Some mystery shoppers just seem to breeze right through their assignments, completing site visits and reports with absolute ease. Others, however, do seem to get caught up in a variety of problems with a significant number of assignments they complete. If you fall into that latter group of mystery shoppers, you no doubt are completely frustrated with the mystery shopping process. There are, however, a few things that you can do to help make mystery shopping easier for you. In fact, here are three things that you may want to watch out for as you complete your mystery shopping reports:
Writing Errors. Who would have thought that you have to be a decent writer to be great at mystery shopping? Yet writing reports is indeed half the job, and the better you can write, the faster and more profitable you will be in this job. Reports that are riddled with grammar, spelling, and punctuation issues are often flagged by mystery shopping providers, and this means they often come back to you for corrections which takes up more of your valuable time. More than that, if you are constantly getting reports sent back to you, providers may ding your “shopper rating,” which can affect your ability to earn more money on better assignments.
Assumptions and Lies. Sometimes as a mystery shopper you are just too busy to write down all of the details about what you really observed at a site visit. Other times, perhaps you forgot to make an observation that was required and have no choice but to guess. These are just a few of the reasons why you may be inclined to enter some false information into your mystery shopping report. Of course, before you do, you want to consider that if you are caught doing this, you may be prohibited from working with that provider again. Plus, the information you provide could also affect other people in negative ways, such as if the corporate offices use the false information you provided in a report to reprimand a store manager, or some other similar situation.
Skimpy Details. Providing scanty details in your report is also a big “no no.” Of course, you don’t want to spend your time writing down copious amounts of information that becomes almost repetitive, but you do need to provide enough details in your report to give the provider and the corporate office that ordered the report with a complete picture of what you observed. The fact is that you are very much paid to be their eyes and ears, so to speak, and so you have to communicate what you observed in written format. When you provide skimpy details, there is very little benefit given to those who ordered the report in the first place.
Often times, you can avoid some of the most common “no no’s” when it comes to writing reports by keeping the big picture of mystery shopping in mind. This means remembering that your site visit and the responses you provide in your report are going to be used by several people for different purposes, and this information is indeed valuable in many ways. So do your best to provide truthful, complete, and grammatically correct responses at all times!
Mystery Shopping does become easier as one gains experience. Client’s requirements constantly change as their industry needs change, however as you mentioned, a constant requirement on the Shoppers’ end is good writing. With all of the online resources available, there is hardly an excuse for reports riddled with grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. Moreover the Mystery Shop Forum regularly provides useful links and resources. Reading is a good way to hone one’s writing skills. I frequently edit for errors when reading books, published articles, shop instructions, etc.
Most shop instructions clearly identify what the client is looking for. Specific sections address specific questions. Some want only objective comments while others focus on subjective point of view. If there is no particular space assigned for a necessary comment, it must be somewhere on the report and noted as a clarification. If a required observation is not noted, some reports allow this as an option, however if it does not, the oversight must be mentioned somewhere, where most appropriate on the report. I have on occasion spoken with the scheduler to advise them of the oversight, to give them the option to say whether they want the report or not. They check with the client. Usually when it is well written and otherwise satisfies what the client is looking for, the report is nonetheless accepted. Even if it is not accepted, you have just established with your scheduler that you are honest, dependable, and trustworthy. Communication, communication, communication!
Some shop providers are notorious for wanting a lot of verbiage. The problem is that of redundancy; furthermore copying and pasting is prohibited and there is a minimum character requirement in each section. On closer examination of the shop instructions, it is achievable by keeping in mind that questions are answered in their section. Learning different ways to say the same thing is useful in writing the summary. More details is better than not. Some report requirements however are quite minimalist. I guess it is a matter of reading with understanding and following directions. By completing a series of shops for one shop provider, familiarity will result in speedy gathering of information and write up of reports.
Having completed only about twelve hundred shops, I have approached each one as a learning experience. Mystery Shopping is never boring. Meeting people under ever changing situations is ever challenging. Mystery Shopping is flexible, fun and a source of social contact. It has a big impact on businesses as evidenced by changes I have seen in my own community. It impacts peoples’ lives too. But it is each individual business who lays out the money to start up and run the business, hire people, serve the public and try to stay in business. It is the individual business who pays to train staff to follow guidelines with the aim of improving customer service. It is the individual employee who can sink a business. Shoppers perform a valuable role in this cycle of customer service and business development. Our purpose in being is to know what the client is looking for, to find the answers and to report and communicate clearly, in a timely fashion to the business who has hired our services.
Mystery Shoppers, keep up the good work!
Thank you Deb for putting your thoughts in writing. I agree with you 100% – and thank you Maven for allowing us to read these practical points. Happy, Happy New Year to you.
Some shops ask for too much for $10.00-$15.00. I even attempted to do a few paying $25.00-$35.00, but they were so demanding that I declined. When I figured out all of the time and effort that I would need to put into them, I would have almost been working for free. I have done some $10.00-$1500 shops that I have enjoyed. Detailed writing is not for everyone. I am going to look into adding video shopping to my shops. You are making some very valid points, but sometimes you just have to do the math