After ordering a meal at the drive-through window of a local fast-food restaurant, she punches her stopwatch, timing the seconds until she receives her food. She notices how quickly she is greeted, whether her order is correct and whether her food is warm and fresh.

She eats in the parking lot and then walks inside. This time, she checks for clean bathrooms and neatly groomed employees. She orders more food. Did the cashier offer a receipt without asking? Did he suggest other products when she made her order?

Nancy -- who asked to be identified by her first name because of the importance of anonymity in her work -- is a mystery shopper.

She's one of an estimated 1 million people hired each year by businesses to shop for goods or services to help determine how they are measuring up. The goal is to blend in, pretending to be a real customer while secretly evaluating cleanliness, service and products in stores, restaurants, banks, doctors' offices, hospitals and elsewhere.

"I enjoy doing it because I like to shop and I'm interested in customer service," says Nancy, a 51-year-old Raleigh resident who works part-time as a preschool teacher. "It's all about being polite to the clientele."

And this time of year, stores dependent on holiday sales must be on top of their game. It is important that retail employees keep customers happy during the holiday shopping season when consumers are often stressed and frenzied. Many retailers, such as toy stores, rely on the holiday season to make their business.

Mystery shoppers have been around for more than 30 years, but experts say businesses are using them more in the past few years. Many types of companies are trying to gain and retain customers, because consumers have more options and are careful with their discretionary income.

"We're getting more finicky as a society because there are more and more choices," said Elaine Buxton, chief executive of Confero Inc. The Cary-based training consultancy has a roster of about 40,000 mystery shoppers that it supplies to automotive, retail, restaurant and banking clients across the country.

"Companies have decided they have to make sure they are competitive," Buxton said. "The long-term consequences for losing a customer can be bad."

Mystery shopping has become a $1 billion business worldwide, according to the Mystery Shoppers Providers Association, a Dallas-based trade group of companies that specialize in mystery shopping and market research. The group estimates that 70 percent to 80 percent of restaurants have a mystery shopping program.

New advancements, such as assignments by e-mail and automated reports that reach the hands of clients within 24 hours, have improved the ease with which mystery shoppers can do their jobs and their clients can evaluate results for incentives and employee training.

Most of the shoppers do it part-time, picking their assignments based on convenience and interest. Some take jobs if they will be in a certain area during their lunch break or after work.

Mystery shoppers generally aren't getting rich. One local mystery shopper said she was paid $450 to attend a seminar and a $50 bonus for writing a full report, but most assignments pay only $10 to $30. Shoppers are also reimbursed for products or services they are asked to buy.

The fees depend partly on the time it takes to report results, which could vary from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Mystery shoppers are required to file a report while details are fresh in their minds, often within 12 hours.

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