Hi Lakisha,
You can open a support ticket for iSecretShop and let them know - just make sure to tat the names and email addresses or shopper IDs of the people that you referred.
Thanks for asking!
Hi Lakisha,
It looks like you have a Restaurant - Family and Casual Dining badge, which m,eans that you have done one (or more) already. You can keep requesting those, or look up different ones on the Available Shops page, if you find any. It depends on the area where you live and the time of the month. but those are pretty common and you should see them every once in a while, and many different MSPs post them.
There are no specific prequisits for being able to see and do most of them, although some do require that you be of certain age to test the alcohol ID policy compliance for example.
I hope this helps, and good luck with your shops!
Hi there fellow shoppers!
I've noticed a lot of you inquiring about the badges system, how it works, what is it for, etc. I'm creating this thread as an attempt to explain everything there is to know about the badge system, it's importance, and the different badges. I'll break it down in different sections, so it's easy to find what you're interested in.
Why badges? What's the real benefit?
There are multiple answers to this. The main reason and the simplest explanation is that the badges represent your shopper experience far better than any "score" system ever could. At a glance, you can keep track of your progress, and the schedulers of all MSPs can see the most important info they need when deciding on who to give a shop to - which shop types have you had experience with (and how much), what's your overall level of activity and experience, how long have you been a shopper in the system, etc.
There are more practical applications too - the Reputation badge (which I'll explain in more detail later) increases your self-assign limit. Higher levels of some specialty badges let you bypass the self-assign limit altogether and grab as many shops of that specialty as you'd like. Obtaining any specialty badge allows you to receive push notifications whenever a shop of that specialty becomes available.
Lastly - it's fun! Personally, I love keeping track of my progress, "leveling up" in anything I do, and this system lets me do just that, within the world of mystery shopping which we all obviously have interest in.
The badge types - what kinds of badges are there, and how do you get them?
I'd divide all badges into 3 general categories, and I'll explain each one:
- System Badges - these are fully automated, unrelated to any specific shop type, and the only ones that are entirely the responsibility of the iSecretShop system and the great folks that maintain it.
- Specialty Badges - These are the badges that are earned by completing shops of a specific category - for example completing a Fine Dining shop will grant you a Fine Dining specialty badge.
- Awarded Badges - These are special badges that are awarded manually by schedulers and editors when they deem appropriate.
System badges
As I mentioned, these are automated, and awarded by the system when certain parameters are met. Here's what they are:
Reputation - THE badge. :) This badge is a direct replacement of the old "shopper score" - your overall shopper points are collected by the system and displayed in the form of your Reputation badge level, and it's progress towards the next one. Simply put, you increase it's level by gaining shopper points, which is done by successfully completing shops (every shop done gives you a fixed amount of points), by completing courses on iSSprep, and by doing Opinion Polls on iSecretShop. With every new level of this badge, your self-assign limit will increase, and it may be a small increase at first, but starts increasing exponentially at higher levels (after level 5), allowing you to self-assign over a dozen shops at a time. Higher levels do require a lot of time and shops done, so stay persistent!
Legacy - this badge is a representation of how long have you been an active shopper in the system, it's level corresponding with the number of years. Even if you only do one or two shops a year, this badge should still be increasing in level. However, it won't increase if you haven't done any shops in a year.
Reliability - this is a measurement that represents the ratio of the shops you've had assigned to you, to shop canceled. Basically, if you do a lot of shops and you never cancel them, this badge will stay at level 5, as a recognition of that. If cancellations start happening, its level drops.
Quality - similar to the previous one, this badge is a representation of the ratio of Approved vs. Declined shops - if all your reports get approved and you get no declines, it stays at level 5. If declines start happening, its level drops.
Diversity - this is awarded when you complete shops from a lot of different categories, therefore obtaining a lot of different specialty badges.
Globetrotter - this badge is awarded for completing shops far away from your listed home address (outside of your home state for example).
Poll Contributor - this badge is awarded for completing Opinion Polls on iSecretShop
Forum Contributor - this badge serves as recognition of your contributions to this forum, and is awarded when you post and people up-vote your posts.
Recruiter - this badge is awarded when you refer iSecretShop to your friends. When they use your referral link to sign up and start doing shops, you should receive this badge. If you don't, open a ticket for iSecretShop and let them know - you should get the badge soon after :)
#1 on Weekly Leader Board - you get this badge when you are number 1 on the weekly leader board for your area. Please note that you need to repeat this success several times to get a level 2 badge, even more times for level 3, and so on.
Age and ID Verified – This badge is awarded when the Age & Identification Verification process is successfully completed and the shopper gets verified. This process relies on verifying shopper’s public records, and requires a one-time fee to be done.
Specialty Badges
These are the most common badges, and most straightforward to get.
You do a shop of a specific category, and you get a level 1 badge for that category. You do more shops of that category (usually a dozen or so), and you get a level 2 badge. You do a lot more, and you get level 3 - and so on and so on. Level 5 is the maximum level of these, and it pretty much shows everyone that you've mastered doing shops in that category.
What's important to mention is that these are entirely the responsibility of the MSP who posted the shop(s). When posting shops, they need to set their shops in such a way that they award the appropriate specialty badge when completed, and every shop can only award one specialty badge (meaning that one shop cannot be in two specialty categories at once).
