Tough economic times are upon us. If you listen to the news reports, we’re all in store for even tougher times in the coming months and possibly years. If you haven’t felt the impact of the economic climate yourself, you likely have friends or family that are getting squeezed financially. As a mystery shopper, you have the ability to control your income to a degree by taking on new assignments. If you need extra cash to help you through tough times, you can pick up a few extra assignments. Seasoned mystery shoppers also have another trick up their sleeves that may help you get some extra cash in your pocket.
Help A Scheduler Out. Mystery shoppers use online forums to exchange ideas, get help with problems, discuss which providers are good to work with, and many other things. Schedulers can and do frequent the mystery shopping forums, reading our posts, and even commenting on them from time to time with helpful suggestions. Schedulers, like mystery shoppers, also visit forums to get their own problems solved.
No doubt you have seen emails from schedulers hit your inbox one after another asking you to take on an assignment. That assignment may be difficult, low paying, or in a rural area. For whatever reason, the mystery shoppers who are receiving that job request are not accepting the assignment, leaving the scheduler in a rut. So schedulers will often post assignments they are having trouble filling on the forums.
The scheduler’s email request only went out to mystery shoppers signed up to work with that provider. Whereas when the assignment is posted on a forum, any mystery shopper can see the assignment, whether they are signed up to work with that provider yet or not. So schedulers can reach a larger number of mystery shoppers by posting hard-to-fill assignments on forums.
What’s In It For You? By the time a scheduler posts a job assignment on the forum, they are likely getting fairly anxious and possibly even desperate to fill the job. After sending out a number of email requests, there’s a good likelihood that the completion date deadline is looming near. The provider may also be feeling as though no mystery shopper will accept the assignment.
To entice a mystery shopper into completing the assignment, there most likely will be some additional pay involved, possibly with a travel bonus or additional reimbursement on a required purchase. Often, a mystery shopper has some negotiating room to get additional pay on the assignment even if it is not offered initially by the scheduler.
In addition to getting extra pay for completing an assignment, helping a scheduler out in this way is a great way to begin a profitable working relationship with a new scheduler and possibly even a new provider. Getting new assignments on forums not only puts extra money in your pocket now, but likely will put some cash in your pocket later as your relationship with this new contact grows.
The next time you want to pick up some extra assignments or start working with a new provider, check out the mystery shopping forums, such as MysteryShopForum.com, to gain some quick cash and get a jump start on creating a valuable relationship with a scheduler.