shopperpro

Come on, doesn’t everyone do this introspection around the year’s end? Looking back over the past year, well, it pretty much sucked. Between massive financial worries, moving, job uncertainty, and personal trauma I think I pretty much covered the bases. The weird thing though is that while I’m a little bummed about what has gone I’m still oddly hopeful for the future. Despite everything that happened to me and mine in the past year, I feel that things are finally starting to get back on track, so to speak, and the New Year to come will be a much better one. Of course that’s just an open invitation to that guy Murphy to prove me wrong, but we’ll see about that.

I got an email recently from a family member that went like this:

I am thankful: For the wife who says it’s hot dogs tonight, because she is home with me, and not out with someone else.

For the husband who is on the sofa being a couch potato, because he is home with me, and not out at bars.

For the teenager who is complaining about doing dishes, because it means that she is home and not on the streets.

For the taxes I pay, because it means that I am employed.

For the mess to clean up after a party, because it means I was surrounded by friends.

For clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means that I have enough to eat.

For my shadow that watches me work, because it means that I am out in the sunshine.

For a lawn that needs mowing, gutters that need fixing, and windows that need cleaning, because it means that I have a home.

For all the complaining that I hear about the government, because it means we have freedom of speech.

For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.

For being stuck in traffic, because it means I have been blessed with transportation and the gas to power it.

For my huge heating bill, because it means I am warm.

For the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means I can hear.

For the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.

For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means that I have been capable of working hard.

For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means I am alive.

Happy New Year to one and all - I hope things only get better and that you are thankful.

Okay so you may or may not have read that I was send a scam email. I reposted the email and how I knew it was a scam. If you haven’t read it you might want to take a little peek now before continuing. Go ahead - I’ll wait.

I actually replied to this email and asked them what company they represented. Imagine my shock when I got a response back and the company named, we’ll just call them Company XX, was one that I already shop for!

I immediately logged onto Company XX’s website and found a link to their help desk. I forwarded the email to them and filled them in on my experiences to date. They quickly got back to me confirming that it was a scam.

Meanwhile I wrote back to my little scam artist and let him know that I had filled out an application on the website he provided, but I hadn’t seen any jobs listed on the job board like the one he described. Would you believe he actually replied back that these are ’special’ jobs and not publicly posted. Well if you consider a mystery-shopping job that will cause you to cash a bad check, and possibly be prosecuted by your bank special I guess this qualifies.

Onto my next email - it’s another one from Company XX. They thanked me for letting them know and gave me some links to report my little scammie friend. I headed over to http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx which is the Internet Crime Complaint Center and got to detail my experiences to date. I haven’t received anything in return, but frankly, I don’t expect to as I never received any of the bad checks or lost money.

That’s about the it. I pretty much consider the matter closed now. I still have a chuckle or two when I think about the ’special’ job though.

For those of you paying attention in the past week’s shop log I mentioned a shop in a mall scheduled for the day after Xmas that I took because I’m still trying to improve my shopper rating after missing an assignment. If not, well, now you’re up to speed too.

So I left reasonably early to the mall to make sure to get the shop all done and tucked away before having to report in for night shift. If I thought that the traffic heading towards the mall was bad the traffic trying to leave was even worse. Needless to say a shop that should have taken 1-hour max door to door ended up taking 3 due to the traffic/parking/crowds.

I get back home safe and sound, if a little cranky, and what do you think the first thing I do is? Why yes, apart from hitting the bathroom - ha ha ha. I head up to get my report all finished before going to the day job. The first thing I notice is the daypart for the shop. I have just spent three hours in mall traffic completing a shop that wasn’t supposed to be done until after 5PM! Eff. I am starting to think that any job I take for this company is cursed.

Hmm? Oh yes, I immediately sent off a panicked email to the scheduler owning up to my mistake. I stated that I had confidence in my ability to remain anonymous if they would like me to re-do the shop the next day. Lucky me, they have confidence in me too despite the little boo-boo so I get to go to the mall again.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased to have the opportunity to make up for my error, but on the other hand, yuck, back to the mall.

