DRIFTER MOON—THE CASE OF BBP

His name is Drifter Moon, by all accounts he is a castaway, a dumper dog, an unwanted, except to us.  To us he is Moonie, or Bubba Bear.  He’s a large lovable black shorthaired dog with black and white spotted feet and tiny brown eyes.  He’s our boy.

Moonie is also a little different.  The boy is not a real fast study, he’s trainable, but it definitely takes longer to train him than it has ever taken us to train any of our dogs. 

What is also is, is fiercely loyal to me.  This canine fellow would put his life on the line for me at any given moment, as one installer who dared to raise his voice to me found out not long ago.  Lucky for him I had the Bear on a leash at the time or the fellow would have needed stitches.  You don’t mess with Drifter Moon’s Mama.

He showed up here one January over ten years ago, and would come and go on a regular basis for the next 2-3 months.  He was under a year old then the best we could tell.  I started calling him Drifter then because he drifted in and out of the homestead and I never knew where I might see him. 

Often all I saw of him was the white moon on his rump as he headed into the woods, thus the Moon part of his name.  I let him stay because he never bothered the birds or anything else.  But I was determined we were not taking on a third dog.

The one time he got into the bird pen I hollered at him and he, to this day,  has never set foot in the pen since then—that he learned quickly.  It crushes him when Mama scolds him—which isn’t often.  He’s a good boy.

By March it had became apparent he’d been dumped.  One day my husband asked me about the dog and what we were going to do about him.  I told him how he seemed to be watching all of us as if guarding the homestead and how good he was around the birds. I mentioned that when anyone came on the place he seemed to place himself between them and me.

I also expressed concerned about the bright red collar that he was wearing that was definitely way too tight. Telling my husband we needed to get it off of him because I feared it would choke him soon.

My husband being the gentle soul he is.  Pulled up a five gallon bucket and set down on the bottom of it.  Then patting his leg he called “Drifter, come here boy, come to Daddy.”

The dog responded hesitantly, tail tucked and let Gary pet him.  While petting him he gently used his pocket knife to cut the strangling collar off the dog. The collar was so tight he had to choke the dog some to get the thin knife blade under it to cut the thing lose. The dog never tried to back away.  He trusted Gary completely to not hurt him.

As soon as I heard my husband say, “come to Daddy” I knew we had a third dog and went to find a feed bowl for him.  That was over 10 years ago.

Today Moonie weighs in around 65 or so pounds and is built solid.  I definitely would never want him to turn on me, but his soul is gentle so we are safe.

He also has a large cyst on his rump near the moon he is named for.  We’ve had it looked at and it is benign.  It grows and shrinks with the seasons and with Moon’s seasonal weight changes.   Although we are told it is not hurting him it still concerns us, so any time he has a health issue our first thought is the cyst.  Some days it is quite large, others you can’t really see it at all.

So when he threw up lame a couple of weeks or so ago we all started checking him closely.  Moonie is a patient boy and lets us check the cyst, his paws and pull ticks (when he gets them) from his eye lids without hesitation. 

It was his front left leg he is limping on and the cyst is on the other end, but we are still cautious. We worry that the cyst could grow into his spine near the tail and cause him problems.  All three of us love this big old dog and want only the best for him.

Around here an animal’s health issues are judged in varying degrees from the “must make a FINAL trip to the vet” to “Boo-boo paw”.  What the first one obviously means is it would be a one way trip and we all do everything we can to prevent those trips, but we will not let our animals suffer. 

Boo-boo  Paw is generally Moon’s sister Misty Georgia, our middle child so to speak.  Whenever Georgie feels she is being neglected she will suddenly be limping and as soon as she gets her attention her limp is gone.

Only Moonie’s wasn’t going away, even with all three of us fondling over him and giving him special treats.  A week later the limp didn’t seem any better, but we could find no swelling, or thorn or anything.  We continued to try and keep him off the foot as much as possible.

Friday when we came home from our movie mystery shop after 10 pm Moon didn’t run out to greet us as he normally does.  He takes his guarding seriously and this concerned us. 

Twice I took the flashlight out looking for him and finally I asked Jolie Marie where Bubba Bear was, fearing the worst. I had called and called and there had been no response from my boy. He always comes when I call.  Jo-Jo immediately took me to the very healthy looking boy on the front porch.  Where he’d been I have no idea, but he didn’t offer to get off the porch and since I knew the steps would be hard on his lame leg I petted him and told him to stay there.  Then went in to go to bed, now that I knew he was safe.

When my son got home from work around three am he called my phone and woke me up.  Moon was laying in the driveway and wouldn’t even try to come to him. 

I told him to give the dog a treat and he’d probably move just fine, since he had been able to climb the steep steps to the porch I knew he had mobility three hours earlier.

