Secrets shoppers have been around for quite a long time. Evidence of their existence can be safely traced back to sixty years. In the 1941 movie "The Devil and Miss Jones", a secret shopper approaches Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn, who work in a department store. During the scene Coburn chews gum in an irritating manner, the shopper then reveals her identity and demands that Coburn stop chewing gum.

The concept behind secret shopping has been used in olden times too. Kings have been known to mingle with the common people in disguise. Interactions with commoners disguised as another commoner used to give rulers a good idea of the state of affairs in the kingdom.

It is exactly this concept that has been taken slightly farther in the commercial scenario. And, with time the methods used by secret shoppers have changed. Modern technology has placed sensitive equipment in the hands of secret shoppers by which they gather evidence to support what their reports say. At times these recordings or videos of actual transactions themselves act as reports.

The earliest secret shoppers had nothing but their perceptions to file reports with. They had to rely on their powers of observation and file reports based on all that they could recollect. Before computers became popular, these reports were either handwritten or typewritten and posted to the clients.

Secret shoppers of yore could take on only limited assignments as the task of filing reports and it's reaching the client took up a lot of time. The use of technological aids now ensures that a secret shopper can take on several assignments and make quite a decent sum of money on this job.

Earlier the secret shopping industry used to be very disorganized and fragmented. There were no link ups between different secret shopper agencies and hence no set standards were followed. This meant that the data collected by secret shoppers could not be authenticated or graded. The scene is however quite different now. There are several regional and national organizations that assure quality secret shopping,

Secret Shoppers provides detailed information on Hotel Secret Shoppers, How To Become A Secret Shopper, Restaurant Secret Shoppers, Secret Shopper Associations and more. Secret Shoppers is affiliated with Become a Mystery Shopper.

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