Many mystery shoppers today have the desire to do their best work on their assignments from start to finish. Often, the level of work a mystery shopper does is reflected in their “shopper rating.” This rating may affect your ability to get assignments in the future, including the number of assignments, the quality of assignments, and higher paying assignments, too. If your rating is too low, you may not be permitted to work with providers at all. So clearly it is in your best interest to do your best job on your assignments. Yet there is a point where spending time doing such a great job on your assignments can actually be a detriment to your income level, too.
Time Well Spent?
A report that is well-written and appropriately detailed is sufficient for you to earn a great rating on an assignment. Spending additional time adding extra detail, triple-checking for typos, and more will not earn you bonus points. Of course, some mystery shoppers who struggle with writing may find that spending a few extra minutes on their reports is worthwhile. Yet for other mystery shoppers, there is just no benefit to submitting your report after it has been proofed a single time.
Too Much Detail
It is possible as well that putting too much detail into a report can be a detriment to you. The fact is that extra detail provided in a report may serve to confuse a reader rather than clarify an event or special circumstances. When your provider is confused by a point in your report, your report will be returned to you for editing and revisions. Consider that it takes you extra time to write so much detail in your report, and it also takes extra time to make revisions when requested. In some cases, providing extra details can be a double whammy to your schedule.
Perfecting Your Reports
The fact is that you do want your reports to be as perfect as possible, but you don’t want to spend too much time making them perfect. One way to do this is to ensure that you first answer only the questions asked. Don’t throw extra details into your responses that were not requested. Then do one quick read-through. If your report responses sounded great the first time around, chances are they are fine. It is worth clicking the “submit” button rather than reading through it two or three more times.
The fact is that a small typo here or there will not trigger the need for revisions, and they will typically not affect your shopper rating either. If your reports are riddled with typos, then you may reasonably expect your rating to be affected, though. As with many things in life, there is a middle ground that you should strive to find when writing mystery shopping reports. Take some time today to consider how much time you spend writing your reports. You may be able to shave a few minutes off of each report you write and free up more time for other mystery shopping assignments or enjoy some extra free time in your day.
A lot depends on the company and client. Some like lots of detail and others want none. What becomes a problem is when they request 5000 characters and there is nothing to say or they only allow 175 characters and you have lots to say. Taking the middle ground is the best answer if you do not have a guideline.