Mystery Shopper's Manual

Writing Great Mystery Shop Reports

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Do you struggle when writing your mystery shop reports? Does it take much longer than you think it should to complete a report? Do you often get questions about your reports from editors, or even have your reports rejected?

I have just released a new DVD that can help. It is 71 minutes of great ideas and tips to help you write better reports in less time. When you write better reports, you can qualify for more and better mystery shopper jobs. And when you write faster, you get more done in less time so your hourly rate goes up.

Discover how to answer the tough questions, what clients and companies want to see (and what they don’t want) in comments and narratives, how to find the right words and much more including:

  • Three things you should NEVER do in your reports.
  • The best way to add more details to your reports.
  • How five minutes now can save you lots of time later.
  • The four words that will make your reports better, every time.

Plus, get answers to your questions about mystery shopper reports. I have personally trained more than 10,000 mystery shoppers, and I can help you become a mystery shopper or become a better mystery shopper.

This DVD is a recording of a live webinar I presented to subscribers to my Mystery Shopping Tips newsletter. The DVD will play in your computer or DVD player. (You can get invited to future webinars when you sign up for my free mystery shopper email course. Fill in your name in email address in the box on the left side of this page.)

Order your copy of Writing Great Mystery Shop Reports for just $29 now!

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Seven Ways to Write Mystery Shop Reports Faster

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The most time-consuming part of most mystery shops is writing the reports. Saving time on report writing (while still doing a great job, of course) means that you make more money in less time. Here are seven things you can do to write great mystery shop reports in less time.

Assemble everything you will need to do the report before you sit down at the computer. Get receipts, notes, business cards, guidelines, etc. together in one place so you do not have to keep running off to get something else you need.

Eliminate any distractions. Turn off the television, don’t answer the phone, and tell the kids not to disturb you unless there is blood.
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Make Your Mystery Shop Reports Unique

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Do you like to get form letters? You know, those letters where they try to sound personal, but you can tell the same letter went to thousands of other people?

Most people hate form letters; however, many mystery shoppers like to submit “form reports.” By that I mean reports that all read alike, and appear that they could be submitted for just about any shop assignment by changing a few details.

Each mystery shop experience is unique, and your reports should reflect that uniqueness. When a client receives a batch of mystery shop reports that are nearly identical, they may start to wonder if there is truly any value in mystery shopping. And companies that receive cookie-cutter reports from a shopper may wonder if the shopper really did the assignment, or if they are simply recycling old reports.

Here are some tips to make your reports accurately reflect what happened during your shop visit while adding variety and interest to your reports—and also making it less likely that your reports will be questioned by the mystery shopping company or the client.Continue Reading

Secret Shopper Reports and Too Much Information

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tmiMystery shopping companies and clients love to see accurate, detailed reports that give them a true picture of what happened during your visit. However, there is such a thing as “too much information” in a shop report.

Each client has different needs when if comes to mystery shopping reports. Some want to know every single thing that happened, while others want more of an overview. Or perhaps they are looking for information regarding a specific aspect of the shop.

You can get an idea of how much detail a client wants, and the type of information they are looking for, by carefully reading the assignment guidelines.Continue Reading

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

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puzzled.jpgWhat is wrong with this sentence from a mystery shopper report?

The service could of been faster.

There are a couple of problems. Not only does it express an opinion rather than an objective fact, it does so badly.

There is never a case where “could of” is a grammatically correct phrase.

The same is true of would of, should of and must of. And, even worse, coulda, woulda, shoulda, and musta. Never even think about using them in your reports.

The correct phrases are could have, would have, should have and must have.

So why do so many people use “of” instead of “have”?

Probably because when people use a phrase such as “could have” in a sentence, they tend to shorten it to “could’ve.” People who are accustomed to hearing the spoken phrase hear it as “could of” and therefore write it that way.

The grammatically correct version of the above sentence would be:

The service could have been faster.

Of course, it is still opinion and thus probably does not belong in a mystery shopper report. However, there may be times when the use of “could have” is appropriate in your reports. Just make sure that when you use it, you spell it correctly.

Repeating Information in Mystery Shopper Reports

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infinity.jpgDoes it drive you crazy when a report form asks for the same information more than once? Sometimes they phrase the questions in slightly different ways, and sometimes the exact same question appears in more than one place on the form.

Or how about when they ask for comments in each section, and then want a narrative at the end of the report? Are you supposed to repeat everything you just said in the comments? Isn’t all of this a big waste of everyone’s time?Continue Reading