What is reputation rank? I just went from 1 to 2. Guess that's good. How high does it go? If I want more, how do I get it?

The more shops you complete successfully, the more your reputation increases. I noticed that when your audit is approved, you get a number of points. That should increase your ranking. The higher the ranking, the more shops you can self assign. Some MSPs give their best assignments to the highest ranked shoppers as it should be a symbol of experience.

You can also increase your rank by completing some courses.

You can read a little bit about this on the resources tab in the iSecretShop website.

Hi Joseph and Mariela

The reputation badge (aka rank) goes from 1 to 10, as opposed to all other badges that go from 1 to 5. As Mariela said the more successful assignment shops you complete the "better" reputation you will have.

I am so unlucky to have signed up for some assignments that turned out that I had shopped the target less than 6 months ago, thus had to decline the assignment. That gave me a ding because of the declination, even though it was not my fault.

So the moral here is that take these numbers with a grain of salt. Don't get too upset if things go sour.

Hi everyone,

You are all correct - the reputation Badge is a reflection of your shopper level, it goes from 1 to 10 and depends on your overall shopper score. You increase your shopper score by successfully completing shops, by doing Opinion Polls on iSecretShop, and courses on iSSprep.com.

If your shops are canceled, or declined, or become overdue and expire, you will lose points, and your shopper score will go down slightly.

Overall, this should not be a common occurrence, so as long as you continue to be an active shopper, you will see your Reputation rank steadily increase.

Thanks!

I'm a little confused by the points and how they correlate to ranking. The first 3 shops I did, I went to 80%. The next shop I received 20 points, but only went to 98%. The shop after that I received 20 points but only went to 3% on level 2.

Is there any correlation between points earned and percentage rank?

Also, I have completed 5 bowling shops but don't have a bowling badge.

Is there a way to figure any of this out?

Hello Edith, and thank you for your questions!

Yes - there is a direct correlation between the earned points and the percentage of advancement towards the next rank. Here is how it works:

With every successfully done (and approved) shop, or completed course on iSSprep or Opinion Poll on iSecretShop - you gain points. They add together to form your shopper score (along with negative points from declined or canceled shops), which is directly reflected in your reputation rank.. Every Reputation badge level is set to be achieved when a certain score is reached - and the displayed precentage is the percentage of points gained in the current level towards the next one. The exact number of total points needed for each level is not publicly displayed to shoppers or schedulers simply because those numbers are susceptible to change, as the entire reputation system is tweaked and perfected over time, to provide the best and most realistic depiction of shopper's ranks - therefore, those numbers are internal company info.

What is obvious is that the first couple of levels are relatively easy to get, and get progressively more difficult with each new level (more total points needed), but nigher levels also yield higher rewards in the means of increasing your "self-assigned limit" - the number of shops you can assign to yourself at any one time without even having to request them. At the highest levels you'll be able grab dozens of shops without submitting requests for them.

As for those bowling shops - there are 2 things to keep in mind:

1. The specific shop category badges are not rewarded until the shops are reviewed and approved by the editors, so if it's still pending review, give it a few days. :)
2. The specific shop category badges are entirely the responsibility of the MSPs that post the shops - they are the ones that should set their shops to award a certain badge type each time they are completed, so if you have any questions about any of those, please don't hesitate to contact the MSP(s) and ask them.

I hope this answers your questions!

I have a quick question. I applied for a bunch of phone shops a week or so ago, and I am still new, as I've only completed I think 4-5 shops in total so far. So when I recently requestEd some shops I was approved for 3 or 4 shops but declined on 5 or 6 due to not fitting their criteria or something similar. Am I losing points for being declined those shops? I only ask because it says my rank is a 1,but I've recently completed another 6 shops, and unsure as to why my ranking isn't moving up at all. Thank you in advance!

Hi Tara,

When your requests for shops are declined, you do not loose any points whatsoever.

When your shops (shop reports) are declined (those that were already assigned to you, and/or done), then you lose points.

Points are lost only (and automatically) after a shop has been assigned to you. It happens every time a shop is canceled or declined, for whatever reason. If an MSP cancels the shop before you had the chance to complete it, or something happens that prevents you from doing the shop, the MSPs can restore your lost points.

You can track the progress of your Reputation badge level by clicking on badges, and the progress bar will show you how close you are to the next level. You can also open a support ticket for iSecretShop, to have your points records looked at, so you'll know if you have (and when) lost any points recently.

I hope this answers your question!

I understand the point of reputation badges, but what's the real purpose of the other badges? Bragging rights or something more? Perhaps having a higher badge score in say like the "retail" badge gives you a higher prestige to get picked by schedulers for that type of shop, or am I assuming too much? I'm just curious about the purpose.

Your assumption is correct - all of your badges are visible to schedulers at a glance, next to your name (not too different from what it looks like here on the Forum), when you request a shop.

So if they are reviewing requests for their retail shops, and see that you have a high level Retail badge, you are far more likely to get the shop than other shoppers that requested it and and didn't have as much experience in that kind of shops. Also, if someone is both a scheduler and an editor, the first shoppers to get their requests approved might be those with a Grammarian badge, as that scheduler/editor will know that they won't have to spend a lot of time reviewing & editing the report once the shop is done. Then, for example, some price audit shops are set to not have any self-assign limits for shoppers that have a level 2 or higher Price Audit badge, meaning that those shoppers can just grab half a dozen or a dozen of those at a time, while others have to request them, and even then might only get 2 or 3.

There are various other badges too, each giving you an edge in certain circumstances - for example, Last Minute Assist badge will make you a top candidate to be emailed/called with a special bonus last minute shop opportunity; the Quality and Reliability badges will make schedulers more inclined to offer or assign some new or more challenging (and more rewarding) shops to you over others, etc.

Even without all of those, if you have simply done a lot of different shops and have several different badges like Retail, Dining, Automotive, etc - it sends a clear message, at a glance, that you are an active shopper with lots of experience, and that makes you someone who the schedulers will love giving shops to.

Cheers!