Mystery Shopping Grows and Grows

The Dallas based Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) has this week announced that it has reached a new milestone with 50,000 silver and gold certifications awarded to mystery shoppers.

The number of certified mystery shoppers throughout the United States and Canada has been steadily increasing since the programme's inception in November 2002. Approximately 10,000 certifications have been awarded in the past eight months.

The MSPA designed the certification programme in an effort to improve the quality of mystery shoppers throughout the industry. The programme is a tool for mystery shoppers who want to improve their skills and learn new techniques and tips for conducting mystery shopping evaluations.

According to MSPA Executive Director, John Swinburn, 'The MSPA certification program has been very successful since the beginning. MSPA members have noted a strong and continued trend in which certified shoppers are consistently returning more complete, accurate and detailed reports. One main goal of the MSPA is to improve the calibre of shoppers and enhance the quality of their services for the industry, and the certification programme certainly helps achieve that.'

The certification programme covers all aspects of mystery shopping, including how to obtain shopping assignments, techniques for conducting evaluations, tips on improving evaluation reports and the positive impact mystery shopping can have on business operations.

The MSPA estimates there are approximately 1.5 million mystery shoppers in North America and 250,000 internationally. Currently, the program recognises more than 47,500 Silver-certified shoppers and more than 2,500 Gold-certified shoppers.

The association is online at www.mysteryshop.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.