If you have completed even a handful of mystery shopping assignments, you’ve likely had a scheduler ask you to correct or revise your report in some fashion. Oftentimes, the scheduler’s requests are to clarify what you have written in your report if it is confusing or appears to be contradictory. Or the scheduler may have a pretty good idea for what the company is looking for in terms of specific details that perhaps you didn’t address in your original report. While revising your report for these reasons after it has been submitting can be annoying, it is completely within ethical boundaries.
The dilemma arises when a scheduler asks you to make drastic changes, to the point where you feel your report would then be incorrect. There are some things you can do to prevent this from happening, as well as steps you can take to ensure your reporting stays true to the fact if there is a dispute or change request.
Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining. Well, not necessarily true with mystery shopping. Most shoppers have been to at least a couple of really bad shops, where the service was beyond poor, the facility was filthy, and you without a doubt would not step foot back in that store again.
But there are many shops where you can mention both good and bad things. To be fair to the employees and the store, try to avoid harping on all of the negative aspects. As follows with good management skills, the store owners want to catch their employees in the act of being good as well as to know of areas they can improve on. When they tell the employee areas to improve on, they want to be able to say, “You’re doing great at this, but you need to improve at that.” So if you had to wait in line for ten minutes to check out, definitely mention that. However, you should also mention that the salesperson was working very hard to get through everyone in line and did not appear to be frazzled by the high volume of customers (or whatever positive aspect you can find in the situation.)
Just The Facts, Ma’am. This can be a tricky one for some shoppers. The scheduler and company only want to hear the unbiased and untainted facts of your visit. If your reporting sounds more like a fiction novel than a newspaper article, you need to revise your writing style. Even making a comment such as, “The fitting rooms smelled like sour milk” reflects an opinion to a degree. Instead, try something like “The fitting rooms had a bad odor” or better yet “I heard several customers discussing a bad odor in the fitting rooms.”
Many times what a shopper feels is the honest truth as to what occurred at the store may be true in the shopper’s eyes. However, if it appears to be tainted with opinion and unsubstantiated facts, your scheduler is likely going to ask that you revise it.
Also try to avoid telling a “what if” story. For instance, if an employee is mopping the floor and is not being prudent by putting up a “CAUTION” sign, avoid saying, “If I hadn’t noticed the floor was wet, I could have fallen.” You didn’t fall, and that is what the scheduler will dwell on. Instead, say something like, “The employee was mopping the floor without taking the safety precaution of putting up a sign. There were children running nearby.” The scheduler and company will both see that this is a safety concern without you having to spell it out.
The next time you are asked to make a change on your report, take a closer look at what the scheduler is asking. Is it a case of your opinions tainting the facts? Is your report leaning too much in the negative column without addressing positives, too? Try to keep an open mind to the changes the scheduler is asking you to make. However, if you feel the scheduler is asking you to make changes that are untruthful or incorrect, point that out to the scheduler and explain why changing the report as suggested would make the report incorrect. There likely is a compromise that you both can agree on, getting a report the scheduler can turn in to the company and that you feel is correct.
Any suggestions or recommendations for those situations where you learn…
– the company you are working for absolutely will NOT let a bad report go through? I no longer work for this company. They (editors, schedulers, and supervisors) told me that negative reports — no matter how accurate and unbiased they are — can NOT go to the customer.
– the other instance was similar, where the scheduler/editor (same person) would not let actual facts go through to the customer. She told me to rewrite my report and leave out the fact that I had a set appointment time and no one was in the office when I arrived. I waited an hour. No one showed up. I was also given a “glowing” report to align my report to. Told to change the names, the times, and the locations.
Facts are facts.
What good does a falsified report do the client? Lol – and let’s not forget that some of these are video taped and the client could easily verify what is in the report.
Anyways, suggestions? I choose not to work for companies that refuse to let the truth go through, tell me to rewrite truth to fiction, and do not pay.
What drives me absolutely nuts are requests for clarification when further clarification is simply not possible. More than once, I thought a scheduler had simply not read my report, or was joking (or trying to get out of paying me). I have had to go into reports, re-type the same statement (maybe in a different word order, but not always), paste it at the bottom of the comments, and re-submit. Then I get a poor rating for the job!
There’s only so much you can do to make things clear. “He was not wearing a nametag” really can’t be said in too many ways!
I agree with SC. I work for one scheduler that apparently only has one client. I have shopped several of their stores and they are specific about what they are looking for. Not only do you have a multiple choice question to answer on each question but then you have to answer again in the comments. On a positive note this scheduler always gives feedback on the reports which helps me improve my skills but the last time she said my comments sounded canned, like a repeat of a previous report. As SC said, there are only so many ways to say the floors are clean or the employee was smiling.
So far I have not had a scheduler to ask me to change anything.
