I see there are a couple of associations out there, namely IMSC and MSPA. MSPA is referred to by the federal government as a place to check the legitimacy of a mystery shop organizatoin, so I have stared doing just that. But:

1) Joining any of these worth it?
2) Are there any others besides these 2?
3) Do companies really look for certifications from these two organizations?
4) Any better than the others?

I tried searching for my answers, but I must not be good at searching this forum.

You can now join the MSPA for free. As I recall they may have tiered systems which for a fee which offer more services.

Let me start off by stating that I am not a member of either outfit and have been happily shopping for more than a decade. I have not spent/wasted money on conferences, certifications or similar. To the best of my knowledge the two mentioned are the only organizations, though there are a number of 'referral services' that would also like to sell you their certifications or their services in telling you what companies have shops in your area. For 8+ years I and others have participated in this forum to provide free guidance for shoppers because it feels like the right thing to do. Your business does not need to pay a cent to anyone to shop. Your good reputation for performing shops in a timely, competent manner will get you future shops.

Yes, the federal government does direct would be shoppers to the MSPA because historically there have been lots of scams around mystery shopping, most of which are easily identifiable if one just uses common sense. After all, who would send you a check for a few thousand dollars before you ever did work for them? And then have you do a couple ill defined jobs for a few hundred dollars and wire transfer the balance of the the check off? It is the old confidence game just as is the pigeon drop and your 'win' in a lottery you never entered or the 'solicitor' contacting you by email as being the beneficiary under the will of some relative you never heard of?

So the companies that are members of the MSPA are "legitimate" mystery shopping companies, but that does not necessarily mean that they are good to work with. Similarly there are a number of excellent companies that for political or other reasons have chosen not to be members of the MSPA. At the bottom of each page of this forum is a list of Mystery Shopping Companies we work with that contains links to conversations about the company as well as a link to the company website to register.

@Flash wrote:

At the bottom of each page of this forum is a list of Mystery Shopping Companies we work with that contains links to conversations about the company as well as a link to the company website to register.

Thank you for the great response! On your last point, this is a bit hard though. Let's take MaritCZ for an example, as they were towards the top of that list. The list you refer to has the domain:

[sorry for the dot's instead of URLs, as a new user to this forum it wouldn't let me use this many website addresses]

www dot maritzcx dot com/

On that site there isn't a link to join as a shopper (that I found). So google Maritzcx mystery shopping and a top link there gets you:

[www] dot maritzmysteryshopping dot com/home/Default.aspx

Looks good, right? It probably is, but if I was a bad guy phisher targeting mystery shoppers I would setup a domain name similar to a real company, even linking back to that company and trade organizations and claim to be secure, and start collecting information. So let's do a WHOIS search to see if the second domain appears to be legitimate. WHOIS isn't what it used to be, but the nameservers for the second domain point to:

DNS1 dot MARITZ dot COM

A third domain!!! ugh. One that was just changed recently (>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 12 Oct 2016 19:05:52 GMT <<<

Now, if I had to guess I'm thinking the second URL above is fine to sign up to be a mystery shopper with Maritzcx.com, which is listed in the list for companies on this site that are legitimate, but how do I know for sure?

There is a disconnect between mystershopper signup websites and companies listed on that list that I'm not sure how to verify I am not giving my SSN and other info to bad guys. If a company listed on the list you refer to has a signup link on their site, I am good to go. If they don't though, back to square one.

This isn't limited to Maritzcx, plenty of the ones I have tried have this issue.

I have never joined any kind of shoppers association including MSPA. I have never put one cent of my money into their pockets and have been shopping now for 24 years.

There are many differences between MSPA and IMSC, but here is the crucial one:
MSPA is an organization of many of the companies that provide mystery shopping opportunities. As such, it is also the lobbying arm of those companies. The policies and regulations for which it lobbies state and federal officials may benefit the companies, but they are NOT necessarily designed to benefit shoppers, no matter how hard the MSPA tries to scare shoppers to support their political agenda.

