Whenever you send email to a mystery shopping company, you should include identifying information that makes it clear who and where you are, as well as why you are writing. If you are contacting a scheduler with a question about a mystery shop assignment, you should also include the assignment number (if any), client name, location and due date.
You might be surprised how many emails mystery shopping companies receive from shoppers whom they can not identify. Or the scheduler may have to spend valuable time looking up the shopper to figure out who they are and what assignment they are emailing about.
An easy way to include your information is with a “signature” or “signature file.”
A signature is a saved block of text that you can automatically append to every email you send. It saves you from having to manually enter the same information again and again, and avoids the typos that can creep in when you manually enter data such as phone numbers.
Your signature file may include some or all of the following information:
- Name
- Location (e.g., city, county, region where you shop)
- Email Address
- Phone Numbers (e.g., home, office, mobile)
- Fax Number
- Certification Status (with or without your Certification Code)
- Other Information (e.g., your years of experience, specialization, etc.)
Here is an example of a signature file:
Cathy Stucker
MSPA Gold Certified
Sugar Land, TX – Shopping Sugar Land, Missouri City, Stafford and SW Houston
cathy@idealady.com
281-265-7342 / 281-555-5555 (mobile)
The signature is created in your email program, so the exact method of doing so will depend on what you use for email. To learn how to create your signature file, open your email program, click on “Help” and search for “signature” or “signature file.”
Many email programs allow you to create multiple signature files. That means you could have one for your mystery shopping emails, one for your volunteer work with the PTA, one for your Avon business and one for general emails to friends. Of course, even when you have set up a signature it is always possible to send an email without the signature. The process depends on what email program you are using, but you may select “none” or “no signature” or simply delete the text before sending the email.
A free program that will do this as well, sort of, is Phrase Express. While it’s usually used to save phrases you can save as large of a “phrase” as you want and then using a key stroke that you designate it will automatically put in the phrase you created. This program also remembers things you type over and over, like if you have any questions call me, when you start typing it wil show the phrase and you just need to hit tab to put it in.
Sounds like a good program. I haven’t used it, but anything that will create a macro (stored keystrokes) and execute them when needed will work.