The Mystery Shopping thread - part 6

tigergold

catwoman150 wrote: »

Has anyone got an email address for RM I am submitting some work for them and I have noticed that they have not up dated their dates on their system as it only gives me 2006,2007 and 2008. I thought that we are in 2009 now, lol

I would just input it under 2008 and contact them tomorow, I just email them on the address on the letter they send with the job details. I just did a report for them and it was updated and had 2009, so maybe they are in the process of updating,

Hollypear

homeworkgirl wrote: »

Hi Hollypear

I am also interested in video shopping, can i ask how you got onto the training day?

I was told to qualify for video MS'ing you have to produce consistent good reports. The training day is also a kind of assessment as I was told video MS'ing is more tricky. ie you must follow the brief precisely. I am sure we have all done visits where we have forgotten something and had to nip back into a shop and grab a different assistant or forgotten the assistant's name and gone back in to check.

With video your mistakes are there on camera.

Becles

You need training on how to angle the camera on video shopping too. You need to capture head shots of the people you are dealing with, and you'll not get paid for a video of the ceiling, wall etc.!

I found body camera's easier for filming as the camera was hidden in a t-shirt between my boobs, so I knew if my chest was pointing at the person, they would be in the shot! However, the downside is, you either have to have the equipment stapped on your back (heavy and uncomfortable, and hot in warm weather as you need to wear a jacket to cover it), or in a shoulder bag, but the bag has to stay glued to your side due to the wires, so it's difficult if you need to sit down. You also turn it on and off by remote control if it is on your back, so there's a chance that you might not notice it hasn't switched on or off.

Another company sent me a black button camera that buttoned into a shirt, but I found that sometimes moved as the black shirt I had was quite baggy (maternity shirt as I was pregnant at the time!). It might have been better in a more fitted shirt. As the equipment was compatible, I did all their visits with the t-shirt camera instead as I liked it better.

I've also done cameras that are wired into the shoulder strap on a handbag or rucksack. They are easier to use as the equipment is all contained in the bag and independant to you. However, you have to learn the exact position on your shoulder where the bag strap needs to be to capture the assistant, and you have to take care with movement. If the bag strap moves on your shoulder, the sound makes a loud scratchy sound on playback. If it's a purchase visit, you also need to be able to get your purse out of the bag without making too much noise on the film, or carry money in your pocket instead.

If it's a changing room visit, take care not to film naked people as I did It was a gym visit and the lady was showing me the changing rooms, and as she opened the door, a lady just dropped her towel but the MS company edited it out for me! I also had a visit where the camera hadn't turned off after my visit, so I filmed me walking back through town and the back of a toilet door as I went for a wee Luckily that was a purchase visit and I had to go back and film return the item a couple of days later, so I was able to tape over my embarrassment.

Practise, practise, practise is the best advice. Film your family members or if you know people in your local corner shop well, ask permission to practice on them in a shop setting. Once you get the confidence and know you can film people in shot, you'll be fine!

jobbingmusician

gerkin wrote: »

If this is true then it is really a very unfortunate result. I feel it is very important to not point out the staff as in any way incompetent unless the staff was quite rude or showed total disinterest in serving the customer.
I did a sports shop once where there were 5-6 very young staff who spent all the time I was in the shop basically flirting with each other. Nobody approached me for ages. That is downright disinterest in customer.

If that was true it was also illegal. Employers are required to have a decent disciplinary policy nowadays, and can only sack someone for gross misconduct (which this clearly was NOT) or for repeated infringments of policy despite previous warnings. This 'bluntness' was obviously the latest in a long line of examples of poor customer service, or the employer was breaking the law and would lose at tribunal if the employee alleged unfair dismissal.

Hollypear

Becles wrote: »

You need training on how to angle the camera on video shopping too. You need to capture head shots of the people you are dealing with, and you'll not get paid for a video of the ceiling, wall etc.!

I found body camera's easier for filming as the camera was hidden in a t-shirt between my boobs, so I knew if my chest was pointing at the person, they would be in the shot! However, the downside is, you either have to have the equipment stapped on your back (heavy and uncomfortable, and hot in warm weather as you need to wear a jacket to cover it), or in a shoulder bag, but the bag has to stay glued to your side due to the wires, so it's difficult if you need to sit down. You also turn it on and off by remote control if it is on your back, so there's a chance that you might not notice it hasn't switched on or off.

