Most mystery shoppers will agree that mystery shopping is a pretty great job. We get paid to go into stores, restaurants, and more, enjoy reimbursements on purchases, and get our opinions on service, cleanliness, and more heard by higher-ups in the company who value what we have to say. Yet as great as mystery shopping is, there is one aspect of mystery shopping that many people struggle with. That aspect of the job is writing the reports at the end of each assignment. There are some things that you can do that will help you write these reports with speed and ease:
Read Your Assignment Requirements and Questionnaire Up-Front. You will find that almost every assignment you work on has detailed assignment requirements that essentially walk you through everything you need to pay attention to for the report. You will want to take some time up-front to commit the requirements to memory, and then ensure that you follow the requirements to the “T” during the site visit. In addition, you can often read through the report before you go on your site visit, too. It is critical to know what areas you will need to report back on as you are doing the site visit.
Provide Just Enough Details. It can be difficult to determine just how much information you need to provide on your report. Providing too little information can result in the provider coming back to you and asking for more information. Providing too much information can take up extra time in writing the report, and it can also result in the provider getting confused with the details and come back to you with questions. Neither is a desirable outcome, and so you will want to spend some time on your next few reports really paying attention to how much detail your providers are looking for. This can be more complicated than it sounds as each provider wants a different level of detail in the reports.
Review Your Work. The best way to save time in writing your reports is to get your reports approved on the first go-round. If you are constantly having reports sent back to you for revisions, this is eating away at your valuable time. This is time when you could be working on other assignments and earning more money! Sometimes simply taking five extra minutes to read through your report and tweak it here and there before you click the “submit” button can really make a world of difference. It is far better take those five minutes now while the details from the site visit are fresh in your mind than days from now when you are thinking about other assignments and have forgotten some of those important details.
In many cases, you should be able to fly through a report and get it written, reviewed, and submitted in less than fifteen minutes. Of course, every report is different, and some reports truly will take more time than this to complete in even the best of circumstances. If you are spending more than twenty or thirty minutes writing your reports regularly, or if your reports are constantly coming back to you for revisions, you are wasting valuable work time. Consider following these tips to save yourself some time writing your reports.
Where can I buy a digital recorder? Please reply.
Probably at Best Buy, Walmart. If you live in AZ, Fry’s Electronics.
I have been using a Sony tape recorder for 11 years. I use a certain purse that I can hit the record button just before entering the business. My husband asked about me using a small voice activated recorder but that doesn’t give me in between wait times that I need at various places. I use a 90 minute tape. I’m on my second recorder now.
Meant to say that I hit the “record” button on the tape recorder in my purse just before entering.
The recorder is the best investment I ever made. I have an Olympus from Walmart. It is small and undetectable inside my purse. I find that I do not always have the best memory so the recorder is a perfect solution. Using a recorder you are able to capture details that you can refer to when reporting. I could not do without it.
Happy shopping!
I have a Panasonic digital voice recorder that I put inside my bra just before entering a shop. It makes getting accurate timings to the second a snap. I am also able to write direct quotes on my reports. I bought it at Sears about four years ago.
I have read about using digital recorders. But doesn’t that require you talking and when, say you want to record the time you get in line, you then have to say the time and that you are in line, right? Don’t people look at you if you are talking to yourself? Or do I have the scenario wrong?
I was told never to use a recorder because it is illegal to record but it is for my own use. You can use an mp3 player with record ability on it, most people have one I found one at the dollar store for $15.00 and it works well. As for talking to yourself, go to dollar tree and get a cheap bluetooth that fits your ear they will think you are talking on your phone. You just have to think. Get in line look at the time it’s ” ” How long will this take is a good line. have you not heard that beford in a line. Or this line is short it is only “” I think I will be able to make the next stop.