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Mystery Shopping Course
 
Objectives

The purpose of this course is to ensure that you are well versed in the basic requirements of mystery shopping and to acquaint you with the policies and procedures of Secret Shopper®. We want you to have a successful and rewarding experience as a mystery shopper. Knowing what the clients expect of you and what our company expects will greatly improve your skill and competence.
 
 
Agenda

There is a short informational section on each topic. At the end there is a short certification test to check your comprehension. Your shopper profile will be updated to show that you have successfully completed this certification.
 
Shopper Conduct and Ethics

Shop Requirements

Quality Audits

Company Procedures

Certification Test
 
 
Shopper Conduct and Ethics

It is very important that mystery shoppers conduct themselves according to a code of ethics. Clients (the stores that hire Secret Shopper®) count on the results of the shops you submit and they must be reliable.

In conducting your shops, you agree that you will:

• perform all shops to the best of your ability
• perform shops with honesty and integrity
• perform shops personally and not recruit others to fulfill your assignments.
• not perform a shop unless you have thoroughly read and understand the guidelines and requirements for that particular shop
• not accept an assignment where there would be a conflict of interest (you, your family or friends work for the company)
• remain anonymous at all times
• not share the results of the shop with anyone other than Secret Shopper®
 
 
Shopper Conduct and Ethics

One of the most important qualities of a mystery shopper is reliability.

There are four important aspects of reliability:

• You complete the shops you sign up for.
• You go to the correct location at the correct time.
• You submit your report on time.
• Your report is not missing any details- it is complete and accurate.

If you continually exhibit these qualities, you will do well as a mystery shopper!

If you do not demonstrate reliability, you will quickly find that your options to shop will be limited.
 
 
Shopper Conduct and Ethics

Anonymity
Obviously, a shopper does not announce that they are a mystery shopper when at a shopping assignment. However, a shopper can compromise their identity by the way they do their mystery shop.

You must make an effort to appear like any other shopper in the store. If you are seen taking notes while you shop, you will stick out. If you are asking questions that are not normal, you will stick out. If you are staring at name tags, you will stick out. Your objective is to blend in.

You should never take any of the paperwork associated with the shop into the store with you.

If you do need some notes to help you remember details, go to the restroom, or your car or some other place where you are out of sight.

You may not even know that you have been identified, but Secret Shopper® does occasionally receive calls from clients where they say the shopper was identified by store personnel. In such cases, you can't shop there again and your report for that assignment may not be accepted.
 
Understanding the Shop
Every shop has different requirements. Even shops you have performed for the same client in the past may have new or different requirements.

It is essential that you read and understand all of the instructions and review the form you will be completing every time before you do your shop.

If the shop calls for you to check on a certain behavior or purchase a certain item and you fail to do so, your entire shop may be unacceptable.

When you sit down to submit your results on the internet, you should already be familiar with each and every item on the form.

Don't blow it by missing something you were supposed to do. We cannot submit an incomplete shop to a client, even if you got it 95% correct. The missing 5% is enough to disqualify your shop.

If we can't submit the shop to the client, you won't be paid for it.
 
Records
You need to keep records of your shops and save them for 120 days.

Perhaps the most important record is the receipt from any transaction that took place.

Notes you jotted down in a private location or immediately after the shop should also be saved.

Clients have the right to challenge shops and may ask for further clarification or detail, proof of purchase or similar information.

While follow-up contact usually occurs within about a week after the shop, you could be contacted one or two months after a shop and asked to verify information. You must have your original records.
 
Honesty & Integrity
You must perform all your shops personally. If you experience a problem completing a shop, don't try to recruit a family member or friend to cover the assignment for you. Call your shop coordinator and explain the situation. The coordinator can find another shopper to take the assignment.

It is unethical to try to maintain more than one shopper identity- for example signing up a spouse or child where you are the one actually shopping under their name. Our system searches for this and will drop any shopper who attempts to use more than one shopper identity.

You must be free of any conflicts of interest on your shops. If you, a family member or close friend works for the company being shopped, you must not select that assignment. Similarly, if you have a past history with the company or work for a close competitor, you should not do that shop.

You must honestly and objectively report what you observed. If you were unable to get a name, don't guess- provide a description instead. If an employee failed to provide the service expected, don't give them the benefit of the doubt- report it honestly. Employees are to be evaluated according to the audit questions/guidelines only. You should not mark them up or down based on how you feel about their hairstyles, piercings, etc,

Remember, employees or store managers do have the right to challenge the results of your shop if they feel they are inaccurate. In cases of disputes, some stores are even resorting to attempting to match security camera tapes with mystery shopping reports to see if the report is accurate in terms of whether or not the shopper was where they were supposed to be and what the shopper said happened.