IMSC was formed by and is run by active shoppers, for the professional education and benefit of shoppers. MS companies that join must have a clean record of treating shoppers fairly.

IMSC has run between one and three shopper education conferences per year for (I think) 7-8 years. MSPA stopped doing shopper education workshops/conferences just before IMSC was formed to fill that gap. About 2 years ago MSPA started doing some shopper education conferences again. Some forum members have been to conferences of one or the other organization, a few may have been to both groups' conferences.

I agree entirely with Flash that this free forum is absolutely the best way for shoppers to learn and hone their skills, at not cost. I believe in shoppers and that shoppers are THE SINGLE BEST resource for shopper development and education. I also know that when I attended an MSPA workshop in 2005, 99 percent of the useful information that I gleaned was from networking with other shoppers, not from the MSPA member company reps or their paid speaker. Different people learn best or fastest from different sources. My experience with the effect that shopper in-person networking and tips from shoppers during workshops, is what impelled me to work with other shoppers to continue and expand shopper training conferences when MSPA discontinued them. And, after all of these years of attending IMSC conferences, I continue to come away from each one re-energized and with a couple of new ideas/skills that will make more money for me in the following years. In addition, I have had the opportunity to network with and form some lasting friendships with quite a few top schedulers, MS project managers, and editors who attend these conferences. (You may, of course, network with MS providers and/or their scheduler and editors at IMSC or at MSPA. The video MSC folks do tend to hang out at IMSC, though.)

Full disclose: I am not an officer or representative of the IMSC. However, I was there at the inception and I lead workshops at 1-2 conferences per year. I never paid to join, but last year was, to my surprise, made an honorary member so that I could contribute to their on-line education sites. IMSC speakers/workshop leaders are not paid and do not have their travel costs for conferences compensated. They do get to be at the conferences without paying an entry fee.

@bmarvin wrote:

@Flash wrote:

At the bottom of each page of this forum is a list of Mystery Shopping Companies we work with that contains links to conversations about the company as well as a link to the company website to register.

Thank you for the great response! On your last point, this is a bit hard though. Let's take MaritCZ for an example, as they were towards the top of that list. The list you refer to has the domain:......................................................................This isn't limited to Maritzcx, plenty of the ones I have tried have this issue.

I think you should go to the list in the database. Instead of " the 15 most discussed Companies". The website would be the same but MCX has a MCX website and a mystery shopping website. To get to MCX mystery shopping website google MaritzCX and look for Virtuoso 2 - Login. This will bring you to the mystery side MCX. Perhaps that was your problem.

I am not getting into your dot com phe-ask-cal. (Right now the spelling eludes me).

@sojo917 wrote:

I think you should go to the list in the database. Instead of " the 15 most discussed Companies". The website would be the same but MCX has a MCX website and a mystery shopping website. To get to MCX mystery shopping website google MaritzCX and look for Virtuoso 2 - Login. This will bring you to the mystery side MCX. Perhaps that was your problem.

I am not getting into your dot com phe-ask-cal. (Right now the spelling eludes me).

Where I fall down is when you say to just google MaritzCX and look for / pick one of the results. Maybe my tinfoil hat is too tight this week, but there isn't an easy way of determining if the website in that google search is the actual mystery shopping arm of the company listed in the database maintained here. As I said before, if I was a bad guy wanting to scam people I'd make sites that look like legitimate companies. One would hope the google results wouldn't show scam sites ranked high, but that may be asking a lot.

Basically it'd be nice if the database listed both arms for the companies that have separate domains for their business sides and their shopper sides. Or if those companies would link to their shopper side from their business website.

As far as spelling out the "dot" for the . in an address, sorry. It was because as a new poster I couldn't have more than one hyperlink / domain, so had to spell some out, but maybe www (.) google (.) com would have been better.

