...

Retail Active is the one of the leading Mystery Shopping companies in the UK and certainly the most innovative.  We only stay this way by listening to our clients, providing tailored Mystery Shopping and Brand Audit services and by staying in contact with our Mystery Shoppers and listening to their needs and wishes. 

One of our Mystery Shoppers' number one requests is to stay up-to-date with visit releases online.  With our bespoke job allocation system, visits are notified to our eligible shoppers within a set radius of their home address. Often, Shoppers want to know about what’s happening across the UK; maybe they are looking to travel for us, picking up a number of assignments for their favourite brands or maybe, they are holidaying in a different area and want to re-coop some of their expenses.

You can stay up to date with visit releases, office news and urgent Mystery Shopping jobs online at www.twitter.com/retailactive, and you can network with us by searching for Retail Active on Facebook.

Fight the Monday Blues!

It’s Blue Monday – the most depressing day of the year. What’s even worse is its snowing and Britain is coming to a halt around us. The winter feels like it’s here to stay and the first day of spring feels a million years away.

If you’re feeling glum, we have a few ideas that might help;

1. Try a new hobby!

Taking up a new hobby is often rewarding and socially exciting, which is especially welcome through the notorious doldrums of January. We, of course, suggest joining mystery shopping companies as a great idea to get interested in!

2. Get some sun.

Sunlight helps our bodies produce Vitamin D and Vitamin D is great for helping to boost the immune system. Do you find yourself with the winter sniffles through January? Even just getting out in the winter sun can help, especially if you’re walking through town on a mystery shopping trip!  'Seasonal Affective Disorder’ has also been linked to the lack of sunlight, so it could bring you out of the blues too.

3. Get your finances in check.

Now is the time to address the accumulated debt from the holidays. One of the keys factors in the January blues is worrying about debt. We pay our mystery shoppers for completing work for us as well as reimbursing them for purchases, so now would be the perfect time to complete some visits, get yourself a treat and give your credit card a break!

If your company’s customers are feeling under the weather, we could provide insight into why.  For information on our services, please email info@retailactive.com.
  
If you are looking for mystery shopping jobs or are looking to become a secret shopper, please sign up through www.retailactive.com.

Thank you to all of our Mystery Shoppers

Retail Active is the most innovative of all of the UKs Mystery Shopping companies, but we know that a lot of our great reputation is founded on the hard work of our mystery shoppers all over the globe.  With that in mind, it’s that time again – time to say a brief Thank You to our star Mystery Shoppers.

Thank you to Pauline from Berkshire:
Your help on our recent Shop-a-long project has been FANTASTIC and your willingness to help out at the last minute is always appreciated.

Thank you to Julie from Cornwall:
You are so happy to travel for us to mystery shopping jobs in the depths of Cornwall and always complete reports to a fantastic standard – you’re a true credit to the team.

Thank you to Martin from Bristol:
Even though you don’t drive, you’ll hop on a train for us for visits around your area and still manage to get home and have your reports online in good time – your dedication to work is admirable.

Thank you to Jill from East Sussex:
A new addition to the panel, you’ve already made a name for yourself within the scheduling team as friendly, reliable and, most of all, patient! 

Thank you to Melanie from Norfolk:
Another new recruit who has made their name with last minute visits being completed to a very high standard with great reportage – thank you, Melanie.

Last but not least...
A HUGE Thank You to every one of our Mystery Shoppers worldwide – we truly appreciate your hard work and dedication.  Without you, we would not be the UK's leading Mystery Shopping and Brand Auditing company.  You can join us as a mystery shopper, or see what we can do for you as a company, at www.retailactive.com.

Proofreaders Required

We are currently searching for experienced freelance proofreaders to expand our highly regarded Quality Assurance team.

Retail Active is the leading British Mystery Shopping and Brand Audit Company and as one of our proofreaders, you would be working closely with us to resolve any identified queries in an accurate and timely manner.  You will report to our Quality Assurance team leader and work with our Head Office team to sense-check and proofread reports generated from our mystery shopping jobs.

Our perfect proofreader would have meticulous attention to detail and an excellent understanding of the English language.  In addition, you should be available to work a minimum of 12-16 hours per week.  Our flexible working hours means that you can fit work in around your schedule, but we are currently prioritising those that can work full-time office hours and those that are available weekends or evenings.

The key responsibilities of our freelance proofreaders include:

•    Amending secret shopper reports to conform to our ethics policy.
•    Working with the Quality Assurance team to bring any queries to resolution.
•    Diligently proofreading mystery shopper reports and validating visits.
•    Working with the Operations team to ensure that any recurring problems are brought to light and resolved.

Retail Active is one of Europe's leading mystery shopping companies and we are looking for honest, accurate and reliable people to help us make a real difference.

 If you have the experience and skills to join us as a Freelance Proofreader, please contact Michelle by email at shoppersupport@retailactive.com for further information.

