Mystery shopping thread 26 *please read the op first**please no client names or fees

skyshadow

MysteryMe wrote: »

I think that is a hugely optimistic portrayal of what typical MS fees are for "simple report only assignments."

Sorry to big it up and give false expectations however if you can land a gig with a decent company with a big client who do services rather than products which saturate every town then £10-£20 is possible although the top end of the scale.

Phone shops for new contracts are a prime example as are train stations and train journeys although I didn't want to give away and quote exact fees and clients on here.

With 2 in a town, 1 out of town shopping centre and 2 retail parks jobs like these mean you can get 5 jobs in an afternoon all close by but planning and doing jobs for coordinators that they cannot fill all help with getting onto priority allocation lists.

Louisdf

Foreign exchange on MF, but it's not worth posting on the alerts thread. The commission is so extortionate at the airport, even with a fee you only just end up breaking even compared with exchanging at a decent place which is 1% off the official exchange rate.

missymouse

I've been away but it doesn't look like I missed much. MF had a couple I would have liked to have done but not convenient. Still hard to shake off my MS hat though on holiday.

missymouse

Ironic as I was in the vicinity of the MF misc yesterday but I don't think I was exactly firing on all cylinders after being sleep deprived for a few hours.

Louisdf

Has anyone heard from Insight Retail Consulting recently? They always used to have weekly visits at a cafe/bar and a Pie shop but I haven't had any offers in the past 6 weeks.

Tolteca87

I'm being spammed with invites to the same jobs on a daily basis. Though they're miles away or not very appealing.

MysteryMe

skyshadow wrote: »

Sorry to big it up and give false expectations however if you can land a gig with a decent company with a big client who do services rather than products which saturate every town then £10-£20 is possible although the top end of the scale.

Phone shops for new contracts are a prime example as are train stations and train journeys although I didn't want to give away and quote exact fees and clients on here.

With 2 in a town, 1 out of town shopping centre and 2 retail parks jobs like these mean you can get 5 jobs in an afternoon all close by but planning and doing jobs for coordinators that they cannot fill all help with getting onto priority allocation lists.

Well I guess it is what we individually class as "simple report only assignments"


The base fees for most phone shops are hardly worth the effort bearing in mind that unless you are very lucky you are likely to have to wait some time in store to be served. You may get assignments towards the upper end of your range if they are desperate for the shops to be done but that's not going to happen all the time. If you can complete 5 phone shops including travel, visit and report completion to say the blue and white store in an afternoon good luck to you, especially at a weekend.


I would also think it unlikely that a shopper could visit the same locations over and over every week, most visits have some kind of rotation so once you have done all your local stores you are looking at having to travel further afield and even if the MSC assists with travel you have to factor in the time it takes to travel.


My point is that if a new shopper asks for advice IMO I'd rather give an everyday picture rather than best case scenario with everything falling conveniently into place.

MysteryMe

Louisdf wrote: »

Has anyone heard from Insight Retail Consulting recently? They always used to have weekly visits at a cafe/bar and a Pie shop but I haven't had any offers in the past 6 weeks.

Yes, I am still getting regular emails from them. TBH I tend to just delete as not interested in most of the jobs and those that I am are usually at times I can't do them!

skyshadow

MysteryMe wrote: »

Well I guess it is what we individually class as "simple report only assignments"


The base fees for most phone shops are hardly worth the effort bearing in mind that unless you are very lucky you are likely to have to wait some time in store to be served. You may get assignments towards the upper end of your range if they are desperate for the shops to be done but that's not going to happen all the time. If you can complete 5 phone shops including travel, visit and report completion to say the blue and white store in an afternoon good luck to you, especially at a weekend.


I would also think it unlikely that a shopper could visit the same locations over and over every week, most visits have some kind of rotation so once you have done all your local stores you are looking at having to travel further afield and even if the MSC assists with travel you have to factor in the time it takes to travel.


My point is that if a new shopper asks for advice IMO I'd rather give an everyday picture rather than best case scenario with everything falling conveniently into place.

Back in the day there was a client who paid a decent fee for each visit and they used to a split of new contract and insurance query visits. The latter took 15mins tops with about 5 questions on the report. I once had 4 of these in the same city centre. Did them all in the hour.

Yes you are right there is travelling but each main town centre used to have around 5 locations so I think while my estimate is at the upper end it is doable.

Like I said you need to find a decent client with lots of locations to pull it off though.

MysteryMan00

The thing that winds me up that MSCs do is they often set an unrealistic 2 day window for jobs.

I often see 1-2 jobs in an area from MSC 1 - Can only be done Mon or Tues.
It isn't worth going there for just those jobs but you see 1-2 jobs in same area posted by MSC 2 - only thing is, they can only be done Thurs and Fri.

You know that MSC 1 will end up extending their jobs to Friday - they always do. However, by the time they do, MSC2's jobs have gone.

Then on Thursday, MSC 1 calls asking if you can go to that area for their 2 jobs. And you think "I'd have taken them ages ago if you'd just listed them with a realistic window at the start". God almighty!