The first
thing I want to say is if you have ANY doubt about how a job is to be done you should
check with the scheduler for that job to get it clarified. This can normally be done from an online help
feature with each company. Some companies have people on duty to answer your
questions immediately. Others you may
have to wait as much as 48 hours to get your response. So it is vital that you contact them as soon
as you realize you have a question.
Some have
phone numbers you can call for help while in the field. Unfortunately that number is on the website
and if you don’t have a smart phone, which I don’t, and you are miles away from
your computer that phone number is not assessable to you easily. To avoid this problem either enter into your
phones memory the numbers for the help desks for each company, or keep a list
of them in your mystery shopping bag.
What you don’t
have a mystery shopping bag? Why
not? What is it? It is your all purpose tool for doing mystery
shops and merchandising of all types.
Mine is an
oversized purse with sturdy handles.
Into it goes my clipboard with my paperwork and route print out on it,
my address book, spare ink pens, a stop watch, an ipod, a small spiral
notebook, a pair of scissors, a small stapler, a camera, spare batteries for
the camera, a screw driver that has a Phillips
head tip on one end and a flat head tip on the other, my cash envelope that is
designated “reimbursables” for those small required purchases, my vendor name
tag and any specific tools that a job might need. In the past I’ve used a zippered three ring
binder, but have found the tote bag easier for my personal needs.
I keep the
bag fully stocked at all times. I have
found having it prepared and ready to go prevents getting out and into a bind
for doing a job.
I must admit
that the small address/phone number book is a very recent addition to the
bag. I had a page of the numbers in the
three ring binder when I was carrying it, but never got around to putting
something similar into the bag until I ran into a problem recently that could
have saved me a lot of time and frustration.
I was doing
a reimbursable mystery shop that required me to shop a certain department of a
store and ask a certain set of questions.
Over the last seven years I have done literally hundreds of such shops,
but I still print my paperwork and go over it just prior to doing the shop to
make sure the company has not changed how they want the job done.
I also read
the entire job description prior to signing up for a job—more on why I do this
in my next post. On this particular job
I had read the entire set of paperwork online before deciding to take the job,
and then had printed the paperwork out immediately after making the
decision. I did not stop to read what
had printed right then because after all I printed what was on the screen, or
so I thought.
Oh I looked
at it to make sure I had all the pages, but did not reread all the pages at
that point. There were two identical jobs to do at two different locations.
Generally I will only print the instructions once to save on paper and ink, but
for some reason I printed out both sets of the instructions separately.
The next day
as I arrived to do the first of the two I pulled out the instructions to verify
the department and scenario. Everything
was on the paperwork, but that! The
sentence was there, but where they normally put in the required department and
item was blank on both sets of instructions!
Now I had a
problem, nowhere on that paperwork was any contact information for the mystery
shopping company. I was over forty miles
from home and no smart phone. I had
contracted to complete both shops on that specific day, before a certain
time. There was not time to drive home,
look up the information and drive back.
I had to go with what I remembered from reading the night before and
pray that it was right.
When I went
to file my reports that evening the online paperwork said an entirely different
department and item. Great now
what? I had spent a lot of fuel, and
made two purchases I thought I was to be reimbursed for, not to mention I would
not get the over $20 I had contracted for, because you MUST do the correct
department and item to get paid.
I was pretty
upset, in all the hundreds of mystery shops I have done I had NEVER shopped the
wrong department before. Now I had done
so with not one but TWO shops.
I decided
honesty is the best policy. I emailed
the scheduler and explained what had happened and what I would have swore the
paperwork had said when I signed up.
In the email
I included the job number, the locations, and my auditor id number, along with
my phone number. Then I did not file the two shops. I couldn’t because the
department and item were wrong.
I went to
bed that night pretty upset with myself.
Communication
works two ways. The auditor called me
the first thing the next morning. I was
NOT wrong in the department and item, there had been a clerical error at the
company that they had corrected mid-day the day before, while I was actually
performing the shops, and they had changed the department and item at that
time!
She went on
to apologize to me for the distress it had caused me, told me to file my
reports that day and that I would be paid in full, including the
reimbursements. All past due notices
would be removed from my file as well.