Another company sent me a black button camera that buttoned into a shirt, but I found that sometimes moved as the black shirt I had was quite baggy (maternity shirt as I was pregnant at the time!). It might have been better in a more fitted shirt. As the equipment was compatible, I did all their visits with the t-shirt camera instead as I liked it better.

I've also done cameras that are wired into the shoulder strap on a handbag or rucksack. They are easier to use as the equipment is all contained in the bag and independant to you. However, you have to learn the exact position on your shoulder where the bag strap needs to be to capture the assistant, and you have to take care with movement. If the bag strap moves on your shoulder, the sound makes a loud scratchy sound on playback. If it's a purchase visit, you also need to be able to get your purse out of the bag without making too much noise on the film, or carry money in your pocket instead.

If it's a changing room visit, take care not to film naked people as I did It was a gym visit and the lady was showing me the changing rooms, and as she opened the door, a lady just dropped her towel but the MS company edited it out for me! I also had a visit where the camera hadn't turned off after my visit, so I filmed me walking back through town and the back of a toilet door as I went for a wee Luckily that was a purchase visit and I had to go back and film return the item a couple of days later, so I was able to tape over my embarrassment.

Practise, practise, practise is the best advice. Film your family members or if you know people in your local corner shop well, ask permission to practice on them in a shop setting. Once you get the confidence and know you can film people in shot, you'll be fine!

Thank you Becles for that invaluable advice. But crikey does sound a bit daunting. On the training day they are bringing me a tea shirt for the camera and I will be doing some shops then reviewing them with the trainer. They also gave me a DVD to study of real video shops. One one of them the car salesman spotted the camera.

I recently discovered that the catalogue shops GfK used to do are now done as video shops. An employee told me this and said she does her job well so has no worries about it.

Hollypear

jobbingmusician wrote: »

If that was true it was also illegal. Employers are required to have a decent disciplinary policy nowadays, and can only sack someone for gross misconduct (which this clearly was NOT) or for repeated infringments of policy despite previous warnings. This 'bluntness' was obviously the latest in a long line of examples of poor customer service, or the employer was breaking the law and would lose at tribunal if the employee alleged unfair dismissal.

You are spot on jobbingmusician ( as always). It is very difficult to sack people nowadays. Companies have to follow a laid down procedure with verbal and written warnings etc. They certainly cant go on a subjective opinion from a MS'er and say to an employee "Your sacked"

Someone I know who works in a bank got slated by a MS'er who said she was abominably rude. Her manager even compained about it as he didn't believe it either. I know this lady and have never known her to be rude and why would she be rude to a customer anyway ( her words).

Yet I MS'ed this branch as I didn't know she worked in that one and all the staff were superb.

Timmne

Without wanting to sound rude, how do you manage video MSing without the use of boobs and handbags to hide the cameras? There's no way I'm using chicken fillets and wearing a wig just to do a MS!

darlo_fan

I carried out an assignment for GAP yesterday, but for some reason it was allocated to the wrong month by them so they called and said to send them the receipt and they would still pay me (I dont have a report to fill now)

Can anyone tell me the address I should send it? And would a photocopy be sufficient? Sorry I'm at work, and didnt think to ask these questions when the fella rang.

Thanks in advance

Scaredy_Cat_3

darlo_fan wrote: »

I carried out an assignment for GAP yesterday, but for some reason it was allocated to the wrong month by them so they called and said to send them the receipt and they would still pay me (I dont have a report to fill now)

Can anyone tell me the address I should send it? And would a photocopy be sufficient? Sorry I'm at work, and didnt think to ask these questions when the fella rang.

Thanks in advance

I assume you can't upload the receipt as normal if you don't need to do a report? In that case I would email them a copy of it - just make sure you include the job number and any other info.

catwoman150

tigergold wrote: »

I would just input it under 2008 and contact them tomorow, I just email them on the address on the letter they send with the job details. I just did a report for them and it was updated and had 2009, so maybe they are in the process of updating,

Thanks I phoned them this morning to see if they got my report as I didn't get an email either and explained about the 2008.