It just goes to show you even experienced shoppers make mistakes.

So where was the mystery shopper this week? Mostly at home sleeping. I did have quite a few opportunities to take some last minute assignments and although the bonuses offered were quite attractive in most cases, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a day where I didn’t have a shop or my day job scheduled and took several ‘me’ days. I did start booking jobs for next month and it looks like it’s going to be a busy one so resting up was not a bad thing.

I did complete a few assignments - an apartment shop here, an adult store there. I thought I was going to die laughing on that one! Yes, I actually took an assignment to mystery shop an adult-type store with a required purchase! No, I didn’t buy any personal toys, but if I had the store staff would have been required to test them for me to make sure that they worked! Isn’t that a hoot? Due to it’s adult nature the job paid quite well for a mystery shop with a purchase and I look forward to taking more of these not only for the money, but the amusement value in itself.

Don’t ask me why, but I also accepted a job that had me in a mall the day after Christmas. Okay, that’s a lie; I know why I took the job - because I screwed up. I kept noticing that this company always had assignments in my area so I applied with them. I took two assignments from them and promptly overscheduled myself and forgot all about them. I sent an apologetic note to the scheduler as soon as I realized what had happened telling her my mistake and that I wouldn’t be able to complete the jobs. I can still accept jobs for this company, but only one at a time until I improve my mystery shopper rating, and at the moment, due to my low rating, I’m only being offered shops out in the boondocks or malls. I’m just taking the mall shops one at a time and making sure that I do an extra good job on them until I bring my shopper rating back up.

See - no one is perfect. Not even me, but then I never claimed to be right? Actually I’ll have a bit more to say on THAT subject tomorrow…

Coming up this week it should be fairly quiet. I managed to pick up a few last minute jobs so as of now I have six on the books that all need to be completed by Wednesday. Five of them are for pizzas so I know what I’m eating this week!

Simple - for the companies that use a rating system the shoppers with higher ratings will receive preference over shoppers with lower ratings. If two shoppers both request the same assignment in most cases the higher rated shopper will get the assignment.

All of the grades that you earn for your mystery shopping reports are averaged into your mystery shopper rating. Say Company XX has 20 clients that you might get assignments for. If your shopper rating is 5/10 you’ll only see assignments from 10 of those companies. With a rating of 7 you might see assignments from 17 and if your rating is perfect you’ll see all of the assignments available.

Mystery shoppers with perfect ratings may also be contacted for ‘off the books’ shops. These are mystery shopping assignments for desirable services or purchases that are not posted publicly, but are offered to select mystery shoppers only. For example a few years ago one of the scheduling companies I work with had assignments in my area for mystery shoppers to go to a local spa and get a manicure. The visit was entirely reimbursed, including tip, plus a nominal fee for the report. Those jobs were not posted on ANY job board. The mystery shopper’s with the highest ratings just received an email or a phone call.

What can negatively affect your mystery shopper rating? Extensions and cancellations negatively affect your rating the most. Don’t cancel a job at the last minute. If you know you’re not going to be able to complete a job please let your scheduler know ASAP. Get your assignments done on time, and make sure that your reports and any receipt uploads are also done on time. While it is acceptable to ask for the occasional extension, weather was bad, kid got sick, car died, don’t make a habit of it. Don’t rush through your shops - if you know you won’t have time to complete it properly don’t accept the job no matter how attractive the bonus fee.

It’s not terribly difficult to get the best grades possible for all of your shops. Just make sure to read the instructions provided for you before doing the shop. If there is something that seems unclear to you please send an email to your contact for the shop. The contact information is usually located somewhere in the instructions, or there may be a direct email link in the shop details.

