For the last 11 months, I’ve scored 11 Popular Gift Vouchers (worth RM50 each) totaling a whopping RM550 for free! So, how did this happen?
Well, it was through a program called Mystery Shopper Programme (MSP) by Popular Bookstore. Who knew Malaysia had this sort of program, right?
In this entry, I would like to share my experience joining the MSP by Popular so you can give them a try too. Let’s go!
Mystery Shopper
I’ve been interested in mystery shopper programs after watching a segment of CNBC Millennial Money on YouTube back in 2020.
For those who don’t know, a mystery shopper or secret shopper is a program where a company hires you to visit their shop or restaurant in order to assess the quality of their goods or services.
You get to be undercover, posing as a regular customer, and then evaluate the different aspects of customer experience and you get paid for your feedback at the end.
In the said CNBC video, the dude joins a mystery shopper program to get free restaurant meals and that’s definitely piqued my interest. Who doesn’t want free meals, right?
Popular Mystery Shopper Programme
So, I googled around and came across a similar program run by Popular Bookstore. It’s not exactly the free meals that I’m looking for but I always kind of enjoyed reading (check) and I regularly visit Popular bookshops for window shopping anyway (check). Yeah, that sounds great!
I’ve applied for the program somewhere back in 2022. However, Popular has paused the program for some time. I only received the news that they are resuming the program at the end of last year (2023).
What is Popular Mystery Shopper Programme Anyway?
The Popular Mystery Shopper Programme was designed to improve Popular Bookstores’ services, quality, and understand what’s important to their customers. For more detailed information, you can read it on their website here.
Who can be a Popular Mystery Shopper?
All Popular Bookstore customers, Malaysian citizens who are 18 years old and above, and not a family member of existing Popular staff. That’s it.
How do you become one?
Just fill in your details on the form by Popular and select your top 3 preferred POPULAR store(s). I suggest you choose the ones near your house since you will be visiting this particular branch every month.
https://cem.popular.com.my/mysteryshopper
After completing the form, sit back, relax, and hopefully, you’ll be selected as the lucky mystery shopper!
As for me, I was selected for the program, and starting from December 2023, I officially became an industrial spy – a Popular Spy you might say.
My Experience Becoming a Popular Spy
This is the email that I received informing me that I was selected as one of their mystery shoppers:
I was given my 3rd preferred Popular branch to visit and the initial contract was for 5 months, starting from December 2023 until April 2024.
In short, here’s how you perform the mystery shopping:
- Go to the assigned Popular Bookstore.
- Shop around while observing the store’s cleanliness, staff attitude, attire, etc.
- Ask one of the staff and observe how they react to questions and their service.
- You must purchase something and during your payment at the counter, observe how the cashier interacts i.e. whether they greet you properly, ask for your Popular membership card, and try to promote items in store.
- Fill in the online Mystery Shopper Questionnaire, attach your receipt as proof, and submit.
- If everything is good, you will receive a RM50 worth of gift voucher the following month.
After the initial contract neared its end, Popular decided to extend the program for another 6 months. Once again, I continued my monthly industrial espionage for RM50 worth of gift vouchers from May until October 2024.
Tips & Tricks
Since you will be asked to evaluate the staff attentiveness, I always ask one of the staff about an item’s whereabouts, even when I already know where they are.
Some staff just pointed you in the item’s general direction while some staff took their time to clarify your questions and bring you exactly to the item. This is the kind of stuff that is great to include in your review.
In general, I found that Popular staff are very keen, polite and attentive. Just one gripe, in the questionnaire, Popular asks about the name of their staff who served you. However, there’s no way of telling their name since the staff always, I mean always wore their name card backward.
To be honest, my feedback started to look the same after repeating the process 11 times in the same store.
Rewards
So, what’s the perks of joining the Popular Mystery Shopper Programme?
For the duration of 11 months, I received 11 Gift Vouchers worth a total of RM 550. I always spent the Gift Vouchers in the subsequent months during my mystery shopping.
Books, novels, magazines, newspapers, handheld vacuums, energy drinks, and chocolates are some of the items that I spent my Gift Vouchers on.
For me, it’s a pretty great deal since I always wanted to buy some books and magazines but worried I would waste it if I didn’t read them. So, this program definitely helps.
