Many shoppers have benefited by having tips on writing reports and biographies on the web site. It is convenient to have a guideline to get ideas on how to present your original work. A handful of shoppers are simply copying the guidelines and trying to use it as their own. This is not a good idea for many reasons. If more than one shopper is copying a paragraph or description, that means that many schedulers are seeing the same description. This not only makes the shopper look bad, it makes subscribers to ShadowShopper look poorly prepared as a whole.

It only takes a short while to write a few ideas about your experience and putting it together for others to see. It is helpful to have a guideline, but examples are not meant to be copied. It is easier to get noticed when you stand out as unique and creative. Many shoppers don't even use just a few of the suggestions. They are copying the entire list. This is especially noticeable for new shoppers who haven't even completed an assignment yet. When newbies are telling schedulers that they get contacted for reshops because of their experience, it is very confusing.

A biography is a brief "commercial" about yourself. You want to grab the attention of a scheduler to get the opportunity to complete an assignment. A new shopper with great writing skills and no experience will have a better chance at getting noticed than someone who has completed some assignments but can't write an original request.

Here are some tips on being original and getting noticed by schedulers:

1. Have an email that is not offensive or work related.
Your email can reflect a word or description appropriate for mystery shopping such as:

"Loves2Shop" "ReliableAndReady" "AlwaysOnTime"

Your email address should not include a work related address and it should not be offensive or inappropriate.

Actual shopper emails have included words such as:

"Loser" "Angry" and "WannaFight"

These email addresses are not going to impress a scheduler.

2. If you are interested in restaurant assignments, you will want to use descriptive words about your skills that can be transferred to the restaurant and retail business.

Think about what is needed to observe good customer service. What experience have you had that would be relevant to casual dining, fine dining, take out, delivery and quick service?

Whatever your work background experience has been, there are ways to take your relevant skills and put them to use as a mystery shopper.

• A server or host would have the understanding of good customer service.
• An accountant would be detail oriented and observe the finer details.
• A teacher would be creative and work well unsupervised. A teacher would also be a great planner and be able to follow instructions.
• A manager would be able to provide supervision and understand how to follow it. A manager would also know how important it is to follow every single guideline.
• A construction worker would need to be reliable and timely.
• A retail employee would understand how important it is to pay attention to the customer.
• A photographer would be an excellent candidate for photo shops and understanding how one small change can affect the outcome of a photo (or assignment).
• A babysitter would have to be responsible and reliable.

Most schedulers are looking for shoppers who write complete sentences and proof the content of their reports. When a shopper sends an email that has not been proofed and is not professional, it is easy to assume that the report will be written the same way.

4. If you were entering a contest for employee of the month, what words would you use to describe yourself?

• Reliable
• Observant
• Easy going
• Responsible
• Honest
• Detail oriented

5. Being original is the best way to get the attention of someone who probably doesn't know you personally.

Taking a few minutes to sum up your own experience can be the difference between getting an assignment and having your request get deleted.