Hello, I am Wassim from San Francisco, CA and I am interested in connecting with San Francisco based shopper. I mean the ones who live and work in SF, or the Bay Area. Send me a private message or reply here.
Hey Ashley and Cindy
I had this issue a while back, and I reached out to the iSecretShop tech support team. They told me that it is the way the MSP sets up the shop assignment.
If the MSP desires to have some separation between shopper performing the assignments on different days, the iSecretShop platform allows them to do, but apparently it is not understood by many MSPs.
If you have a 6-day period to perform assignments during, but you want some days between each assignment, then the MSP will set it up wrong by saying I need 3 days between shop assignments, but then if an IC sets the date as the 4th day in the 6-day period. ALL other ICs are blocked. The MSP should adjust the entries so that an IC cannot schedule past the 6th day.
Well life is full of these Gothcha stuff. Best to navigate around them.
Good Morning All
Wassim, from The City By The Bay San Francisco, CA. Interested in connecting with other San Francisco ICs.
Good Morning
If it has been a couple of days and no Editor(s) had called, or emailed, or texted you chances are better than 95% that your assignment report was accepted. Plus you can look in the payment area to see if the shop is listed there that is a solid indicator that you will be paid for your work.
Hope this helps.
Hi Susan
Please do not get discouraged. Stuff like that always happen.
In my humble opinion, you ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS must perform the assignment shop according to the guidelines. Review, and then review and after a day or two review the guidelines once again. Make sure you understand them perfectly. Now you said that was your first assignment shop. Great! Keep at it. Get organized, take few assignments at first, make sure you have enough time to do a good job, and also enough time to write a solid good report.
These issues always come up, and if you think it is worth your time, review the guidelines, and bring it up with the editor, or scheduler. Tell them that no mention of something was in the guidelines you had, and if there was an honest mistake then it's an honest mistake, and should be corrected.
If it turns out that you missed something, then own up to it, and learn from it. We will all get better with experience. Plus I think that MS companies want us to do a good job, and that it takes more than a pulse to do this kind of work. Surly the MS company wants a report to send to their client, but I have been in your shoes when some company denied my payment, and I feel so terrible about it, and have decided not to work with this company any longer.
I hope you can make your case, one way or another. MS companies are forgiving when it comes to up and comers. You will not know the quality of a person's report until you give them a chance.
Best of luck, and hope to see you at one of these conferences.
Hi Krystal
As far as I know the number of shop assignments that you can self assign is determined by your "reputation." That is if you consistently perform well, the number of self assignment goes up. If you flounder, then that number will stay low, and you have to request assignments from the scheduler.
Sure, MSPA certification helps, but with 10 years experience as you say, well you can teach the certification course. It will not hurt, I encourage you to go get it, but that in and of itself will not advance your self assignment number.
All assignment shops are available to anyone who fits the profile. For example if the guidelines ask for a male between 40 and 50 years of age, all males who are in that age group will see the assignment and the first who schedule it, gets it. If you are a lady, or a teenager male, I do not know if you can see that particular assignment.
To increase your work load, you simply have to sign up with as many MS companies that you want. Keep good track of who is giving you what assignments, and stay organized and on top of your payments.
Best of luck, and hope to meet you at one of these conferences.
Hey Lea
First welcome and great to have you. What is bothering you?
Mystery shopping has been around for years and years. Today we have some "bad" people exploiting the Internet, and perpitrating scams. If you are smart enough to read this, you are smart enough to smell a scam.
But mystery shopping is as legitimate as being a doctor, a lawyer, or even a bus driver. We have a need and mystery shoppers fill that need.
And not just for nights out, my friend was laid off, and she managed to eat everyday without spending a dime, all by mystery shopping resturant assignments. Way to go!
Brenda
Welcome to this forum, and to mystery shopping.
You asked for some tips: Hum I would say don't wash whites with colors. Or don't take wooden nickels.
I would suggest you ask a question, and we will be more than happy to answer you.
OK, to be serious for a second here. I would say that the best tip I can give you is to get yourself a decent smartphone. I use an iPhone 6S+, and it helps me a lot with my MSing work.
More on that later. Now it's your turn to ask.
Hi Adam
Welcome and let the fun start.
Some MS companies allow you to start the report at the establishment you are evaluating, but MOST do not. You should ALWAYS play the part of a regular customer so that you will not sway the results of your experience at the establishment. You can imagine what will happen if I told you I am observing you and taking notes about how you perform.
So, the start button allows you to get into the report section. You would go to the establishment, act as a normal customer, observe and take mental notes as to what happened. Keep your memory in tact and sharp for details. Once you leave the establishment and you are 100% sure that no one from the establishment can see you, then you can transfer your memory onto paper or voice recording and once you are able to, write your report and submit it.
Also, there is a 2nd button that simply add the time and date of when you started your report AT the establishment you are visiting.
In my humble opinion, I will never advocate that you start the report at the establishment. First you need to be fully observant, and 2nd you might be caught with the report, and made out as a mystery shopper which is the kiss of death.
Best of luck, and go do your assignment... Oh shoot it was yesterday.
Hey Kim
You just articulated the biggest problem when it comes to reports. Having attended the MSPA's ShopperFest 2017 in Orlando, FL this past June, and many friends just went off when this topic was debated.
The only solution I can think of is better automation. That is the web site should be so streamlined, like the iSecretShop, so that if you answer a question a certain way that the web form will know NOT to display related questions. For example if a question asks about lights being on at night, and your visit time started at Noon, then this question is irrelevant, and you should not even spend any time reading it, let alone answering it. I cringe when I get a date question, and then ask what day of the week is that date. This is all basic stuff, but the MS companies may not have the right talent to make these great well streamlined web forms. They don't pay enough for the talent to do this kind of work, just as they don't pay us enough.
I had informed a prominent MS company about their web site being hacked and defaced, and did I ever get a Thank you, please be assured that your private information is secure. Not so far?! The only way I was able to make them take action is when I told them that their clients will be turned off by seeing the defacement.
Go figure!!'