You’ve finished your first report and it’s been approved! Usually within 5 business days your report will be graded. Graded? Am I back in school? What does the grade mean? Different mystery shopping companies have different grading systems. Usually they will rate you from 1-5 or 1-10 with 5 and 10 being perfect scores. With a higher mystery shopper rating comes all kinds of perks such as access to more assignments, better paying assignments, ability to self-schedule, and the opportunity to take more than one assignment at a time. If they use a grading system, all of the grades you earn for your reports will be averaged into your shopper rating. I’ll talk more tomorrow about your rating and why this is important.

In a nutshell your report is checked for the following: Did you complete the assignment before the deadline during the correct daypart if you were assigned one? Did you follow all of the guidelines for the shop? Did you turn in your report on time? Did you submit all of the receipts/business cards? Did you spell check? Did you use correct grammar, punctuation, and capitalization? Did you shop the correct location? Did you write commentary that agreed with your yes/no answers? Did you put all of your comments into the correct comment boxes? Did you write objective commentary or did your report need to be edited to remove subjective comments? Did you provide complete information or was a follow up required? If a follow up was required did you respond promptly to answer questions? Did all ‘no’ answers have supporting comments?

Don’t miss out on the easy points here - do your shop on time, and submit your report on time. Make sure you use your spellchecker and don’t leave the caps lock on. Even as a seasoned mystery shopper my reports still do require follow up from time to time. I make it a point to check my email several times a day just in case there are follow up questions to be answered - not to mention new assignments posted. Some mystery shopping companies even offer bonuses for a perfect score so take your time and do your best.

If, by chance, you do happen to receive one of the lower grades you will also most likely receive feedback on how to improve the next time. These comments are not meant to be personal, and although they probably will, are not meant to hurt your feelings, but instead to help you improve. You may be notified by email when you receive a grade/comment/feedback or you may have to keep checking the mystery shopping company yourself. Even if you receive a perfect score it is not uncommon to receive a comment even if it is just a ‘good job’, or ‘excellent comments’.

I admit to being jaded and cynical, but I can’t help it. One of the reasons I’m grateful for Christmas this year is that it’s finally time for my charming neighbors to take down all of those tacky decorations. Every stinking day for the past month when I get home they’ve added something new to their house or front lawn. I swear their electricity bill must be outrageous - a few more days and you might have been able to see their house from space!

While I did have the opportunity to pick up a few last minute shops, I chose to be irresponsible and pissed off to some parties instead. I’ve been to the same party on Christmas eve for the last fifteen years and I didn’t plan on stopping this year for a mystery shop no matter how obscene the bonus fee was! It was a wise choice as the perfect hostess as always had quite the good spread and I came home with more ham - not to mention a huge chunk of her homemade chocolate chip pecan pie!

I was invited over to a friends for Christmas dinner and since I didn’t plan on cooking for myself, off I went. Holy mother of God am I glad I made that decision. For Christmas they made a standing rib roast (prime rib) on the grill that was to die for! I think I’ll be full for the next week not to mention the not-so-little doggie bag I came home with!

The ‘informational’ mystery shopper blog will resume tomorrow pending I’m not still napping off that obscenely large piece of beef I had for dinner. Upcoming topics will include - what the grade on your mystery shopping report is, Mystery shopping by phone, using the Vocazilla system, and of course Sunday’s shop log.

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season!
Blessings for a profitable mystery shopping New Year to all!

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I’m not kidding I’m almost done.

Okay your report is written, you’ve done your spell/grammar checking and it all checks out. At LEAST while you are new take the time to read back over your comments. Are your thoughts coherent? Do your comments match the yes/no answers you previously entered? Are you making sense? Personally, I do have a tendency to write my narratives on autopilot and have to go back and do some editing on them. Take the time to check them before you submit.

