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

jen_br

polythenegirl wrote: »

So we'd be better off just not doing it then?

Ask yourself why are you doing it? If your doing it to really improve customer service at places fair enough-- if you doing it to make money then sit down and look at the jobs you have already done.

Use a spreadsheet to figure out how much money you have made now look at the hours involved.

Are you making money?

polythenegirl

jen_br wrote: »

Let me put it this way to you--

If you were working a part - time job at Asda and they said to you:

I want you to buy your own uniform, travel here every thursday, work until you complete said task, btw you need to fill in a daily report for your work 50 questions and you need to print it out at home and bring it with you daily (using your own paper). Oh and if I dont think the report is up to much then you wont get paid...

I want you to do ALL this for 7.00 it will take you roughly 1hr plus travelling to do What would you say?

You would tell them to shove it.

So why are you putting up with it from MS companies? They are asking you to do jobs in time frames, using your own travel, paper etc and then going home at night filling in the report for LESS then minimum wage.

I'm not trying to get anyone's back up BTW, just trying to see what new starters can do. The last thing I want to do is annoy anyone on here - ou've all been so helpful to me recently.

If we don't accept jobs then companies don't know we exist and won't offer us the higher income jobs or regular jobs when they come along but if we accept jobs we're causign problems for everyone else and making a loss so what do we do?

polythenegirl

jen_br wrote: »

Ask yourself why are you doing it? If your doing it to really improve customer service at places fair enough-- if you doing it to make money then sit down and look at the jobs you have already done.

Use a spreadsheet to figure out how much money you have made now look at the hours involved.

Are you making money?

I am actually doing it to improve customer service. I know how much companies rely on the information from the reports for training purposes through my old job and I really do think that customer service can be improved by using Mystery Shoppers. I might be naive inthinking that but hey ho.

As for making money, the majority of the shops I do are places that I would be going anyway (A supermarket that I would be going to, the retail park that I work at, or high street shops on a Saturday that I was going into town anyways.) The other ones that I take I generally look at whetehr its worth the time and effort first.

Diamonds79

Hi Newbie Question

I have completed several assignments for various companys over the last month and have just accepted my first phone job for RA. Can I please check that it is a fictional email address I am to use? Sorry if the answer is obvious, but I just wanted to check as the example they have written in the "comments" section implies that a real email was used.

Thank you

polythenegirl

serendipity2706 wrote: »

Most definitely "Yes"
The people who get the best jobs and can negotiate good extra fees are MSers who have been doing it for years, or are prepared to travel 50 miles for a job. At the mo there are so many newbies willing to work for next to nothing, the companies have no reason to enhance the rates or give extra.
I haven't been doing this for long, but I have noticed some fees dropped almost by half- the egg jobs for example.
I'm not prepared to do it, and neither are the long standing decent other MSers as they don't need to.
It's unlikely a newbie will get these well paid jobs, because others who have a rep built up over years get them and those companies pay a decent rate.

So people who want to get involved in the industry because of what it and what it does just shouldn't?

serendipity2706

polythenegirl wrote: »

If we don't accept jobs then companies don't know we exist and won't offer us the higher income jobs or regular jobs when they come along but if we accept jobs we're causign problems for everyone else and making a loss so what do we do?

I think you probably wont be getting the really good jobs anyway, as people who have years of experience get them.
If you are happy with RE and ESA etc, fair enough, but by not doing their jobs you will be forcing them to put up their rates so they are paying a decent amount for the job.
Recent example, RE want a pub visit, 2 people, 2 drinks and a meal. Who would go out for a meal and only 1 person eat?
So you buy 2 drinks, 2 meals and, guess what, it costs more then the fee plus reimbursement. You read the assignment, spend time doing the job and writing it up and then, pay a couple of pounds for the privilege. Fine if you were going anyway, as I sometimes am, but why spend time and it costs you money??

As Jen says, would you go to ASDA, work for a couple of hours and give them £3 for doing it?? Of course not!

Rosy_Violet

polythenegirl wrote: »

There are still a lot that I don't accept (especially on RE and ESA) but for some of the compnaies that seem better to work for there isn't really anything else for it. We can't prove that our time and opinions are worth more unless we show them

But we can.
By not accepting assignments with such measly fees then the agency jobs are not completed. It gets nearer their deadlines and if they cannot get the jobs done then they will be not fulfilling their contract to the client. If they had more left then they would have to review the fee.
Accepting low fees means you don't value your time and opinions...it sadly means that some people will do anything for a few pence...

I know I am talking around in circles here....and I do benefit from last minute desperate phone calls, however even those have diminished in extra worthwhile fees. By thinking you are going to get more by the badgering phone calls is another sad diminishing prospect.

The bottom line her is that the reason that Mystery shopping is carried out is to improve the customer experience and highlight areas of training. There is now a massive indescrepency in how the agencies are treating us shoppers...it is totally and utterly maddening that they expect a decent objective report for so little return.

dazza.mk

Admittedly I probably haven't been doing it long enough (or regularly enough to get decent jobs), but I can see the argument against accepting all the 'minimal wage jobs' to build your reputation, as given the 'new' shoppers that are coming up behindd you are doing the same the companies have no incentive to offer you more on a regular basis.

polythenegirl

serendipity2706 wrote: »

I think you probably wont be getting the really good jobs anyway, as people who have years of experience get them.
If you are happy with RE and ESA etc, fair enough, but by not doing their jobs you will be forcing them to put up their rates so they are paying a decent amount for the job.
Recent example, RE want a pub visit, 2 people, 2 drinks and a meal. Who would go out for a meal and only 1 person eat?
So you buy 2 drinks, 2 meals and, guess what, it costs more then the fee plus reimbursement. You read the assignment, spend time doing the job and writing it up and then, pay a couple of pounds for the privilege. Fine if you were going anyway, as I sometimes am, but why spend time and it costs you money??

As Jen says, would you go to ASDA, work for a couple of hours and give them £3 for doing it?? Of course not!

I completely agree with you on that one, which is why I don't do those RE jobs or the lower fee ESA ones. I've accepted one RE pub job for this Friday cos we were going there for dinner anyway so it fitted in.

Most of the work I've done in the past month has been GR, REACT, Helion, ABAI, the company who cannot be named and GFK and because I was happy with the fees.

I think we're going round in cricles

All I was trying to say is that it isn't easy for a genuine new person in the industry at the moment to just ignore the lower paid jobs and hope they get fone calls with higher fees, etc

clare*H_2

I have been MS since the summer, for mainly reimbursements, not many fees. I have just started looking on this forum and have seen a post with regards to informing HMRC for tax and NI purposes, and that MS companies are passing on our details with a possible fine of £100. This has started to get me worried, is this something that I should have done? I am currently on maternity leave from work receiving statutory maternity pay, does anyone know if I inform HMRC this will affect my pay in anyway? Thanking you all in anticipation.