The flexibility of work hours with mystery shopping is one of the things that draw people to this job. Maybe you have a demanding full-time job, but want some extra cash with a flexible part-time job. Or maybe you’re a college student or a soccer mom, which both have changing work availability by the week. Chances are you are already a very busy person without shop assignments. Or perhaps you’ve got this mystery shopping thing figured out and are doing more shops than you can handle.
Whatever your circumstances, a mystery shopper needs good time management skills to complete the shop assignments accurately and on time. Failure to do both of these things may result in a rejected shop, with an end result of you working and not getting paid for your valuable time.
Multi-tasking is not a bad word. That word has gotten some bad press lately. People that multi-task aren’t actually as efficient, and you’re better off fully completing one task before you start another. Well, that’s not necessarily true with mystery shopping. Mystery shopping has a lot of “down time” with traveling. You may spend a total of 10-30 minutes or more in total commute time on a shop. Why not get paid twice for making that trip?
Whenever possible, book two or three (or more!) shops in one area on the same day and around the same time. It may sound impossible or highly unlikely, but if you live in or near a large city, chances are you probably live around several malls or retail centers. Many shops have the ability to shop whichever day you want, provided you complete the shop by a certain date. Even if you can’t get two shops in one shopping center, maybe Shop A is right on the way to Shop B.
And You’re Back Again. Many shops require a return visit, to exchange or return merchandise. Often, you will be required to try on additional items, such as shoes or clothing in the fitting room, and evaluate service and salesmanship on this visit as well. So this follow-up shop may take just as long as the first visit. Make sure you allow enough time in your schedule to do this second part of the shop.
Don’t Forget The Reporting. When you are planning your time for the shop, allow enough time in your schedule to complete the report. After you scan or fax the receipt, upload it, and complete the questionnaire on-line, you may have just spent 30 minutes to an hour doing your report. If you have 2 or 3 shops in one day, you can see that this will eat up a large chunk of time!
Pencil It In. You definitely want to use a calendar or PDA to keep track of your shops as well as your personal obligations. It doesn’t matter which you use, just be sure to have an easy way to keep track of ALL of your obligations in one area.
Check your calendar before you commit to a shop. Remember to check your availability for the first trip the shop requires, the return trip if there is one, and time to complete the report. Write down your obligations, both personal and mystery shopping, as soon as you know about them and keep your calendar up-to-date.
There’s no point in having a calendar if you aren’t going to check it often. Get into the habit of checking it daily. Each day when you check it, review the items you need to complete for the next few days to keep your schedule fresh on your mind. It’s never a good day when you wake up and find that you’ve overcommitted yourself.
Getting into the habit of doing these things will allow you time to complete more shops. If you manage your time right, you could be making more money as a mystery shopper!
Yes, all great suggestions. I recently found that I was having a very hard time keeping up with my shops. Upon signing up for a google email account, I realized that they also had a calendar in which one can schedule events. The bonus to the calendar is that it allows you to email yourself reminders of events. I now have my calendar set up to email my events to me so that I can see them each time I check my email.
I always try to have 2-3 sometimes 4 shops in one area or within a certain range. This way I can do them and keep them straight. I do alot of service stations, so it’s better for me to have at least 3 close together. Since my BF had his heart attack, I only work 2-3 days a week. I am busy!!!
I put my shops in a website I discovered. It’s http://www.reminderspot.com and it’s great. It’s for any special event and I can use it for other events such as bill paying,vacation,drs appts and the shops. That way I don’t double them up or put them on a day that I can’t do a shop. The reminders are sent to my email and I can set it up to remind me 30 days,1 week,3 days and day of the event. You can also have it sent to your cell phone.
Tell me about time management!! Just a couple of weeks ago, I had everything scheduled (I thought!!), but what I hadn’t planned on, was a shop taking more time than advertised by the scheduler!! So, okay, I didn’t get to the ones originally penciled in, and fortunately, the shop dates were flexible. Come Friday, and I’ve added the missed shops, to the scheduled shops, a total of eight?? The deadline for reports is Saturday, and several of the shops are banks, which were NOT open that Saturday!! Disaster occurred!! I have learned my lesson!!
The Google Calendar is the bomb!! I use now, along with Yahoo Notes; when I bid a shop, I enter it in Notes, along with the date on the Calendar! What I am still finding problematic, is the allotment time for reporting!! Some companies can be ridiculous with the detail, and essay writing; thusly I’ve spent several sleepless nights, staying up doing the previous day’s shops, then drained, when it came time to … do it again!!
Hopefully, over time, I will be able to more correctly estimate the reporting time, but right now, it is highly problematic, causing me to be reluctant in doing more than four shops a day!!
please people….you sound like you are some kind of professional…get over it already..you are self glorified minimum wage earners, if lucky, being taken advantage of with crap pay by greedy mystery shopping companies….pencil in some real job searches or employment interviews with real companies..
In reference to Jane’s email. I would just like to tell her after you are in to the mystery shopping for a while you figure out which companies to work for and which one’s not to. I don’t believe I’m making minimum wage the way that I schedule my jobs. So together with my PENSIONS and mystery shopping I have extra money to do with what I want and not look for a so called real job or go on employment interviews (those days are over for me at 51) : ) joyce
Sorry you feel that way, Jane. Gosh, I hate giving attention to negativity! And on a more positive note!
When I first started Mystery Shopping a few years ago, one of the first things that popped into my mind is time management and keeping track of assignments. I don’t use a PDA or a calender. Thanks for the tip about calendars, Yahoo, google and reminderspots. I may check them out but never use them. I only go onto the internet to check for postings, submit shops, and to see if assignments may need additional information. With all of that e-mail usage I am started to feel a tab addicted since I may receive up to 100 e-mails daily. I personall use Excel a lot for other things that I am involved in. It was a natural for me to go to Excel with Mystery Shopping. As soon as I sign up for assignments, I enter them into my Excel spreadsheet for the current year. My spreadsheet has 17 columns and I can see the whole year at a glance. I will give you the details on the columns. This may work for you and then again, to each his own. Here is what I find works for me in columns A – Q, I have the following headings: # (Shop #-how many I have done), Assign. #, Company (MSP), Shop Name, Location (City, Address), Type (Bank, Movie, Gas), Notes/Grade (Notes before shop completion/Grade after completion, Applied (Date Applied), Start Date (When I can Start), Due Date (When Assignment is due), Shopped (Completion date), Start (Time Started), End (Time Ended), Time (End time minus Start time), Fee (Shop Fee), Payday (Payment Received), Month Total (Formula to see where I am at $$$ the month). I print my sheets on legal paper when I choose to print them. I have a formula to provide totals for the Time column and the Fee column. The “Q” column has a formula for the month’s total. If I sign up for an assignment at a location that I know I have shopped in the past, I insert a row, where appropriate, and do a search for the last time I performed the shop. I copy the details into the row that I have just created and update the date information. This may seem cumbersome to some, but once the spreadsheet was set up it gave me all of the details that I needed to see about a particular assignment.
I sign up for shops in a particular area and then I try to find additional shops in the same area. Once I performed 9 shops on the same day. I started at the furthest location and made my way back home.
Theresa – All I can say is you sure are organized!! I use a blackberry curve with my paper calendar as my backup in case of a tech problem. I also created assignments sheets to track shop/due dates,fees,mileage,date paid,how paid such as check #, direct deposit or payapl.