Mystery shopping is just like any other job, giving people things to truly love and honestly dislike about their job duties. For most mystery shoppers, the site visits are the best part of the job. Every day and every assignment brings you new experiences and takes you to different locales. Not far behind are the reimbursements you get on your purchases. High on the dislike column, though, is the requirement to write reports about each of your site visits.
Writing your reports, while one of the least enjoyable parts of the job most of the time, is also among the most critical. The report has to be flawless or you run the risk of having your report – even your entire work on the assignment – rejected. Yet you don’t want to spend too much time on your reports or you end up wasting valuable time. Here are some hot tips that can make your report writing fast and easy:
Cut to the Chase. If your words are rambling and your thoughts are all over the place, it will be hard for the provider to sort through what you are trying to say. You run the risk of losing your reader’s concentration, confusing them, or failing to get your point across. Keep in mind that reports are not a big college essay assignment with a minimum word requirement. As far as writing reports goes, it is best to cut to the chase and get right down to the point. One easy way to do this is to pretend that someone is standing in front of you asking you the questions. Then write down word for word exactly what you would say to answer that question, just as if they were standing in front of you. Plus, you will save time if you find a way to keep your words concise.
Review and Review Again. You will want to make sure that your responses accurately answer the questions, just as they are asked. After you have completed your report, take time to read through your report one more time. For each question, read it out loud and then read your response. In addition to making sure your answers correspond to the questions, you will also proofread to ensure your spelling, grammar and punctuation are great. Sometimes mistyping a word can change the whole meaning of the sentence, as can misplacing a comma using the wrong verb tense.
Take Your Time… At First. If you have been struggling with your reports in recent months, you should take a step back and really spend time working on your next few reports. Practice employing these techniques slowly at first so you get them down right, and then work to speed up your report writing using these skills. When you do this, you will find that you will learn to complete your reports accurately and quickly, without wasting your time and without getting them rejected.
While reporting writing may not ever be your favorite part of your mystery shopping job, it doesn’t have to be quite the pain that it currently is. Take time to put these strategies into motion for you today.
I find when writing the beginning to end process of the shop, it helps to have the report form in front of you and use that as a guideline to write a comprehensive report.
I love the Mystery Shop Maven articles and read them the instant I find them in my email box. For all of the expertise and good advice you offer us hardworking shoppers, I thank you.
You often list top notch Mystery Shopping Companies but all too often they are US based an only work within the United States. I would love to find a list of Canadian based companies that offer work within Canada. I currently only know of a handful and thoroughly enjoy the mystery shopping experience. Any help in this area would be appreciated.
A devote reader and busy mystery shopper,
JF
I had a report that required you to also tell what you did not like about the shop. There was really nothing I did not like but they wanted you to put something and it had a minimum word requirement. Just how are you suppose to answer that?
It’s hard to believe that articles such as the mystery shop maven exist. It’s filled with great ideas and I just want to say thank you.
I agree that being thorough and concise is a desirable trait, but there are some reports that insist on a minimum number of words/characters for answers. This encourages one to be verbose rather than concise.
I agree about some reports encouraging more words than are necessary. I have done some reports that have you write a narrative for that portion of the shop periodically throughout the report. Each requires a minimum of 3-5 sentences. Then at the end of the report they require a complete narrative describing the entire experience start to finish, which you have already described in parts, and it has to be a minimum of 8-10 sentences. It really seems like a waste of time.