If I had not
sent the email, the result would have been entirely different. If I had taken the phone number with me, they
could have notified me then that the department and item had been changed.
Other times
having the contact info with me have paid off have included not being able to
find a location. I once could not find a
$50 bank shop in a town as per the instructions, address, and map the company
had supplied. Luckily that day I had the
phone number with me. A quick call made
me my $50, a typo at the company had put the bank in the wrong town. Luckily the town it was in was actually a suburb
of the larger town and just a few miles away.
No communication—no $50.
I lost one
big shop for a similar situation on a fuel station, because the map supplied by
the company had it at a residential location and not where it actually was over
50 miles away, in an entirely different town.
If I had taken the contact info with me I could have saved myself the
two hours and fuel I spent looking for it with a simple phone call.
Another
important reason for having the contact info is sometimes the companies you are
auditing are not always nice to the auditors.
In one fuel shop I was literally cursed at and thrown out of the store
for merely asking permission to take photos—the location had several
violations. I had not been rude, I had
asked permission—as required, to take general over all photos. The minute the manager saw my camera he went
crazy. I found out later he and the
supplier were in a lawsuit and he thought I was collecting “evidence” for the
other side.
I called the
firm that had hired me and got permission to not complete the job and still be
paid.
One major
retail store I audit often will not allow photos of any sort in their particular
location, while others in the chain will.
The auditing job I do there requires photos. So each time I must call the scheduler and
tell them where I am and the situation.
I do all other aspects of the job, but don’t even take my camera into
that store to avoid being escorted out.
Another
important communication aspect is the “life happens” part. No one schedules when their car will break
down, they will catch the crud, when snow and ice will make streets impassable,
or any other number of emergencies. When
this happens you need to let your scheduler know IMMEDIATELY. Most times they will allow you to reschedule. If not they will remove you from the job with
little or no penalty as long as you let them know IMMEDIATELY.
Remember
they are also under contract with the companies you are auditing and if you don’t
do the job they don’t get paid either.
It is far better to be honest with the company and allow them to hire
someone else to get the job done on time then to make up a fairy tale as to how
the evil step-mother prevented you from doing the job on time.
Communication
skills are also important in filing your reports, particularly ones with
narratives. Some companies want simple
short sentences, or descriptions of 100 characters or less. Others want a detailed accounting of exactly
what transpired and when. Know your
company, know their requirements and do your job well.
Some
companies will rate you on your communication skills and will only hire you for
the jobs your skills cover. To help
improve your rating consider writing your narratives in Word or other similar
word processing programs before filling out the online report. Run a spelling and grammar check. Let the narrative cool a bit and then re-read
it aloud to yourself. For some reason
reading aloud helps you pick out incomplete sentences and narrative flow, or at
least it does for me.
Then do a
simple cut and paste into the form to file the report. The extra time you take
to do this can make a difference in the availability of jobs and the amount you
will be paid.
Communication
is also essential while doing the tasks. If you are not good at making up a
scenario on the fly and sticking to it convincingly when doing a mystery shop,
plan your scenario out in advance. As a
person who writes both factual and fictional stories on a regular basis I can
usually come up with a scenario easily, but there have been situations where
that would not have been true because I knew nothing about the subject matter
and needed to do some research prior to the shop. A short cruise around the web can tell a
person who doesn’t own a pool some common pool conditioner problems so they can
easily do a pool supplies shop.
I know
nothing about playing golf, yet I can do very convincing golf equipment shops
after doing just a little bit of web research.
After all it doesn’t take much to pretend to be a novice golfer. You
just need to have just enough knowledge and good communication skills to get
the golf pros talking. They’ll do the
rest. Same for the home improvement
scenarios. Car repair telephone shops for luxury cars when you are personally
driving a beater are a snap with just a little bit of web research.
It all comes
down to communication.
In my next
post I’ll discuss the true importance of really READING the job requirements
BEFORE you sign up for a job.
To read more
on mystery shopping and merchandising how to’s visit the following posts:
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BECOME A MYSTERY SHOPPER:
FURTHER EXPLANATION ON MERCHANDISING
ARE REINBURSEMENT SHOPS WORTH THE INVESTMENT?
Jan who
hopes her communication on communication has been very clear in OK
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