 Fifteen minutes later my son called again and said Moon couldn’t get on his feet. 

Gary asked what was going on.  I told him and told him to go back to sleep since he had to get up for work in less than two hours.

I dressed quickly and went outside to check on both the man and the dog.

My son was sitting on the ground with dog’s head in his lap, tears rolling down his face. “Mom he managed to get up, but it was like his rear legs wouldn’t support him, he wobbled for a few steps and then collapsed here.”

The dog rolled his eyes in my son’s direction and whined softly.  That was when my son noticed his left eye was turned inward more than the right one.  “Mom did anyone come over today that might of hit him with their car?”

Moon is a car chaser, that is why his leash is always where we can grab it in an instant.  As long as the leash is on he makes no effort to chase, but if it’s not on he will drag you down the driveway with him if you try to stop him. 

In the past he has attacked bull dozers, tractors, UPS trucks, FEDEX trucks and any other vehicle that has came on the property, except our two trucks and the mower.  The bull dozer actually rolled him three different times when we were having the driveway work done and he still chased it when he could get lose from where we had him penned.  Like I said, not the brightest of our three dogs.

To my knowledge there had been no deliveries that day, but then we’d been gone most of the afternoon. 

I expressed my concern that maybe the cyst had grown into the spine, or was no longer benign. We were both major stressed.

The dog was panting hard and the temperature at 3 am was still in the 80’s so I sent my son to get some water for him.  Telling him what bowl to get while I stayed in the dark with our fellow.  We both feared Moonie was leaving us and we didn’t want him to be alone.

No sooner had Sean got to where he couldn’t see Moon than the rear leg that he “couldn’t use” game up  and started scratching his ear.  I looked at the dog and said “You old faker.”

The paw fell to the ground and the dog hung his head.  He then stood up quickly and walked to another place in the driveway without any problems and laid down saying “humrph!”.

I turned off the flashlight and waited in the dark for my son to return.  When he did I said “I figured out what’s wrong with Drifter.”

“What?” he asked with fear in his voice.

“Sean I don’t know how to tell you this, but it’s the worst case of Boo-boo Paw I’ve ever seen.”

Then I turned the flashlight on to show him the dog laying much further down the driveway.

Sean stammered “What do you mean?”  I told him quickly how Drifter had used his legs just fine as long as he knew Sean couldn’t see him.  He asked me “are you sure it’s Boo-boo Paw?”

I told him to set the water down and tell Drifter he was on to his game and to come get the water.  He did as he was instructed and the dog stood with no problems and came to drink the water dry.  Not a wobble one to his walk, just the mild limp from the front leg.

Sean then said “Well, fellow you nearly cried wolf too hard that time.  I was going to take you to ER for a final vet visit tonight because of the way you were acting.”

The dog hung his head, he really doesn’t like to be scolded.  Then he easily followed Sean to the sunroom for his late night supper Sean gives him every night.

I went back to bed.  As I quietly crawled into the bed my husband said “How’s Drifter?”

Again I responded “Worst case of Boo-boo Paw I’ve ever seen.”

“Drifter?” he questioned, making sure I didn’t mean Georgie.

“Yep” Then I told him what had happened. 

He laughed and said “Guess we’ve gone overboard about the limp and he likes the attention.”

Like I said that was Friday/Saturday, he still limps slightly on that leg, because he won’t stay off of it.  But there have been no more fake “I can’t move” attempts.

Jan who couldn’t believe her good boy pulled such a trick on all of us in OK

MYSTERY SHOPPING—WHAT YOU MEAN I NEED TO READ THE JOB DESCRIPTIONS?

Or as the old B movie bit characters might say “Read, I don’t need to read no stinking job descriptions.” But you do and here’s why.

I’ll use movie shops as a prime example of how much a job can change with just a few words. 

Movie shops are one of my personal favorites, they are fun to do, they generally pay well and sometimes you get a free movie or two plus concessions out of the deal.  It is all in how the job description is worded and just a single word can change the whole shop scenario.

The first of the single word change out is overt or covert.  Overt means you reveal yourself as an auditor at some point in the shop and by doing so you can prevent yourself from getting free movie shops in that theater for as much as a year or more. 

Covert means, you do not let anyone know for any reason why you are there.  In remaining a true mystery shopper you will get to see more movies for free if you don’t get spotted. 

Not getting spotted is generally a simple task, if you pay attention to who is around you.  These shops generally include counting the number of patrons, gathering ticket prices, concession prices and/or recording what trailers are showing, along with a number of other small bits of info. 

A few years ago I was at one theater and I spotted the mystery shopper by his paperwork that clearly said on it “Covert Movie Audit”  he was setting in the lobby filling out his report!  The man definitely needed to learn something about being covert.  The first rule is do not take your paperwork in with you.  You leave it in your vehicle out of sight.  Yet there he was in the lobby filling out his form. 