This categorization can sometimes cause confusion - for example, if you are doing a telephone shop to evaluate the operator and admission process of a healthcare facility, you could receive a badge for Telephone/Web OR Healthcare. The shop may be a phone shop that requires no knowledge or experience with insurance, and is simply to evaluate the process. Or you can have a phone shop that requires you to have experience in a specific area to complete, and does not require call experience. MSPs try to be as specific as possible when choosing the shop category/specialty and iSecretShop cannot dictate which badge it would be as this is completely up to the MSP and how they categorize the shop. If you have questions regarding a specific badge awarded for a completed shop, you will want to contact the MSP to inquire about the badge credit received.
These are all the different specialty badges currently in the system, and in time there will probably be more:
Automotive, Adults Only, Alcohol/Tobacco Age Verification, Audits, Bar, Banking/Financial, Bowling, Casino/Gaming, Entertainment, Education, Fast Food, Gas Station/C-store, Grocery, Healthcare, Home/Apartment, Insurance, Interviewer, Lodging, Market Research, Parking, Price Audit, Restaurant - Family and Casual Dining, Restaurant - Fine Dining, Retail, Service, Shipping/Freight/Postal, Storage, Telephone/Web, Transportation, Video.
Awarded Badges:
These are a special kind of badges, they aren't automatically earned or deserved by any specific action. They are instead awarded manually by editors and schedulers when they recognize a specific quality or value in you as a shopper, for something you did, or are repeatedly doing.
Here are the different types:
Last Minute Assist - this badge is awarded to those shoppers who accept and complete shops at the last minute, against tight deadlines, and significantly help schedulers achieve their goals of having the shops completed on time.
Grammarian - this badge is awarded to shoppers whose shop report quality and writing skills, attention to details and answer completeness are exceptional, on a constant basis.
Hero - this badge is awarded to in recognition of exceptionally good behavior that the editors/schedulers/admins want to reward. It may be given to shoppers who demonstrate exceptional professional ethics and integrity in the course of performing shops, or shoppers who work closely with the admins and MSPs on making improvements to a project or the system in general, or shoppers who simply display a very positive, “reward-worthy” behavior.
These are the rarest badges, and getting one makes you really stand out, and you can be sure that you are truly appreciated as a shopper, and someone who makes the schedulers' and editors' job easier and more pleasurable.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
-The specific parameters that define at which time System and Specialty badges are awarded, are the proprietary information of the iSecretShop system, and are not revealed to shoppers, nor to schedulers or editors, as that is susceptible to change, and is tweaked to improve the user experience. This includes information such as how many points (or completed shops) it takes for a specific Reputation badge level, how many shops of a specific category you need to complete to level up that specialty badge, what's the self-assign limit for each level of the Reputation badge, how many posts or up-votes on the Forum you need to have to get which level of the Forum Contributor Badge, etc.
-If you have questions about the badge system in general or any of the System Badges, open a support ticket for iSecretShop and feel free to ask. If you have questions about any specific Specialty badge and/or the shops that you completed that should award it, contact the MSP that posted the shop(s) and ask them.
I hope this helps provide some clarification, and if you have any questions or suggestions about the Badges or anything I've listed above, feel free to comment bellow :)
Cheers!
If you are referring to the web/telephone shops, then yes, you can cancel them just like any other shop, from your Assigned Shops page.
And you can even contact the schedulers to see if there is a way for you not to lose points, due to specific circumstances, etc.
If you are talking about the IC agreements (MSP contracts) for the MSPs that post those shops, I don't think there is a way to "un-sign" them, but there really is no need for that - there are no downsides to having any MSP agreement signed.
Hi Stephen,
That button is available on some (most) shops, and it allows you to "unsubmitt" a shop after you have already finalized (submitted) it, returning it to your Assigned Shops, so that you can make corrections to it. It's quite useful if you complete your shop in a rush, finalize it, and remember that you forgot to input a piece of info, or to upload something, etc.
As for how long it takes for a shop to be reviewed and approved, that can vary wildly, depending on the shop in question. Some shops go through several levels of review and editing, and could take a couple of weeks or more to get reviewed, while some get done within hours of you submitting them.
As an unwritten rule, most monthly shops are done in the first week of the month, so shops tend to take longer to get reviewed then, simply because of the volume of the shops that editors have to go through, but it should be a too significant increase. As mentioned, the biggest factor is the type of the shop itself.
I hope this helps! Good luck on your new shops!
Hi Falestin,
Your shop requests need to be approved by schedulers in order for a shop to be assigned to you. Once it's assigned to you, you can do it on the scheduled date, and then fill out the report after you are done. When you finalize the report, it will get reviewed by editors, and approved if all is in order - you should then see it in your paymnts tab. If at any point you have any questions about the shop itself, I suggest contacting the MSP that posted it, and asking.
I hope this helps!
Hi Temecka,
Tara is right - for referring a friend, a Recruiter badge is awarded. And Michael explained the process of referring above - On the website there is a banner across the top of the screen, and Refer Friends is one tab. When you click it, you will get the 3 different options for referring friends. When they use your referral link to sign up for iSecretShop, you are awarded the badge.
Thanks for asking!