MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD 18 - please don't mention client names or fees on here!!

lalli_pickle

ukmonkey wrote: »

Why not offer to put a Mystery Shopping program together for them? You're self-employed, so there's really no reason why you couldn't.

At least one other person on here, and I, have done just this.

You could do it as simply as visiting once, feeding back, and then visiting again a couple of months later to see if things have improved, or you could make it a more regular thing.

You'df also have the flexibility to charge much more than you'd normally get paid from RE, as you'd be doing all the work yourself, from sitting down with the gaffer to discuss his/her requirements, to writing up the report and your suggestions into something easy to digest.

So out of interest, what would you charge for a job like that?

Would you quote an hourly rate or a per job/visit rate?

Becles

flyer wrote: »

I

Q27 - Please name and describe the member of staff who served you.
Your comments: The staff member was J***, female, 5'6" tall, blonde hair.

Was she wearing glasses?

I've replied by asking if this is a wind up!

I've never understood why you have to specify if someone is not wearing glasses. When you describe people, you tend to focus on their main features that you can see rather than what they don't have.

When I'm working in stores and looking for managers, staff say things like "oh you need to speak to Dave. He's the tall bloke with black hair." I've never had anyone say "oh you need to speak to Dave. He's the one with no glasses on."

mysteryshoppingninja

Becles wrote: »

I've never understood why you have to specify if someone is not wearing glasses. When you describe people, you tend to focus on their main features that you can see rather than what they don't have.

When I'm working in stores and looking for managers, staff say things like "oh you need to speak to Dave. He's the tall bloke with black hair." I've never had anyone say "oh you need to speak to Dave. He's the one with no glasses on."

Well since most of the descriptions are that politically correct I suppose they need something to try to differentiate. It is daft though.

I did one shop once. Three members of staff. All called Carol, approx 40, 5ft6 with mid-length blonde hair and glasses. The chances of working out which one I was on about would be impossible with the normal descriptions!

ukmonkey

lalli_pickle wrote: »

So out of interest, what would you charge for a job like that?

Would you quote an hourly rate or a per job/visit rate?

I'm not really prepared to disclose details of my pricing methodology, but I'm more than happy to give you some "food for thought":

1. Look at the fee's you'd receive as a Myster Shopper for an agency; I don't mean the likes of Retail Eyes, as they exploit their shoppers in my opinion, but some of the better agencies.

2. Factor in the costs that an agency would incur; staff time in uploading/allocating/chasing work, chasing results, querying results(!), collating the results into various reports etc. You'll not have to do these things, other than of course putting your results into a format that your client would like to see them, which you could probably do as you're going along, so again, very little time.

3. How experienced are you, and how good at the job are you? Be honest with yourself. Think of the level of work you've done before.

4. Think about your client. Can the little country pub afford to pay you £200 for each report? Probably not. You need to price appropriately and then convince them why they can't afford NOT to contract your services.

5. What level of support are you willing to give them? Are you prepared to sit down and research/read whitepapers to backup your suggestions?

Whatever you decide, don't sell yourself short, but don't price yourself out either.

If you're looking to work for a small chain, consider agreeing to a pilot where you'll MS one of their pubs/shops for free (except reimbursement). Ok, might cost you some time, but could win you some lucrative work.

lalli_pickle

StabiloBrillo wrote: »

night clubs added to Retail Eyes folks!

None for me

Is there a time limit that excludes me from doing ANY within say 3 months?

I can't see anything and my settings cover sussex, surrey, kent, hampshire, london and cardiff

lalli_pickle

Thanks ukmonkey, that's exactly what I was looking for.

I also do some bookeeping/accounts work self employed and some jobs I price on a "job" basis, VAT returns for example, some I price on an hourly basis "bookeeping" being one of them, because you can never say how much work is involved each week/month until you really know the client inside out.

So I think a job price for a "report and debrief" plus reinbursement is probably the way to go rather than an hourly rate, do you agree? Obviously tailored to the client rather than saying all jobs I'll charge £x because some may take more work than others.

misssarahleigh

I can beat RE stupidity for today

Unfortunately the report has been held up at our proofreading stage for the following reasons:

As you have not carried out the assignment to the correct specifications, your report is now invalid and can no longer be used. As a result we are unable to authorise payment and the assignment will now require a re-shop. As you have initially carried out the assignment we cannot allow to carry out the reshop.

We cannot submit your report until we have clarification of this detail, which will hold up payment for this assignment.

Please email this information including the Job ID to proofreading@retaileyes.co.uk as a matter of urgency.

Work that one out! Oh, the many jokes about paying attention to their 'report' and not 'controdicting' things!

lalli_pickle

ukmonkey wrote: »

5. What level of support are you willing to give them? Are you prepared to sit down and research/read whitepapers to backup your suggestions?

Forgive my stupidity but what is a "whitepaper"?

kman

lalli_pickle wrote: »

None for me

Is there a time limit that excludes me from doing ANY within say 3 months?

I can't see anything and my settings cover sussex, surrey, kent, hampshire, london and cardiff

A lot of RE's jobs have a 12 month restriction on them, so if you've done one in the last year, you won't see them again for a while...

lalli_pickle

kman wrote: »

A lot of RE's jobs have a 12 month restriction on them, so if you've done one in the last year, you won't see them again for a while...

that sucks!

Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to wait for them to get desperate, they normally have at least 3 within 10 miles of me that take ages to go so with any luck I'll pick them up later