Retail Active IT Development

Here at Retail Active we believe that reliability is at the core of our Mystery Shopping business. From every aspect of our work at the office, the vetting process for those applying for Mystery Shopping Jobs, and the hard work of our Quality Assurance team, we know that we’re giving the right results 100% of the time, a fact that is well received by our clients. Of course our approach to the technology we use to support our Mystery Shopping is exactly the same; we know its good (probably the best of any Mystery Shopping Company around) but because we rank reliability over quickly adding the bells and whistles we don’t get to announce exciting new features all that often.

The focus is always to keep our quality high, and almost all of development goes into new ways to improve the delivery of our core business (Mystery Shopping, Brand Audits, etc).

However, once in a while it’s good to give a nod to the extremely hard work of our IT department, recently they have been working flat out to release a load of updates which make certain aspects of our system quicker and easier to use but have probably been overlooked by most of our users. They’ve also been working on some big changes behind the scenes. All of this is in preparation for some big new features that we’ll be releasing over the next few months which we think everyone is going to be pretty pleased with. They don’t have bells and they certainly don’t have whistles, but we think that they’ll make such a difference to our clients that you’ll soon wonder how you ever lived without them.

We’re really excited about these releases and are confident that other Mystery Shopping Companies will be looking to emulate them. But at the end of the day nothing can emulate the extremely hard work of our IT department that has gone into making our system the best and most reliable Mystery Shopping system around.

A BIG Thank you to our mystery shoppers all over the world

A BIG Thank you to our mystery shoppers all over the world.

Thank you to Leslie from Gwent:
You are always happy to help with our visits in South Wales and complete reports to an excellent standard.

Thank you to Barry from Aberdeenshire:
Your attention to detail is superb and your recent reports have been spot-on – thank you.

Thank you to Emma from Cheshire:
We can call on you for anything and we can trust that you will complete anything to a high standard, and on time. 

Thank you to Justin from London:
Your hard work on our stations project is unrivalled. You are a credit to secret shopping, and we are glad to have you on the team.

Thank you to Anoop from London:
You were allocated three last minute, high-priority test visits and completed them the same day with zero proof-reading queries, and you only joined us last month – you’re a star!

Thank you to Carole from Oxfordshire:
You joined us in July and have completed assignments varying from calls to detailed visits and we are grateful for your excellent reports. We managed to fit you in a hotel stay as a ‘thank you’ and we hope you have a lovely break away with your husband!

Thank you to Elin from Edinburgh:
You always manage to fit in our in-the-middle-of-nowhere mystery shopping jobs, and your help on our most recent project has been greatly appreciated throughout the scheduling team.

Thank you to Martin from London:
You’ve helped out on so many last-minute visits over the past few months for us and we truly appreciate your dedication – you’re our perfect mystery shopper.

Last but not least...
Thank you to all of our secret shoppers – you help to make Retail Active the leading British mystery shopping company.  For more information about becoming a secret shopper, or to make an enquiry about mystery shopping or brand audits, please visit www.retailactive.com

Mystery Shopping Scam

If you want to be a mystery shopper BEWARE! Mystery Shoppers are being targeted by tricksters, who are trying to cash in on this increasingly popular activity.

Internet-based fraudsters are cashing in on would-be mystery shoppers asking them for personal information and bank account details. Potential victim are targeted by offers of lucrative work for very little commitment.

Unsuspecting people, seeking to earn extra money by monitoring customer service standards, risk falling prey to a series of scams by bogus companies.

The fraudsters have angered genuine Mystery Shopping companies, like Retail Active, which is one of Europe's leading Brand Audit and Mystery Shopping agencies. The company gets dozens of calls a week from people all over the world worried that they have been duped - or are about to be.

Retail Active's managing director, Julian Chamberlain says:

"No reputable Mystery Shopping Company would ever ask for money - so that is the first way to establish whether a company is genuine or not.

"We have received reports of people being asked for personal details, which are then sold off to use on marketing lists - or for other uses, such as fraudulently accessing people's bank accounts.

"We are very angry that fraudsters are trying to exploit people who genuinely want to earn some much-needed extra income, as well as help improve customer service.

"We have drawn up a five point guide to help mystery shoppers avoid being conned.

1. Do not apply to be a mystery shopper through an email, list, club or agency. Always apply directly to mystery shopper agencies.
2. There are hundreds of thousands of active secret shoppers in the UK, ask a friend if they are a secret shopper. The chances are they are or at least know someone that does. Ask them who the best mystery shopping companies are.
3. If in doubt phone. All genuine mystery shopping companies such as Retail Active advertise their telephone number and can be contacted directly.
4. All reputable mystery shopping companies provide online training  as part of the application process. If there is no training then the likelihood is that you are being conned.
5. Never, ever part with cash in advance. If you do then there is a high probability that you are being defrauded.

