Shopping in New Areas

Are you ready to do mystery shopping in a new area? Maybe you are visiting friends or family and still need to do some shopping to keep you busy and make some money. We all know mystery shopping can be addictive! Follow the ideas here and you will find shops in any area you may find yourself.

Perhaps you did not know that you can look up addresses and zip codes on the United States Post Office site.  This will help you have the information you need to find shops in new areas.

Simply go to: https://www.usps.com/ and click on “Quick Tools”. From there, click “Look Up a Zip Code”. You’ll enter an address and it will provide you with the zip code. The United Postal Service has zip code maps as well or you could even use Google to find the zip code area.

Once you have the zip code, simply open the Ellis page: http://epmsonline.com/ and go to where you select your shops. There you will find a place to select your shop area. You can then look by zip code or even look at the address where you are staying to find out what shops may be available in that area.

That was easy and now you are on your way to finding shops in different parts of the country!

3 Steps to Have Fun Shopping in 2017

Review 2016

Take some time to look at the types of mystery shops you completed in 2016. To make this easier, you can look at your “I want to Check on a Payment/See my Previous Shop Contracts” tab within the EPMS portal to see all the shops you completed in 2016 listed in one place.

How many apartment mystery shops did you complete last year? Would you like to complete more shops this year? What type of apartment mystery shops did you complete (regular, audio, video)? Would you like to explore new types of apartment mystery shops?

Ask yourself those questions to start and if you think of more questions, feel free to ask those as well. From there, you can make a clear plan moving forward.

Adjust Your Schedule

I am sure you made New Year’s resolutions. If so, hopefully one was to add more mystery shops to your schedule!

Decide how many mystery shops you can do in a month and stick to it. It not only helps with your discipline, it will add a little extra money in your pocket each month. Let’s not forget you will be doing a great service to the apartment community’s customer service arena as well. The residents and future residents will thank you.

Mix Them Up

Take some time to look at your review list and see which types of apartment shops you completed the most.

If you completed many regular mystery shops where you would complete a phone call then visit onsite, then try a recorded onsite mystery shop. There are also video shops. Choose not to be nervous about video or audio shops as they can sometimes be easier than they appear.

After all, variety is the spice of life!

Ace the Onsite Visit

Follow these tips to ensure your shop visit goes smoothly.

Know Where You are Going

Make sure to check the address and traffic before you head to your assigned apartment location. The good thing is most apartment shop assignments do not require you to make a solid appointment time.

This allows you to arrive at any time before closing time, though keep in mind that some communities have a cutoff time for when they will provide tours. Not having a specific appointment time ensures if you run into any traffic, that you are still able to complete the shop the same day as the phone call.

Most leasing agents are there throughout the entire day. If you arrive and your leasing agent is at lunch, you can ask when they will return or complete the shop with the next available agent if it will be over an hour.

Bring Your Driver’s License

The leasing agent is required to hold your driver’s license while they complete the tour; this is for their safety.

Please double check your wallet or purse to make sure you have your driver’s license before you leave for the apartment community. Most of the time, the agent will not provide a tour if you don’t have your license, which could cause the pay on the shop to be reduced.

Take Mental Notes

Remember, you cannot take any obvious notes during the apartment mystery shop, so you will need to take mental notes.

After you complete a couple of shops, you will notice that most shops are similar. As you complete more shops, you will find a decrease in any potential nervousness you may had initially.

Trust me, it does get easier and you will be able to focus and enjoy the décor.

Blend In

Your job is to blend into their typical prospective resident demographic so that you appear to be one of them. You do not want to trigger a thought in your leasing agent’s mind that you are a mystery shopper.

This will enable them space to do what they have been trained to do, naturally!

Creative Ways to Reach a Target

There are times when you must reach a designated person on an apartment shop. This can be because the person has been singled out for a raise or even for a promotion or it is just time for their annual review. In any case, you need some creative ways to get your target on the telephone.

First of all, you could try to have yourself and another person call the office and see if the target answers the call. If your helper is the one who reaches the target, simply switch telephones and carry on with the shop. Make sure you take notes and you should be on your way to completing the shop.

Secondly, if you only have yourself to complete the call, you could use the hold or add a call feature on your cellular phone. Make the call as normal and then add the call the number again with the add the call feature. Again if you reach your target, all is fine. If not, hang up and see if the target is on the other line.

Thirdly, when you do calls as such as these, make up a reason for saying you called the wrong number. You could say you thought it was another apartment community and choose a name from another town.

Lastly, try not to call over and over again in an hour. Remember, the agent could be with a customer or showing an apartment so space your calls and see if you can reach you target without too much hassle.