On such assignments I put my small spiral in my purse, or use an ipod to make quick notes out of sight of others (bathroom stalls work well for this). Or I will pretend I am playing a game on the ipod and make brief notes there.  The object is to not get spotted.

The first thing I look for in movie assignments is the c that makes the difference in covert and overt assignments.

The second single word I look for is ‘EACH’.  That word can make the difference in being in a theater for just the length of one show, or from the minute the theater opens to the minute it closes on a certain day. 

An example of this is a covert blind check (meaning patron count, and ticket prices) movie mystery shop I just completed last weekend.  The word EACH was on that paperwork.  I had a choice of three different days to do the shop as wekk as numerous local theaters and that made a HUGE difference in how many times I’d be seeing the movie.

The theater I went to was one of my favorites and I chose the Friday time frame because the required movie was only showing one time on that day on one screen.  That meant I got paid for two movie tickets and $25 to see a movie we wanted to see anyway, unfortunately this one didn’t include any free concessions, but then those also require more work.

Had I chose Saturday or Sunday I would have had to set through the movie three times and to do so covertly in the small theater I was at would have been nearly impossible.  We have done it with success before by claiming we were doing a movie review for a newspaper, but it’s not a scenario that is easy to carry off. 

If I had chosen one of the big multi-screen theaters it would have been even more complicated and would have required 1-2 partners to pull it off.  Because when the paperwork says EACH, it means every screen, every showing.  You are paid for your tickets and a flat pay for each additional screen, but you are also talking about trying to remain covert all day!  In this particular movie situation the first movie would have been $25 plus two tickets, but all the other screens would have been $12 plus two tickets, because they figure you have already spent the fuel to get there. 

While doing the multi-screen can net you a lot more money, it can also be very exhausting, and your cash layout until the reimbursement can be quite high.  These are things you must consider when reading over the job descriptions.

Another single word I look for is “FIRST”.  Some movie shops require you to be there for the first and/or last showing.  Since the first showing is often just before noon it becomes a problem for many part time mystery shoppers.  If you have a regular job chances are you are not going to be available for that time showing. Or if you get up early the midnight shows might not be for you either. It’s all in the wording.

After looking for these single words I also read the job description in full because, especially with movie shops, the description of the requirements can change constantly. It is important to fully understand not only the how to do it part of the shop, but the deadline for filing the report.

I have had movie shops where I have had to literally leave the theater right after the trailers to phone in the results immediately and then go back in to see the actual movie.  I do not like missing the first several minutes of a movie.

For other types of mystery shopping and merchandising the instructions can be as varied also.  One company I work for audits several different bank chains, each bank has the exact same basic requirements, but they also have differences.  One might require you to check if their free in the lobby coin counter is working, while another will want you to try to cash a check without being a customer, and a third requires you to take a covert picture of the bank exterior.  Because they are all three the same company it is easy to get them confused.  So it is important to refresh your memory with each job.

The documentation for a job might change slightly too.  While one location may require a receipt another might require you get a business card.  Wrong documentation, you won’t get paid.

Some merchandising jobs will have in them that you must be able to comfortably lift a certain weight, or have a vehicle to transport a box of a certain size, or you might only be able to do the job during a certain short time frame.  Or as I mentioned in my previous post http://cjpattersonontheranch.blogspot.com/2012/07/communication-key-to-good-mystery.html  You might be required to shop a certain department for a certain item.  It’s all in the paperwork both online and what you print out.  The thing is you MUST read the paperwork.

Many a job has not been paid for because the contractor has not read the paperwork and understood it correctly.  The understanding is an important key as well. 

When I first started mystery shopping I didn’t get paid for one fast food shop because I took the time frame of between certain hours to mean I needed to start the job between those hours and it didn’t matter how long it took me.  I was wrong.  It meant both segments needed to be completed between those hours.  I didn’t read the instructions all the way through and it ended up costing me money.

Once you accept a job and print out all the required paperwork it is important to “read” or check that paperwork. As I pointed out in the

http://cjpattersonontheranch.blogspot.com/2012/07/communication-key-to-good-mystery.html  post I didn’t check my paperwork closely and didn’t see that it didn’t have the department and job information in the paperwork.

Another thing to check your paperwork for before you leave home is if the location address is on the paperwork.  With many companies it is not.  They use a generic form for all their paperwork and it is very frustrating to get out and discover you do not have the address for the location you are to go to that day.  It’s fine if the town only has one of that bank or fast food location, but in larger cities where the burger joint might be on every corner it is essential that you have the correct address.  Go to the wrong location, you won’t get paid—nearly did that once.

