Author: lford

A successful shop takes team work. If you choose a good mystery shopping company, they will have live and active support. You only simply have to reach out for it, when needed.

When you are reaching out for shop support, there are three components that should be addressed so that you can get the most beneficial and quick answer to your question or problem addressed.

Component One- Know what the problem or issue

Be able to roughly describe the problem or issue in a concise manner. More than likely you will be communicating with the mystery shopping company through e-mail. This allows for their team to read and respond appropriately and quickly.

Issues can include: Not able to get in touch with target agent on an apartment shop after multiple attempts or

Component Two- Determine best way to communicate issue or problem for fastest response

More than likely, you will be communicating with the mystery shopping company team through e-mail. This allows you to receive a quicker answer and for the staff to streamline support. Most reputable mystery shopping companies will have an area on their website or dashboard listing the proper e-mail addresses to reach out to for shop support. Make everyone’s life easier and use that one. If you send an e-mail to [email protected], it more than likely will not be answered quickly.

Bonus tip: Use the subject line to clearly state the issue.

Component Three- Be Patient

You do not need to send multiple e-mails to more than one team member to get a response. Wouldn’t that be annoying? On that note, if the problem or issue is urgent, state this in the subject line and body of the e-mail to the support team.

Overall, the best way to communicate and receive a response is to be concise, stating the most important facts such as shop number, 1-2 sentences about the issue or problem, if applicable, state what you have done prior to reaching out for help and if it the issue is urgent or not. From there, a support staff member will reach out with the appropriate next steps.

Once you begin mystery shopping for various companies, many mystery shopping sites monitor your timeliness and accuracy of your reports.

Being accurate and timely submitting your shops on time can make a difference on whether you receive more shops. If you want more shops, ensure that you always double check your work for accuracy, use spell check, and review your sentences for any grammatical errors.

If you need extra time to complete a shop, always notify the scheduler before your deadline date to ensure you keep your shop and obtain your extension. Further, this helps to provide a positive memory and feedback on your final submission of your report. Schedulers will usually withhold shops for those shoppers who do not finish their report on time or if you did not notify them for an extension before your deadline.

Always remember to communicate regularly with your scheduler or just send a simple email to prove that you are working diligently on your assignments. This regular communication with your scheduler helps you to obtain further shops. If a staff person contacts you on any corrections, ensure that you correct the report and resubmit it quickly. Also, ensure you note any changes that the staff person from the mystery shopping company wants done on all future reports so that way, all future submissions will always be correct.

When you do many reports from various companies, it is easy to not remember a new change that was requested from a staff person, so ensure you note any changes on your reports on your computer or notebook. If you respond quickly to any questions and submit those reports timely and accurately, schedulers will always remember to offer you numerous shops.

You always hear to Dress for the Occasion and this also applies to mystery shops. You do not want to stand out if you are a mystery shopper and always should keep a low profile about your visit to not arise suspicion that you are a shopper.

If you are assigned to visit an apartment, a shopper will usually dress in a casual to working type clothing.  However, if you are assigned to visit a high-end dealership, dressing in a nicer outfit will work better to your advantage.

Further, if you do not have an expensive car, parking down the street always helps to create the illusion of a high-end buyer. As always, you want to represent a reputable consumer who wants to rent an apartment, buy a car, visit a restaurant, or whatever shop you are assigned.

You need to remember that you were hired for a company to evaluate their employee’s performance on how well they would treat their prospective customers, and projecting a positive image both physically in attire and mentally help to quickly get the answers you need as a shopper. Showing up in curlers and jogging outfits usually do not work with these shops and can work to your disadvantage since the client may not take you serious in your endeavor. This could result in employee’s not willing to devote their best presentation on selling a product and cause you to not obtain complete answers for your visit.

Most shops do not allow you to take your children with you, but occasionally some shops allow you to take them to a shop, but in all cases, you should check with your scheduler if there is any doubt. You want to ensure that in all cases you dress for success, know the standard dress code for your particular shop, and conduct the shop in a professional manner.

How many times have you left that mystery-shopping job, and as you grab your pen to jot down important observations, you go blank?

How many shoppers struggle with those occasional lapses of memory on what color those walls were or if the flooring in the office was laid with carpeting or was it vinyl? As a mystery shopper, memory retention is vital in performing a complete and accurate report, but once in a while, brain fog sets in.

The good news is that memory retention can be strengthened just like working out your muscles. There are several simple memory tricks that can help you memorize those details of that apartment or facility that you just visited. Just repeating a detail several times can trigger the brain to remember it more accurately and quickly. If you need to remember wall colors, just repeat the color over and over again silently during the tour. Repetition is a great way to trigger the mind to remember a name or detail.

Alternatively, maybe you are more of a visual person and the coloring décor might remind you of your favorite color or it may even be the color of your pet. Associating a color or detail with a favorite object will usually trigger your brain to remember the item again. Repetition and visualization are two easy ways to remember shop details and this can help you quickly finish your evaluation report since retraining your brain to remember specifics can be fun and easy.  These tips should be helpful when shopping.