Mystery Shopper Criteria and Payment Terms
Selection Criteria
To be accepted onto the register, applicants must meet the following standard. This isn't a checklist we apply loosely, it's how we protect the credibility of every audit we put in front of a client. Meeting the criteria below gets your application considered; shortlisted applicants are then invited to online interview before being added to the register.
1. Operational hospitality experience
Minimum 10 years' hands-on experience in hospitality operations, at supervisor level or above or equivalent seniority and scale of operation, assessed at interview. This includes supervisory, assistant management, general management, and senior operations roles across hotels, restaurants, bars, cafés, or quick-service environments. Front-of-house sales experience alone does not meet this bar, we're looking for people who have run a shift, managed a team, and been accountable for a set of service standards themselves. If you've never had to fix a service failure in real time, you're not what we need.
2. Working knowledge of service standards
You must be able to assess a venue against a defined standard, not your personal preference and be equally alert to exceptional service as you are to shortfall. That means understanding the difference between a structural failure in process (e.g. an order not being followed up, a table not being checked back) and a one-off human error that any well-run team can occasionally have. Every error must still be recorded, nothing is waved through because it looks like a one-off but where the cause is visibly apparent (a section running under staffed, a new team member being coached through service, a kitchen backlog), that context must be captured alongside the score. Equally, you must be alert to service that goes beyond the standard: a strong recovery from a mistake, a moment of genuine initiative, a small touch that made the guest experience memorable. This is exactly the kind of detail a client needs to hear about, not just what went wrong, and it has to be captured with the same rigour and specificity as any failure.
3. Attention to detail
Every audit is built from dozens of individual observation points: timing, sequencing, cleanliness, staff behaviour, product presentation, and more. You need to be the kind of person who notices when a table wasn't cleared within a reasonable window, when a drinks order arrived before food without being asked, or when a bathroom hasn't been checked in the last hour. This isn't about being critical for its own sake it's about noticing what a normal guest wouldn't necessarily register but which materially affects the guest experience.
4. Discretion and conduct
You must be able to visit a venue as an ordinary guest and behave exactly like one, for the full duration of the visit. That means:
Never disclosing that you are a mystery shopper, before, during, or after the visit to staff, management, or anyone else at the venue
Paying by your own means (card or cash) and claiming reimbursement afterwards, exactly as instructed in your assignment brief
Behaving as a typical guest for that venue and occasion: no unusual requests designed to "test" the team beyond what's specified in the brief
Any breach of discretion voids the assignment and may result in removal from the register.
5. Written reporting standard
You'll be required to produce factual, evidenced narrative alongside a scored assessment: not a review, not an opinion piece. Reports must be written in clear, chronological, professional English, free of personal bias, and specific enough that someone who wasn't there could understand exactly what happened and when. If you can't separate "I didn't enjoy this" from "this fell short of the stated standard," this isn't the right role for you.
6. Reliability
Once you accept an assignment, you're committing to the agreed date and time window and to submitting your completed report within 48 hours of the visit. Assignments are time-sensitive to client reporting cycles, late or incomplete submissions affect MK's ability to deliver to clients on schedule, and repeated lateness will affect your standing on the register.
7. Availability and coverage
We assess shoppers against the venue types and locations they're realistically available to cover: hotel stays, restaurant dining, bar service, café and coffee shop visits. Some assignments may require travel or an overnight stay. You don't need to cover every category to be accepted, but your stated availability needs to be genuine and current.
8. Engagement terms
Shoppers work with MK as independent contractors, not employees. There is no guarantee of work: assignments are issued as they arise, often to multiple registered shoppers at once, and allocated on a first-accept basis. Applicants must be comfortable managing their own tax affairs and understand that acceptance onto the register does not create any ongoing entitlement to work.
Payment Terms
Rates for each assignment are set per job and confirmed in the assignment brief, alongside any allowed spend for the visit itself.
Reports are due within 48 hours of the visit. Payment is made by bank transfer within 14 days of MK receiving a compliant report. How you invoice depends on how you're set up:
Limited company shoppers: invoice MK per completed assignment in the normal way.
Individual shoppers: paid directly under a signed independent contractor agreement (signed once, no end date), and are responsible for their own tax affairs.
Payment is contingent on a report that meets the required standard, submitted on time. Where a report is late or falls short, the following may be applied:
Situation = Outcome
Submitted within 48 hours = Full fee, paid within 14 days
1–2 days late = Fee reduced by 25%
3–5 days late = Fee reduced by 50%
More than 5 days late, or not submitted = No fee payable
Discretion breach (see Criteria, point 4) = No fee payable, regardless of report quality