If in doubt register with a secret shopping company like Retail Active, at www.retailactive.com.

Mystery Shopping lets you fight back against bad service - and make money

Channel Four’s Mary Portas isn’t the only one to appreciate the value of mystery shopping.

There is an undercover army of ordinary people hard at work, reporting on bad customer service - and making money as well.

Leading Mystery Shopping Companies like Retail Active send out thousands of secret shoppers every year into leading High Street stores to make sure retailers are on their toes

And some of their agents even make a living out of it.

When 25 year old Jay Cox gets home after a day’s shopping – he counts up how much he’s earned.

Jay, from Exeter in Devon, is a full-time Mystery Shopper, carrying out undercover assignments all over the country, to assess standards of customer service.

He can appear unannounced in businesses ranging from High street retailers to posh South Coast Marinas - with a brief to buy a mooring for a luxury yacht.

There’s a James Bond touch too. He often carries a concealed digital camera with a pin-head sized lens hidden in his lapel or under his cap.

Jay, who left school with just a handful of c and d grade GCSEs, says Mystery Shopping can bring in up to £25,000 year.

He started part time six years ago – and went “professional” two years ago.

He says; “Employment prospects in Exeter are not good if you don’t have any qualifications – so Mystery Shopping is an ideal career choice.

“I enjoy being my own boss, I like working with people and I have a flair for technology.


“You have to be very organised and make careful plans to maximise the number of visits and minimise travelling expenses.

“When I work in London, I leave home at 4am to start work at 9,

“I can get in between four and seven visits per day.

“I pose as a customer and make detailed notes about the quality of the customer service. The biggest thing I’ve bought is a house.

“As well as getting paid, you get to keep some of the smaller items – but obviously I had to give the house back!!”

Jay, undertakes regular assignments for Britain’s market-leading Mystery Shopping company, Retail Active.

Retail Active’s managing director, Julian Chamberlain said: “Mystery Shopping is an ideal way to earn extra cash and enjoy shopping at the same time.

“It is perfect for people looking for a second income or for students seeking to make some much-need cash.

“We employ thousands of Mystery Shoppers. Few of them want to make a living like Jay – but his case does show that if you have drive and imagination- there is no reason why it shouldn’t be a full-time job.

“Mystery Shopping fulfils a vital role in retailing – by helping companies to constantly assess the quality of their customer service and to keep ahead of their competitors.

“All we ask is for our shoppers to be conscientious, articulate and able to recognise great service.

“You can experience top brands, restaurants, hotels and holidays – and help to make a real difference in keeping businesses on their toes.”


For others, becoming a mystery shopper is an increasingly popular way of topping up your income – and enjoying valuable perks like free holidays, meals at top restaurants and shopping expeditions to leading retailers.

You even get to keep some of the stuff you buy. You pick your own hours and make it fit with your lifestyle.


Linda Smith, 57, from Southampton had to pose as the owner of a luxury yacht and check out the exclusive facilities at swish South Coast Marinas, including their five star restaurants, when she took up Mystery Shopping.

She says: “It is a great way to earn some extra pin money and have some fun as well. I have never owned a boat but I had to read in great detail about the type of power boat I was supposed to have and be believable as someone who knew all about tides – so I could ask all the right questions. Then they asked me to visit all of their other Marinas, where they gave me the red carpet treatment every time.

Linda, who is a business studies teacher, says her experience as a mystery shopper is not only a profitable and enjoyable part time job – it gives her some good lessons to pass on the students.

“I’ve also had to check out the National Health Service by phoning hospitals and testing the quality of service delivered to patients. You always get a full briefing from Retail Active Mystery Shopping on the background to the job and the questions you need to ask.”

Fifty five year-old Sue Reed from Maidstone took voluntary redundancy from her job as a librarian two years ago and the money she earned from Mystery Shopping really helped to maintain her lifestyle.

Sue was already an experienced Mystery Shopper – covering assignments which included undercover visits to high street retailers, supermarkets, top restaurants and even taking holidays.

Sue said: “I was able to taken on more work for Retail Active Mystery Shopping. It was already a very useful supplement to my income – but after I left my job it gave me the freedom to be my own boss. I can take assignments to fit in with my personal life and it gives me more time to see my grandchildren.

“I get to eat in top restaurants, go on holidays and I’ve even been given gym membership – and I get paid as well.

“You need to be well organised, observant, objective and have a good memory. I have no intention of going back to a full time job now – my part-time job is all I need. It has always been an excellent way to earn extra cash.”

Retail Active’s managing director, Julian Chamberlain said: “Mystery Shopping is an ideal way to earn extra cash and enjoy shopping at the same time.

“Payment depends on the size and nature of the assignment – but we just have just paid some shoppers more than £200 for a single job.

“It is perfect for people looking for a second income or for students seeking to make some much-need cash.