In the mystery shopping world, it often seems as though you are working on your own in a little bubble. To an extent, this is absolutely true because you can complete numerous assignments without interacting with your mystery shopping providers at all, except of course for requesting the assignment and submitting the report. There are times, however, when you really need to get ahold of someone at your mystery shopping provider’s office in a fast way. Perhaps an emergency has come up or you have fallen ill and cannot complete your assignment, or perhaps you have a last minute question on an assignment or you fear your identity was revealed at your last assignment. There are so many reasons why you may need to get ahold of someone at your mystery shopping provider’s office right away. Here’s what to do:
Steps to Take Now. Before you head out the door for one more assignment, you want make sure you have your phone loaded with contact phone numbers for several people at each of your providers’ offices. You absolutely want to print out the paperwork for each assignment and take that paperwork on the road with you. That paperwork usually has a contact name and phone number on it for you. However, if you happen to call that contact person while they are away from their desk, you want to be able to reach someone else at the office fast. Rather that jot down ten different numbers each time before you head out the door, take time today to load several numbers into your cell phone so you have the numbers handy at all times.
If You Have Some Time. There are certain times, such as when you have a question about completing your report or about a requirement for the site visit that is scheduled a day or two away, when you have time to call or email. If you cannot reach your contact by phone, you likely want to shoot out a quick email to that person before you fire off calls to everyone in the provider’s office. Most professionals will respond to an email sent during normal business hours either that same day if time allows and they are in the office or the following day. If you want to make sure your email gets the attention it deserves, you can make a follow up call to your email. However, you also want to give your provider time to respond to your call or email if time is available on your end to wait for the answer.
After Hours. There are times when you simply need an answer now and you don’t have time to wait hours and hours for a response. Inevitably, this seems to always happen during night or weekend hours when your contact at the mystery shopping provider’s office is not available to answer your questions. First, you can absolutely prevent many of these types of scenarios from occurring by reading through your assignment requirements as soon as they become available. However, if you do find yourself in such a situation and your contact is completely unavailable, you can try to get a fast answer from your fellow mystery shoppers on the online forums. Many mystery shoppers on these forums work for the same providers you work for, and some may have completed that very same assignment previously.
Hopefully you will never find yourself in a situation where you need to get an answer from your provider urgently, but if you do, these strategies should help you get the information you need fast.
Here are a few other thougth before leaving the house to do a shop. Mapquest to make double sure you know where you are going. I live in Minneapolis – St. Paul with 2.5 million people and a lot of driving distance to some shops. Of course, I would not drive 25 miles just for one location. But having a GPS and mapquest does help in the big city.
Another tip is to recycle the “non informatin sheets” when you are completing the shop on line. Of course 3 – 4 months retention is required, but I sort through the notes and non essential printouts to save storage space. I then use a yellow mark a lot and run a line across the printed page and then save the paper for repritning of another job. Saves paper and gets more mileage all around.
Finally, for creating my reports, I have a separate work folder on my computer desktop screen to store all completed jobs. THose in progress have their folder on the desktop screen for fast access and when done are filed quickly into the “on screen ” icon saying completed shops.