At last your report is submitted and you’re done. Not yet. You will need to pay close attention to your email for the next few days because you might be asked for a clarification. This happens from time to time. Sometimes the mystery shopping company is doing a random check to make sure that you are consistent with your answers. Sometimes you haven’t given enough detail in your answers and more is needed. For example in one of my recent shops I quoted and details what the associate said to me, but was asked for a clarification. As it turns out WHERE we were in the store was just as important as what was said to the client. Usually you have 12 to 24 hours to answer a clarification request - after that your shop is rejected and you will not be paid.

I know it seems really hard at first, and make no mistake there is a lot of reading in your future, but once you get a few shops under your belt it does get easier. Take the extra time with your first few assignments and you’ll do fine.

I’m off to the Xmas eve party! Happy Holidays everyone!

Please remember again that it is your job to state the facts - not your opinions. In rare cases you may be asked to make a subjective comment, but most often you will need to be objective. In your narrative give a detailed description of what happened during your shop. Again, make sure that your narrative agrees with the questions that you have already answered. Paint a picture with your words and make the reader feel like they were there. Trust me - it’s harder than it looks. Actually it’s my personal Achilles heel. Well, along with time management, but that’s our little secret right? Make sure that you are answering the correct question with your narrative. If you are tabbing through the shop form, it’s easy to think you are somewhere else. This is a common mistake on the longer reports.

Make sure you are entering your report on time. Do not type your shop in ALL CAPS. by the same token don’t just use the lowercase. Both of those little ‘whoops’ will result in your report having to be retyped and will lower your shopper rating, thus limiting your shops, and quite possibly your shop fees. Make sure you are capitalizing the first word in a sentence - another reason I love Word it does that for me. Make sure all of your sentences are complete. Don’t use fragment sentences.

Follow all of your shop instructions. If you forget or miss something, explain it. If it is a cruicial bit of information your shop might be rejected. If you have done two of the same type shops in the same day make sure you are using the correct information for each one. Don’t mix them up. Let’s say you report that employee A works at location B. The rest of your report is fine and it goes off to the client. The client reads the report, and then contacts the shopping company and tells them that the employee you named doesn’t exist at that location. This throws your whole shop into question. Were you actually there? Did you really do this shop? Did you send a friend who got confused? These things do happen, but that’s a pretty big mistake. Your report may now be rejected and there are questions and doubts about your shopping skills especially if you are a new shopper. Take good notes. You may be referring to them months later and will need to recall details.

Part Three is forthcoming. Eh, don’t worry I’m almost done.

Mystery shopping reports are not rocket science, but can be a bit overwhelming for the newcomers. There is a lot of information that you need to notice/observe and report on. Some of the report will have picklists, or be multiple choice type questions, and then we get to every shopper’s downfall - the narrative. Try to fill out your reports as soon as you can when you get home while the shop is still fresh in your mind. Here are some other things to watch out for. I know some of these things may seem like common sense, but you would not believe some of the horror stories I have heard.

Please do not forget to use your spell check. Personally, I copy things into Word and use theirs, but there are some toolbars - Mozilla or Firefox - that will do your spell checking for you. I choose to use the extra step of putting my narratives into Word first because if there is a problem with my report submission I can copy it back into my shopping form instead of retyping it. Insure that you have also used proper grammar. Most spell check programs will check that for you while searching for your typos. This is not the time to use your ‘IM’ English. Some of the shopping report systems will have their own spell check versions. It’s fine if you use them as long as you use something!

You will most likely have to leave comments for every ‘no’ answer on your report. Do not simply restate the question in the answer. If the question is, “Was the exterior clean and well maintained?” Do not write, “The exterior was not clean.” A better answer is, “The trashcan in front of the location was overflowing and had a bad odor. The post for the handicapped parking sign was bent and the sign itself showed visible rust. The sign in front of this location had two burned out letters. The front doors were visibly smudged and showed many fingerprints.” Make sure your comments agree with the answers you have already given. If you answered ‘yes’ to the question, “Was the restroom stocked?”, don’t add a comment that the restroom was out of paper towels. It helps if you think of yourself as a living video camera. Your job is to report the facts, not your opinions.

to be continued - part two tomorrow