The mystery shopping providers that you work with play a major role in your overall work experience. After all, variations in their friendly and helpful service, their criteria for accepting your reports, their rate of pay and the difficult of their assignment requirements are common. One provider may rate low in each of these areas, and another may rate high in each of these areas. Most, however, will find some middle ground in these important areas. However, you may prefer to work with a provider that offers higher compensation regardless of high challenging they are to work with, and another mystery shopper may be willing to work on lower-paying assignments provided the provider is easy to deal with. As you can see, there are numerous factors at play with regards to the definition of a great provider as well as with regards to which providers are the best to work with. You may have been thinking about seeing if the grass is greener on the other side by working with another provider. Before you do, however, consider these points carefully.
Your Preferences
You can easily visit the online mystery shopping forum and find numerous conversations about which providers are good to work with and which providers should be avoid. Before you spend too much time analyzing these comments in your quest to find the best providers to work with, it is important to define what your preferences are. Ideally, you will find a provider that ranks highly in all of the areas noted above. However, realistically, most providers will fall short in at least one of the areas. Take time to define your preferences, and you may discover that it is easy to find a provider that you love to work with.
Review the Forums
It can be difficult to network with mystery shoppers and learn about the pros and cons of working with different providers. However, the online mystery shopping forums provide you with the wonderful ability to do just that. While you can learn valuable information by reading posts on these forums, it is important that you take the comments in them with a grain of salt. One mystery shopper may say that they will never work with a specific provider again, and another may say that particular provider is their favorite. Therefore, rather than take a single mystery shopper’s word for it, consider reading numerous posts to develop a more well-rounded view of the provider. If one mystery shopper doesn’t like working with a provider, you should not be deterred from working with the provider. If multiple mystery shoppers have had a bad experience, that is another story.
Don’t Burn Bridges
Keep in mind that you can work with as many providers as you want to. Furthermore, you can take a hiatus from working with a provider without giving that provider any notice at all. You simply have to stop taking on new assignments. You may be ready to wash your hands of a relationship with one provider, but avoid burning bridges. Simply take a breather from that provider for a few weeks while you try out another provider.
In some cases, the grass really is greener with another provider. However, this is not always the case at all. When you follow these tips, you can most easily and successfully explore your options with other mystery shopping providers.