Mystery Shopper's Manual

Too. Much. Email.

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Do you feel as though your email inbox is under siege with dozen or even hundreds of daily emails from mystery shopping companies? Ready to declare email bankruptcy and start over again with a new email address? Wait! You don’t have to take drastic measures. Here are a few tips you can use to get your mystery shopping email under control.

When you first started mystery shopping, you may have felt a little excited every time an email from a mystery shopping company showed up in your inbox. But after shopping for a while, and signing up with dozens of companies, the number of emails can be overwhelming. If you are a new shopper who is not yet at that point, this article is for you, too. Pay special attention to the section at the end about setting up email systems. These tips will keep you from becoming an email victim!

Let’s start with what you should NOT do: Continue Reading

Will Mystery Shopping Companies Penalize Me for Not Accepting Shops?

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saying-noTypical mystery shoppers are signed up with dozens of mystery shopping companies, and our inboxes may be flooded with hundreds or thousands of emails about open mystery shops every month. If a company sends you a bunch of offers and you never accept one, will they blacklist you and stop offering shops?

First of all you need to know that you are not the only shopper getting those emails. Each notification is going out to many other shoppers in your area. It is not necessary to respond to the emails and say that you are not interested. You only need to take action if you want the assignment.

Even if you respond and say that you are interested in doing the shop you are not guaranteed the assignment. The email went out to hundreds of other shoppers in your area, and one of them may get the shop.
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Do Mystery Shoppers Ever Get Shopped?

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mystery-shopping-mystery-shoppersThe question of who checks up on the mystery shoppers gets asked a lot. It would be extremely unlikely that a company would send two shoppers in to a business at the same time so that one could check on the other (or the reports could be compared), but there are techniques that mystery shopping companies use to check the accuracy of reports or determine if the shopper may not be doing a thorough job.
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Would You Sign Up with PayQuicker?

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Several shoppers have asked if I know anything about PayQuicker. They are a payment service, similar to PayPal, now being used by a few companies to pay their shoppers. The shoppers I heard from wanted to know if PayQuicker is legitimate and if getting an account with them is a good idea.

First of all, if you want to shop for ACE Mystery Shopping, you will have to sign up with PayQuicker. Their service is the only way ACE will pay shoppers. Two other companies I found (Amusement Advantage and Person to Person Quality) offer PayQuicker as one of their payment options, but don’t require it. There may be other mystery shopping companies using PayQuicker, but these are the only ones I found.
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How Do Mystery Shopping Companies Determine Shopper Ratings?

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Most mystery shopping companies use a rating system to grade reports from secret shoppers, often a scale of 1 to 10. These ratings are used to identify the shoppers who produce the best work, and a low rating may keep you from getting the mystery shopper jobs you want.For example, some assignments may only be available to shoppers with an average rating of 8 or better, or shoppers with high ratings may be able to self-assign certain shops, without having to wait for a scheduler to award the shop to them.

Here is an explanation of how these ratings are typically determined, and how you can keep your ratings high.

Each company uses it own method, however, there are many similarities. If a company is using a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest score and 10 being the highest, a 10 usually means that the report was exactly right. The report was complete, it was submitted on time, the editor did not have to follow up with the shopper because of questions or issues with the report, and there were no grammatical errors that required the editor to revise the report. In short, a “perfect” report.
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Why Was Your Report Rejected?

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This is a guest post from C. McDaniel of Spot Check Services Ltd.

You’ve just completed and submitted your shop… now you get a notice saying your report has been REJECTED… WHY did it happen to YOU?

Everyone runs the risk of making a mistake at some point during their shop, whether you’re a newbie, or the most seasoned mystery shopper. Depending on the nature of your error, it can be nothing more than an email informing you of your error. But in those cases where the error was crucial, it can result in your shop and report being rejected by either the client or the mystery shopping company. The word REJECTION isn’t pleasant in any case, and the fallout can be detrimental to you as a person, as well as a mystery shopper.Continue Reading

Keep Your Secret Shopper Profiles Up to Date

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Each time you apply to a mystery shopping company, you fill out a shopper profile. The profile includes your contact information, demographic information about you (e.g., birthdate, gender, marital status, etc.) as well as specific things the mystery shopping company needs to match you to client requirements. These questions might include the ages of your children, if you own a digital camera or voice recorder, if you wear glasses, etc. Of course, MSPA member companies will want to know your MSPA certification status.

The information in your profile may be used to determine whether or not you receive a particular shop offer, so it is important that it is current and correct. Make sure you update your profile when:Continue Reading

What Day Will You Do the Mystery Shop?

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Question from a mystery shopper:

I am puzzled by something I sometimes see when applying for shops. There will be a date range for completing the shop (e.g., It must be done between 3/1 and 3/10) and they will ask on what day I will do the shop if it is assigned to me.

They have already said it has to be between the first and the tenth. What do they want me to say? Do they want me to give a specific date? Or just say that I will do it between 3/1 and 3/10? Or can I just ignore the question?

What if the date I plan to do the shop changes after it is assigned to me? Do I need to let the scheduler know?

There are several reasons for asking on what date you will complete the shop. The best answer to give will depend on how the scheduler plans to use the information; however, there are some “safe” answers that will almost always be acceptable.
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Good Mystery Shopper Karma

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A simple definition of karma is that what you put out comes back to you. If you do good things, you receive good things in return. And if you do bad things, you can expect negative consequences.

As a mystery shopper, you can attract good karma (high report scores, more assignments, better paying assignments, etc.) or bad karma (low scores, fewer assignments, or even being deactivated.

Maintaining good mystery shopper karma means doing your job well, and being helpful to schedulers, editors and other mystery shopping company representatives. Here are some of the ways you can keep good mystery shopper karma flowing.
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What to Do When You Mess Up on a Mystery Shop

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embarrassedYou always do your best as a mystery shopper…until that one day. Maybe you didn’t get an important bit of information for the shop, or you went on the wrong day, or at the wrong time or to the wrong place. Or you completely forgot to do the shop.

Dumb mistakes? Yeah, but every shopper has probably made a dumb mistake or two somewhere along the line. So what do you do now that you have really messed up on a shop?

Some mystery shopping companies have a “one strike and you’re out” rule, and if you make a major mistake that would cause the client to reject the shop report, they will deactivate your account. Others will consider your history with them and other factors. Even the companies that will automatically deactivate you may reconsider if you take the right approach.Continue Reading