I just had a scheduler scold me verbally on my tense (past or present). She stated that I went back over certain areas and she had to change the report. I got news for her, I tape everything and go exactly as per the taped session, almost word for word. The sales accociate kept going back over certain areas and that was reported as such. I can’t help it if he repeats himself. Hey these companies are getting paid and want their clients to come out smelling like a rose, so if all else fails, give them what they want, “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God….well maybe.”
LOL I was once asked to change the grammer on a report; so, I called and discussed it. Since I had worked in the industry, I was able to figure out who the individual client was (because of the idiosyncratic phrasology requested). I pointed out that the changes would actually imply inaccuracies, when told that the client insisted, I said I would comply but didn’t want to do jobs for that client anymore. I just heard a big sigh at the other end. There are too many shop companies out there for me to stress myself on something like this for 12 bucks. Companies deserve what they pay for, they get what they insist upon.
I don’t think is ethical or professional, but some schedulers wanted to read inventions on the reports, they better contract Sci-fi writters.
I just get out of an scheduler who’s want me to write what she wanted and invent some numbers what I don’t have from my interviewer.( Called target), she can get me out of her available shoppers but she not gone to have the opportunity to say I falsify my report, which I think is better for me.
Jacob: I have a question; how do we coming on the blockage of low pay Shops?
I get really frustrated with some of the shops where there are lots of yes or no answers and they want a comment on each answer. You know the questions… were all the light working? yes or no explain. It seems ridiculous to check yes and then explain it.
I have only been asked to clarify twice. We went back and forth about 4 times on one. It was an audit where I announce myself and take some pictures. Here is exactly what I said. “No one had a name tag when I first came in. I went outside to take some of the pictures and came back in and all three were now wearing name tags that read Jerry.
That was how I said it, so they send it back to me doubting there were 3 people name Jerry working. Really, I thought it was a tad suspicious too, but didn’t comment in the original report because that was my opinion. They then e-mailed me back asking if it was possible that I made a mistake and didn’t check everyone’s name tag. I confirmed that I did. Then they made some comment wondering if I could have done anything that might have given away that I was checking name tags. HMMMM… maybe the paper that you require me to hand to an employee which says I will be doing an audit and may be taking pictures. Not sure, but there is a small chance that clued them into the fact I was checking the place out and just possibly might notice what the employees were doing.
I did get paid, but that one really drove me nuts.
There is another company that is an actual mystery shop and every negative comment always seems to lead to clarification. They have never refused my explanation, but I always feel they are really questioning my observations.
I had one shop that I had a bad rating because it was for a bank shop and a business account and i said the word Husband, oh my, I was told that is wrong and say spouce so that you are not singled out when doing the next shop and remembered. The shops tell you that you need to say sorry I need to speak it over with my husband first(he had the bulk of the business) and than get back to you …than get a business card and make sure you get all the brochures on the particular product.Well. I was so upset,but was told that probably a young student did my report review and it is almost impossible to change it.At this point I am not happy with the shop and the professionalism and will never sign up again.
The only times I have had problems with reports is when the reports have contained negative comments in the shop. It does lead you to believe they only want positive comments.
Dito on the redundant check list of yes no answers and then a required clarification paragraph for each of the above yes no questions.
I have a problem with one company with one shop I have done several times. It pays only $7 requires a $2 purchase and a minimum of twenty minutes in the shop. The report is long with many yes/no questions. Each time I get knocked down to a 7 or 8 rating because they have to e-mail me to go back into the report for a clarification on a minor part of a compound sentence yes/no question.
The compound questions drive me crazy. One part of the question deserves a yes answer and the second part of the question deserves a no answer. Which do you go with? I can make it clear in the comments but they still contact me for clarification. Aren’t they editors? Can’t they figure it out to their editorial standards?
Feeling frustrated in Los Angeles County.
One shop that I did was written up exactly as it occurred, all questions answered, all explanations and clarifications provided. The scheduler’s comment was that it seemed “repetitive” and subsequently “did not satisfy the client’s standards.” This assesement, and the long delay for reimbursement, assumably would mean that I was not going to be paid for the shop. In time however, the client did pay me. Hence the question, was the comment from the scheduler based on the delay of response from the client? Was the client not satisfied if they eventually did pay me? The fact that the write up was repetitive was based on what actually happened. There was no guess work. The whole shop was recorded.
This gives rise to another question. If a recording is made it is done covertly. On one shop, when I alluded to the recording and subsequent accuracy of certain details, I was advised by the scheduler that if the shop instructions do not mention recording anything, I am not to record but am to only follow the specified directives. I now keep my own personal methods to myself. Any advise or experiences?
I am familiar with the reports that have “yes/no” answers and then want clarifications. I found out that for some clients, the narrative is the only part of the report the client sees. They don’t see the “yes/no” parts. Therefore, the narratives are a necessary evil. Since learning this, I have wonder if there are others that are the same.