Forum Alias: SunnyDays2
How long have you been Mystery Shopping? I have been mystery shopping for about 2 years now, since 2011
Where are you shopping? South Carolina. I will go up to 80 miles in any given direction. I even shop North Carolina, if the bonus covers the gas!
What got you started? When I finished my first shop, I realized I am going to get PAID for doing this, and was hooked the first day!
I realized that first day that I was being depended upon by the client to get all the information that was requested. I always was able to look at it through the client’s eyes. How is that employee treating me? How are they making me feel as a customer? In my entire life, I always cared about how I was treated as a customer and when I did some customer service related jobs, I always wanted to treat my customers the best I could! This is part of the main reason I do this line of work. Awful treatment of customers kills business. If you have a bad experience, you are likely to leave and never come back. It is devastating for a client to have a lackadaisical employee who does not care about the business he represents.
What was your first assignment and how did it go? My first assignment was an HP Printer/Notebook shop. I remember in my first two minutes, how I went into my character mode and I LOVED it! The shop went very well and I wondered if all shops would go this way.
What is your favorite type of assignment? I would say restaurants. I am big on customer service and I used to be a server. I also LOVE audits, with photos!
What kind of assignment haven’t you tried out yet? I would say the IKEA shop! Everyone warns me NEVER to take this shop! I have no clue what it’s all about and….. I never heard a shopper say they LOVED it! I have not tried out the funeral shops, nor would I ever want to! Seems morbid to me.
What’s your #1 tip for other shoppers?
Don’t take more shops that you can handle, because you can get overwhelmed. And then you start to beg for extensions, come up late on your reports or wait until the morning to do them. So just take what you can handle and save yourself from getting strike points against you.
Second Tip: If you think that submitting doing your reports late or completing them without receipts, proper documentation, descriptions, and pictures is going to be overlooked by the client, you are mistaken. You are rated on your performance. So go slow and submit proper reports to avoid getting deactivated.
What is your biggest pet peeve with mystery shopping?Asking shoppers to do things that will get them caught as a Mystery Shopper.
What’s your favorite MSC? I would say Market Force as they are my bread and butter. They deposit into my account every month and they never cheat the shopper out of money. I love their assignments and I love how they treat me. No, you won’t get rich working for Market Force but you will get some of your bills paid! I have to say I love a lot of other companies I work for but my favorites are Second to None, Quest for Best, ICCDS, and Sinclair Customer Metrics.
Certification: Silver certified. I have to tell you I had done hundreds of shops before I got certified. Does it help? I don’t know. I get plenty of work either way!