You also must keep confidential all aspects of your shopping- where you shop and the results of those shops.
 
 
Shop Requirements

As a mystery shopper,  you do not visit stores and simply report what you experienced.

The specific items you are to observe and report are selected by the client who retained Secret Shopper®. Different clients have different requirements. Sometimes those requirements change from shop to shop.

For example, a fast food restaurant might want every 10th shopper to spill their drink on the floor to see how rapidly the staff responds. You would need to read the instructions for your shop to know if you were supposed to do that or not.  Even if you had shopped that store several times in past months, this might be a new requirement for your particular shop.

It is very important that you review the form and read all of the shop instructions in advance.

We suggest you print and read the instructions several days in advance. Some shoppers have panicked when they tried to print the instructions just before leaving for a shop and discovered they had computer or printer problems and no time to fix them before they were supposed to shop.
 
Shopping assignments are time sensitive. You will have a specific window of time when the shop must be completed. You cannot visit "anytime you are in the neighborhood." You must go at the time specified.

Your shop assignment is part of a rotation with other shoppers. You may have a lunch restaurant assignment while another shopper visits for dinner. You may be in a store on a weekend, following a shopper who was there during the week.

Since many shopping assignments involve chains where there are multiple locations in an area, you must be certain you are at the correct store. While this may sound obvious, there can be several of the same franchise spread out over a few miles, sometimes even on the same major street.  The possiblity of missing an assignment exists if a shopper goes to the store at 1025 Market street when their assignment was to the other location at 2501 Market street.  This usually occurs where the shopper makes an assumption- "oh yeah, the one on Market street- that's close to where I work", but  failed to notice the details.

Wrong location, wrong time= no pay.
 
Observations
Often you only get one opportunity to make an observation and then the moment passes. Be sure you are familiar with events you should be checking. Some shoppers even do a "practice" shop at a similar store to be sure they have all the details.
     Hints to help you remember details:
?Use your cell phone to call yourself and leave a message with details, or use the "memo" feature on many phones today.
?Use a small tape recorder as soon as you are back in your car or away from the shop location.
?Write down details as soon as possible away from the shop location (restroom, fitting room, the store next door, etc.)

Timings
When you are asked to time events (how long in line, how long until served, etc) you must use precise timings- minutes and seconds. You can't guess. A stopwatch is too obvious, so a watch with a sweep second hand or a digital watch is preferred. Remember to be discreet when glancing at your watch.

Employee Identity
One of the key purposes of mystery shopping is to help coach and train employees. The store manager MUST be able to identify the employees you shopped with certainty. Obviously a name is best and should be obtained in almost every case. If, for some reason, you cannot obtain a name, you must give a detailed description so the manager can tell who you are referring to. Keep in mind there could be many employees working on a shift, so "blonde female" isn't enough to identify the employee.
 
When describing employees, please use non-judgmental, factual descriptions. Remember, your shopping report will eventually be shown to the employees involved and may be posted for all employees to see. Thus, please avoid descriptions such as: fat, chubby, pimply, scraggly, stinky, etc.  These reflect your conclusions and may be seen as derogatory.

Instead, just use facts such as gender, height, approximate age, hair color, hair length or style (and beards, mustaches or sideburns on men), glasses, approximate weight, etc. For facts like age, where you can't be exact, use a range such as "mid twenties".

Hint: If you can't get a name from a nametag, employee names or numbers are often found on receipts.
 
 
Quality Audits

We refer to the shopping report you submit as an "audit" or "quality audit".

Your responses will take several forms:
     • Yes-No responses
     • Ratings (1-5) responses
     • open-ended comments

It is important that you complete all items on the audit and supply sufficient detail where it is requested.

You will print out a "PDF" (Adobe Acrobat Reader) copy of each audit for review before you shop.* This is for your practice use only. You should know each question that is asked on the audit before you actually shop.

After you complete the shop, you will submit the audit report directly on the internet.

*Most computers have Acrobat Reader installed. If you do not, it is available as a free program.

 
Quality Audits -   Scoring

Some audits will ask you to score based on a 1-5 scale. This scale is related to your expectations.

1- Very Disappointed: So bad and unexpected that you were truly disappointed. Explain why in the comments.

2- Below: You expected better; you were not entirely satisfied. Explain why in the comments.

3- Met expectations: Okay, satisfactory, just fine.

