Here is what a mystery shopper’s job is like

Pinky Lee Ngan-ming, is an actor with one role to play – a shopper.

As a full-time mystery shopper, she would drop in at a restaurant for a meal, inquire about the services at a beauty salon, go to a bank to open an investment account and check out wedding ring options at a jewellery shop. And all for the purpose of picking out any of the businesses’ sore points and assessing the quality of service.

“I think I look like a regular female customer in a restaurant or a fashion shop, so I could easily pass off as a customer,” said Lee, who is also the assistant operating manager at Mansfield Consulting, a mystery shopping service provider.

“I was doing office work previously, and a headhunter approached me for this job, which I found to be more interesting,” she said.

Lee joined Mansfield five years ago when the start-up was set up to offer the service to help businesses improve their service quality.

The firm said its business had been growing annually as a rising number of companies in Hong Kong – from banks to different types of retailers and restaurants – are engaging mystery shoppers to test out their service standards to make improvements.