As a mystery shopper, you know you have to follow your shop requirements to the “T” to get paid for your time and efforts. It is incredibly frustrating for a shopper to complete a shop and be working on the questionnaire only to see a question about something you had no idea you needed to pay attention to. So you think back through your visit to the store and try to recall the correct answer, knowing if you can’t recall the correct answer you may not get paid for your time and efforts. There are, however, ways you can avoid this on future shops.
Did You Get That? Most shoppers fail to fully soak in all of the requirements by reading the shop requirements once. There may be people talking in the background, or your attention may be diverted by a ring phone in the middle of your read-through. You may have other things on your mind, or have a tight schedule that day and need to rush through reading the requirements. With so many things that could be distracting you, take an extra moment to read through the shop requirements again. Pay attention to any requirements for out of the ordinary things you may need to make note of on your shop.
The Requirements Didn’t Mention That! Regardless of how many times you read the shop requirements, there may be questions on the report or questionnaire that were simply not mentioned in the requirements. While some of these things may be standard things you may normally pick up on during a shop, there may be other things that are out of the ordinary and that you would not normally have taken notice of.
So take a moment to actually read through the questionnaire or report before you visit the shop location. When you spend time up-front learning what details will be important to make note of, you will save yourself time and headache later trying to recall these small details.
Am I Too Early? One of the biggest areas shoppers have an issue with is completing the shop on the correct day or time. While this may seem like a fairly simple thing, this is perhaps one of the most common errors a shopper makes. Unfortunately, getting this detail wrong may result in non-payment for your time and efforts, as well as not getting reimbursed for your purchase.
Keep in mind that shop requirements often provide very specific windows of time for when a shop needs to be completed by. You may get a shop assigned to you a week or longer before you actually do the shop, so be sure to make note on your calendar of not only the date but also the time when you need to complete the shop.
When you don’t follow shop requirements correctly or if you fail to gather the appropriate details and information from your on-site visit to the shop, you risk the possibility of getting your shop rejected. What this means to you is not getting paid for your time and efforts, as well as not getting reimbursed for your purchase. So save yourself some time and money by making sure you understand the shop requirements before you set foot in the shop.