4- Above: Pleasantly surprised. Explain why in the comments.

5- Exceptional or exceeded: So satisfying or unexpected that you will recall this the next time you think of your experience there; memorable. Explain why in the comments.

Comments

Many audits require you to write your own comments. The purpose of the comments is to explain more completely items that may not be entirely clear from YES-NO or multiple choice answers. Comments are particularly important where you have scored an item as NO or as ABOVE or BELOW expectations.

Insufficient, poorly worded or inconsistent comments are one of the items that disqualify shoppers the most quickly.

Examples:

Good comments:
"I didn't enjoy the entree because it was not served hot, was slightly burned on the edge and was very bland."

Insufficient comments
"didn't like the food"
 
Comments must also match and further explain the scoring contained in your audit.

Your audit would be inconsistent if you answered a question one way, but made comments that conflicted with the answer.

Example:
Were you greeted by the associate?    Yes   No

Comment by shopper: "I felt that the associate's greeting was rather cold and showed she was feeling very busy and not paying attention to me."

This is inconsistent because you said the associate did not greet you, but then told why the greeting was substandard. One response or the other must necessarily be incorrect.

If you submit an audit with this kind of inconsistency, an editor will need to contact you to clarify what you mean. Editor contacts to clear up inconsistencies are noted in your shopper profile and count against you. They may reduce your payment for an audit.
 
 
Company Procedures   -   Getting shops

Most available shops are posted on the internet and you can select shops that are of interest to you. In most cases you will need to take a quick qualifying course for that particular client to be certain you understand the shop requirements. The dates when new shops are first posted is shown when you log in to the site. Popular shops are usually taken quickly.

Assignment frequency is based on (1) your flexibility and willingness, (2) how quickly and how well you complete the assignments, and (3) the number of clients vs. shoppers we have in your area.

Your reliability and competence in fulfilling assignments are tracked in our system and will be reflected in future assignments available to you.

Some assignments may not be accessible to you due to shopper rotation requirements, demographic requirements (e.g. it needs to be a male shopper and you are female) or other factors.

After you accept an assignment, you will receive e-mail confirmation and the paperwork will be available for you to print online.

 

Company Procedures -  Getting Paid

The amount each shop pays is listed with the shop. When a shop requires a purchase, you must pay for that yourself and then submit the shop results to receive payment.

You may choose to spend more than the allowance noted, but you will not be reimbursed for amounts above the allowance. For example, if the shop is for dinner for two, up to $50, but you spend $58, you will only receive the $50. Unless specifically stated, there is no additional payment for parking, tips, etc.

Payment is sent on the 20th of the month following the month that the audit was completed. For example, if you completed an audit in January, your payment will be sent on February 20th. Experience has shown  that it may take up to 7 days for you to receive your check through the mail,  though most arrive within a few days.

Assignments returned after the deadline, done at the wrong time or rated unsatisfactory will not receive payment.

Annual payments exceeding $600 must be reported to the IRS and to you on a 1099 form. This is why we must keep your social security number on file.
 
 
Company Procedures -  Submitting Work

After you have completed a shop, you must log in and submit the report by noon central time the next day after the shop.

If you expect a problem completing an assignment on time, call your shop coordinator immediately, before the date of the assignment. Do not have a spouse, friend, etc. complete the audit for you. If you call early enough, a replacement shopper can be assigned and you will not be penalized for failing to complete an assignment.

Our system also tracks cancellations by shoppers and repeated cancellations will limit your shop availability.

After you complete your Quality Audit, it is submitted to an editor for review. The editor reviews it for completeness, detail and accuracy and to be certain that it meets the high standards of Secret Shopper®.

You must be accessible to an editor during daytime hours and should be available to discuss your audit, if necessary. Editors may contact you by telephone and/or e-mail, so it is important that you check both voice mail and e-mail for messages.

 

Company Procedures -  Quick Review

  • DO submit your form by 12:00 noon Central Time the following day.

  • DO get names of the associates/employees.

  • DO complete all areas on the form.

  • DO fill all space available with detailed comments.

  • DO read and follow all instructions for the shop.

  • DON’T take the form with you during the shop.

  • DON’T do anything obvious or disclose to anyone that you are a mystery shopper.

 
posted on Friday, March 10, 2006 12:49 AM #美加文化 * Americans #英语文化 * English corner

Feedback

# 英国留学 12/5/2006 3:38 AM 英国留学
Mystery Shopping Course

# 出国留学 12/5/2006 3:40 AM 出国留学
学习一下，收藏了啊！

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