So many mystery shoppers will breeze through their site visits without any trouble at all only to hit snags and roadblocks when they sit down to type their reports. After a long day of mystery shopping, the last thing you want to do is be stuck trying to figure out what to say in your reports, if you should include certain details, and so forth. You simply want to pound out your answers on the keyboard and send the reports off without hassle. Before you speed through your reports, however, there are a few things you will definitely want to double check before you send your reports through cyberspace to be reviewed by your providers. Here are the top three things to double check on every report:
Typos. One of the fastest and easiest ways to get your report flagged by a provider and sent back to you for revisions is for having too many typos. Give your report a final once-over to proof for spelling errors, punctuation errors, grammatical issues, and other such writing no-no’s. It may seem like it’ll just eat up more of your valuable to proofread. However, the fact is that it’s a lot easier for you to do it know while the report is open in front of you than for you to go back and do it later when you have other assignments that need your attention. Plus, if you send off too many reports with typos, your shopper rating may be dinged, and this will affect your ability to earn a living as a mystery shopper in a big way!
Say What? As you are proofreading your report for typos, pay attention to the content of your answers as well. Make sure that your answer actually answers the question that was asked, and also that it doesn’t provide too much opinion unless an opinion was specifically asked. Providers are notorious for sending reports back to mystery shoppers if the questions aren’t specifically and directly answered or if they contain too much of your personal opinion and not enough fact and detail. Again, it’s much easier to edit your answers now than later when you have other things going through your mind. Plus, later on, you likely will have some difficulty remembering important details of the assignment.
Important Details. As you peruse your report, there are some important details that you definitely want to double check for accuracy. You first want to make sure you performed the site visit at the correct time and date listed in the assignment requirements. You also want to make sure that you wrote down all of the employees’ names correctly. So many assignments have been rejected because of simply typos with names, such as putting Bob instead of Barb. These details may seem nit-picky but they are some of the most important details of your report, so take time to make sure you have them typed out correctly.
As a mystery shopper, your duties really boil down to two tasks: the site visit and submitting your report. You can pour your heart out ensuring that your site visit flows without a hitch, but if you’ve got snags in your report, your site visit efforts may be futile. Take care to double check these key aspects of your reports before you submit the report to help ensure your reports aren’t rejected or returned to you for corrections.