As you browse through the job boards, from time to time you may notice rather low paying assignments that are listed as phone assignments. Many mystery shoppers pass over these because they often pay under $5 and seem like a waste of time. Others may snatch them up on bad weather days when they don’t want to leave the house or for other similar reasons. However, because many mystery shopping providers offer these types of assignments on a regular basis, it may be worth a closer look at just how valuable these assignments may be to you.
The Time Involved
There are various factors that can affect how long it takes you to complete a phone assignment. For example, if you have to call a venue during peak hours and are put on hold for 20 minutes, this certainly will play a role in how long you are working on the assignment. If you have to call the venue repeatedly over the course of several hours or days, this will also play a role. You should also consider the length of the report. Some phone assignments may take a few minutes to complete, and others may actually require you to spend a total of an hour or longer.
The Other Details
There are other factors to consider when taking on a phone assignment. For example, some bank or financial institutions require specifically that you either are or are not currently an accountholder. Some may require you to actually apply for a new loan or credit card, and this may affect your credit rating. Then there are other assignments that may simply want you to call a pizza company to order pizza delivery. The compensation should be significantly higher for assignments that require more time and effort and that require you to divulge legitimate personal information about yourself or your finances.
The Compensation
Provided you are OK with providing personal information when applying for a new credit card or another type of account, the bottom line is that mystery shoppers want to know if the compensation of the assignment is commensurate with the time involved. Ultimately, this will require some estimation and guesswork on the part of the mystery shopper. For example, it is not possible to know for certain if you will be placed on hold for twenty minutes when doing a quick pizza shop phone assignment. You can use your past experiences to make an educated guess. You can also review the report in more detail to determine what the assignment entails, how many times you will need to call and more.
Phone assignments generally offer lower compensation because they don’t require you to spend your time or gas money driving to and from a location. However, you do still have to consider other factors and ensure that the assignment pays a fair rate. The fact is that some of these assignments truly can pay less than half of minimum wage, and others may be rather lucrative for you.
Sometimes the assignments are great to take just to get your shopper rating up quickly. 🙂
I would like to try short phone assignments. How can I get started.
I was in an accident last year and confined to home for several months. I took lots of phone shops for $1.50 each and people called me crazy. But they only take 3-4 minutes each so I was averaging about $15-$20 an hour sitting in my chair and not using any gasoline at all. It’s not every day and not all month long but it was easy money.