Time frame is essential, always check that again after you print out the paperwork.  I recently signed up for a lunch shop, for a job you request and they let you know later if you got it.  When the paperwork arrived it had been changed to a dinner shop.  So always check before, during and yes even after you do a shop to make certain nothing has changed.

Reading the paperwork will also tell you what company you are representing on that day in what store.  While there are the basic companies you contract to, sometimes you are there as a representative of an entirely different company.  An example is you work for merchandising company A but they are hiring you to do a merchandising job on behalf of corporation B and you must meet the dress codes, including name tags, and rules of corporation B, including signing in the vendor book as with corporation B not company A.

A word about vendor books and merchandising.  If the store has one, you absolutely need to sign in on that book.  Not only because it is the stores policy, but because the companies you work for WILL send someone out to check to make certain that you were there.  If you haven’t signed in it makes it much harder for you to prove you were there.

Yep, they audit the auditors.  On more than one job my assignment has been to check to see if the previous merchandiser actually did the job.  Unfortunately I’ve found several times the jobs haven’t been done. 

Don’t ever take for granted you can “let something” slide because you are tired, or don’t agree with how the job is suppose to be done, because you will be audited when you least expect it.

One mystery shopper I know tried cutting corners on doing bank shops by just grabbing business cards and not actually doing the personal banker interviews she was required to do.  Well she turned in a report stating she had spent time with someone who was actually out on maternity leave. She was fired by the mystery shopping company.

The companies have all sorts of ways of checking your job performance, so READ the paperwork and follow it to the letter. If you have a question about how it is to be done, then contact the scheduler and ask questions BEFORE doing the shop.

Also reading the paperwork might include surprising extras. For one merchandising job we were required to purchase cookies and take them to the departments for the employees while we gave a how to speech—problem was the company we were to take these cookies to did not allow such things.  By reading the paperwork ahead of time and checking with the company I headed off a potential problem for myself.

Another set of jobs has just recently added that I must visit their website AFTER I do the shop and do a price comparison.  The first time this addition appeared it was not on the assignment paperwork, but it was on the online filing of the report. This is one of the reasons I say READ afterwards as well.  Had I not read that little extra “click here” I would not have completed the assignment properly and would not have been paid.

Filing deadlines are another thing to read closely.  Two companies I work for deduct from your pay if you are late in filing, even by a few minutes unless there is a problem with their website.  If you don’t read the entire set of instructions you would not know that. Sometimes the deadlines are very short. 

One company I work for on a regular basis shuts down their website every night from 10:00pm to 12:30 am for daily maintenance and updates.  You only have 12 hours to file your reports with that company, and if you don’t get it filed before 10 pm you will be up quite late waiting to file the report and it can put you past your 12 hour deadline.

Read your contractor agreements as well. I enjoy merchandising and so when a company I have mystery shopped for years for offered me the opportunity to do merchandising as well I very nearly signed up for it until I read that I would have to pay for my own background check, and my own shirt the two of which came with a pretty hefty price tag.  This is a company I know to be legit, but I object to being required to pay for these things when I’ve already been working for them and their sister company (and doing merchandising for the sister company) for seven years.  They know my work.

I do not object to a background check being ran, I object to them wanting me to pay for it.  Especially when I’ve already had numerous background checks ran by various companies and passed them with flying colors.  Needless to say I am not merchandising for that company.  It would take a lot of jobs for me to re-coup the cost of those expenditures.

Another company that I have worked for a long time has recently changed over from requiring your social security number to requiring an ein I do not have an ein, nor do I want one, that would simply complicate my taxes—and I do pay taxes on the jobs I do. I regret that they have done this, I will miss doing the shops for them, but I do not feel I need any further tax complications, when a social security number has worked for this long and is all both the state and federal government requires to mystery shop.

All of this is in the contractors agreements.  So be sure and read those as well.

I’ve just touched upon a few of the many reasons to completely read all paperwork, but I feel I’ve given you enough to make you realize how important reading the paperwork is.

Jan who remembers a test in school where the first question said “read the entire test before starting” and it turned out that in the middle of the test it said “put your name at the top of the page and turn it over—you have completed the test.” In OK

COMMUNICATION, THE KEY TO GOOD MYSTERY SHOPPING…

Merchandising, and every aspect of life for certain, but today’s post is about mystery shopping and merchandising and how important a good set of communication skills is vital to being successful in your job.

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:

 http://cjpattersonontheranch.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-do-you-need-to-be-mystery-shopper.html 

FURTHER EXPLANATION ON MERCHANDISING

http://cjpattersonontheranch.blogspot.com/2010/11/long-time-no-typework-at-home-jobs.html 

ARE REINBURSEMENT SHOPS WORTH THE INVESTMENT?

http://cjpattersonontheranch.blogspot.com/2010/02/are-reimbursement-only-mystery-shops.html

Jan who hopes her communication on communication has been very clear in OK