Walesmaven, thank you for the great response too. I am seeing by the responses above (Cettie, Flash, yours, etc.) that joining isn't mandatory, and maybe not even the majority of shoppers join. However, your post about networking and learning from others does make sense.

As a brand new re-shopper (I tried it once years ago, but didn't have the time then) I am not sure if a conference would be worth it until I have a little bit more experience. The amount of information may be an overload. Although I admit signing up in a hurry and going to the conference in a few weeks in Las Vegas has an appeal, especially if the weather turns colder here. May not be the best use of my money at this point though. Hmmm, or it could be a quick jump-start too. Something to think about.

Nice to know they are not a requirement though.

bmarvin,
Actually, at the IMSC November conference, I will be doing a session on how to ramp up MS work/earnings for anyone who wants to move up quickly in "traditional" (i.e.) non-video). And, like most presenters, I will be available between and after sessions for questions and ideas. This year, the second day of the conference will have two "streams" of workshops: one that is "all video, all the time" and the other is more basic, general, how to work smarter sessions on things like how to build a basic route, apartment shopping, quick start (or restart) planning (me), and tons of other stuff. For more info, google IMSC conference.

@bmarvin-------------------->Did you go click on the "Virtuoso 2 - Login" website? That is MCX mystery shopping site. I shop for MCX.

If you are looking for a scam site then keep looking.

Most MSC have more in there website to cover there total business.

Based on feedback of IMSC and MSPA conferences, neither wins positive, shopper-business-building reviews. IMSC and MSPA attendance seems to be only the social aspect of meeting other shoppers, or for the fun-of-it, rather than productive networking with MSCs. I have not read any reason to spend my own money to attend either conference, to help me build my traditional MS'ing business.

Happily mystery shopping since 2007.

I am not a member of either of these companies. I have been shopping for almost 20 years. When people ask me about secret shopping, I tell them don't ever pay to start secret shopping. When I started 20 years ago there was an ad on the back of a newspaper. It was $25 To get the pamphlet full of mystery shopper companies. My father told me I was wasting my money. Back then I literally sent my resumes to all of these companies in this pamphlet which was about 50 companies. I sent my resumes snail mail. This got me started with Intelli, Bare, And quite a few others and some are not around anymore. Here I am almost 20 years later still shopping. So I paid $25 to start MSing, but 20 years ago, there was not this much information about mystery shopping on the internet. It's so easy to get going now, you Don't have to pay anybody to Secret Shop.

Conferences are not paying to shop. They are paying for continuing education, something that many, many professions support for their practitioners. And, yes, I learn from other shops. I learn from them here and I learn by interacting with hundreds of them at a conference. As actively as I read and learn on this forum, I still come away from each conference with new ideas that make me able to work better, not harder. And, networking with top schedulers and MSC owners is a powerful marketing experience for shoppers.

Well, I don't think that spending $25 on a list of MSCs is really paying to shop either. It's spending some money to get a jumpstart by having others do the legwork for you....which I think is also the basis for most of the conferences and training that's available to shoppers.

In theory, one could get started and succeed in MSing without ever spending a dime, but that's not always the best investment of your available time and resources. Spending some money for training and materials might have you earning better money sooner, and be more profitable in the long run. I'm someone who learns from personal experience so on-the-job training works best for me, and I learned just about everything I know about mystery shopping from simply taking shops and performing them.

That said, I also spent some money at times that paid off. I took the silver certification early on and I think that opened up the door to me getting some more shop offers. I paid for an app on my phone that I use to take notes, I bought a voice recorder, and a signed up to be a shopper in Nevada. I think the cost of all that was probably less that $300 and it has paid off in spades over the years.

The conferences are excellent for video training, networking, establishing contacts at mystery shopping companies, and gaining a better understanding of the process and why things are done the way they are. I have not attended one, but hope to soon. I am making this assessment based on comments of various shoppers on this forum.