Many mystery shoppers are trying to squeeze in as many assignments as possible to earn more money in this tight economy. While some mystery shoppers have trouble finding even two or three assignments to do during a day in their corner of the world, other mystery shoppers are able to locate ten or more assignments each day. If you are one of the lucky mystery shoppers who CAN get your hands on this many assignments, should you?
Taking On Too Much. Every mystery shopper is unique, and they have varying levels of time management skills and attention to detail. Obviously, the better equipped you are to manage your time and handle carrying details of multiple assignments with you throughout the day until you can submit your reports, the more assignments you as a person will be able to handle. Keep in mind, however, that there is a very fine line between being busy and being too busy. When you take on too many assignments, you risk doing shoddy, rushed work that may result in various negative consequences such as a reduction in pay, elimination of pay, and a reduced shopper rating.
All Assignments Are NOT Created Equal. Just as all mystery shoppers are not created equal, all mystery shopping assignments are also different and unique. Some assignments may take just 10 or 15 minutes of your time while others may take several hours to complete. If you plan to load up your days with as many mystery shopping assignments as you can handle, be sure to plan your days very carefully. For each assignment you request, make an estimate of travel time, on-site time to complete the assignment, and time to complete the report. By keeping a running list of your workload for each day, you can quickly determine when your day is booking up and you need to pass on assignments that need to be completed on a certain day.
Maximizing Assignments With Travel Planning. If your goal is to complete as many assignments as possible during a given day, it is in your best interest to spend your time actually working rather than traveling back and forth between assignments. Therefore, when you are picking and choosing your assignments, pay attention to the location of each assignment. If possible, pick multiple assignments in the some shopping mall or strip center. Or pick assignments that are located en route to the assignment farthest away from you. To really get the most assignments packed in to a day, you don’t want to spend an hour driving out of your way to complete just one assignment.
Be A Good Note-Taker. With most types of assignments, taking notes of your site visit inside the store is a big “no-no”. However, you can certainly stop by a bathroom or fitting room, and lock yourself in a stall for a minute or two to jot down a few notes of your site visit up to that point. Then, once you get back in your car, whip out your notepad and finish writing all of the pertinent notes you will need to complete your report. Taking detailed notes when you are doing multiple assignments in a day is a life-saver. Think about keeping track of what times you entered and left seven different stores, along with all of the salespeople, and so on, at each different store. Without notes to refer back to, you are likely going to get confused or forgetful about the important details.
While there is no magic number of assignments you can complete accurately during a day, you can load up your days without overbooking yourself by following these easy steps!
I would do 10 mystery shops per day if there were 10 locations in modesto california.
FYI using hidden video and a wifi with wimax pda or laptop computer and a scanner in the car of the trunk is a great way to upload the report and receipt.
This is an excellent article.
Bruce, I live in Manteca CA and have done more than ten shops a day in Modesto. Last weekend I did 6 shops in the mall on Friday night, then off to Tahoe Joes for another and Denny’s for another and hit two QuickStops on my way home. Maybe you need to sign up with more companies. The flip side was that I was up all night doing reports.