hey you all great people,

I just joined your group forum. It is petty kewl mountains.

J. Paul

Welcome to the Board!

Welcome! Any questions, just ask!

Welcome. I am new here but it is a great place to learn. I am systematically going through and reading all the discussions. Just ask a question and someone will answer it. Its a wonderful and helpful contact.

I'm new with this company BestMark. In the instructions it says to download sample survey. I click on iy and nothing happens. It's Saturday and nobody is there.

Cherry, maybe try a different browser. If you're on Firefox, try IE, if on IE, try Firefox or Chrome. I've had links not work on Chrome (my usual browser) but open right up on IE.

Doesn't Bestmark have several steps after a shop is assigned like reading the guidelines and signing off? Maybe you have to do them in order before getting to the survey.

Hi im jennie
I am new to this site i dont know how to start or anything can i get help?

Welcome to the forum. jennie.

Spend a lot of time reading. This section, New Mystery Shoppers, has a lot of information that will help you understand how this works. Being a mystery shopper means running your own small business, working as a contractor to multiple mystery shopping companies.

You need to register with each company, providing your SS# and personal information. Some want you to take tests and you may be asked to provide writing samples. After being accepted to by a company, you will be able to log into their website and look for assignments in your area. Some companies allow you to self-assign the assignments. Other companies allow you to apply for each assignment and the scheduler notifies you if the assignment is assigned to you.

There is a lot of competition in most areas. My advice is to register with as many companies as possible - many of us here on the forum are registered with 150+ - and spend a lot of time reading and researching so you figure out how mystery shopping works and know how to set up your business. It's very time-consuming to get started. Don't get discouraged.

How much time and effort you put into planning and implementing your business, and how many companies you register with, will determine how successful you are.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Welcome to the world of mystery shopping!

Hi Everyone,
I hope I am doing this right, lol
I did my first shop today (I was very nervous)
I have a couple of bank shops tomorrow and sort of confused, could someone lead me in the right direction?
The shops tomorrow require a lot of "approved" brochures to obtain from the bank or they wont pay
What if the bank gives me the outdated brochures? Does that mean I wont get paid? How would that be my fault?
Also, all these bank shops say no kids, I have a 9 month old who just sits in a stroller with a cookie and is never heard of, is that ok?

@kamicam wrote:

Hi Everyone,
I hope I am doing this right, lol
I did my first shop today (I was very nervous)
I have a couple of bank shops tomorrow and sort of confused, could someone lead me in the right direction?
The shops tomorrow require a lot of "approved" brochures to obtain from the bank or they wont pay
What if the bank gives me the outdated brochures? Does that mean I wont get paid? How would that be my fault?
Also, all these bank shops say no kids, I have a 9 month old who just sits in a stroller with a cookie and is never heard of, is that ok?

If the bank gives you outdated brochures, that is something the company wants to see. Do the shop just as the instructions require and your shop should be accepted and you should be paid.

As for bringing a child, regardless of whether he is heard of when eating a cookie or not, that is NOT okay. Go back and read the instructions: "all these bank shops say no kids." I repeat: Do the shop just as the instructions require and your shop should be accepted and you should be paid. This means if you do the shop and you do NOT do what the instructions say, you may not be paid and you may be deactivated from the company so you will not be able to do any future shops.

When you accept an assignment, you are paid to do *Exactly.What.The.Instructions.Say.* If you are not able to do that, it's best not to accept the assignment.

In case you want a second opinion, AustinMom is exactly right. You must follow the instructions to get paid.

Those bank shops are easy. Report what they gave you. I got a stale rate sheet once and just reported that fact. the next time I went to that branch, they had an up to date copy.

And a third. Austinmom is right. Instructions need to be followed. Not doing so can alter the employee's behavior in ways that can through off the behaviors being measured.

As for the brochures, do your best to get the approved ones. If they give you old ones or don't have any be up front with what happened. In other words put it in the report. That explanation should be adequate.



Edited: Dspeaks' is absolutely correct about the, "do your best" comment in the following post. I overstated my advice there. I apologize.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2015 11:16PM by vlade5394.

Don't "do your best" to get anything but a business card. They are supposed to offer the docs. You're not supposed to know what they should be giving you, you're just there to report what they do give. If they give you unapproved docs, do not try to correct anything. If they don't offer you just ask, "Do you have a brochure I can take with me to show my husband/wife/son/father?" But don't examine the docs to make sure they are the right ones or the packet is complete; you are to report what they gave you. Do not influence them by looking through the stuff, checking the date on the rate sheet, or anything else. This is what the client needs to know -- what are they giving out? Not, what is the shopper asking for? So don't try too hard because only a mystery shopper would know what they are supposed to get.

This is the easiest shop there is. Don't overthink it. The questions are primarily yes/no. You don't have to speculate about why you got an old rate sheet; you just report the date on the sheet and go on to the next question.

I had one ODP shop where all I got were the two brochures, not the big folder, not the rate sheet. I just reported it. Shortest report I've ever done. Two brochures and a business card to scan. Most of the questions disappeared as soon as I said I hadn't received the primary docs.

@kamicam wrote:

Also, all these bank shops say no kids, I have a 9 month old who just sits in a stroller with a cookie and is never heard of, is that ok?

So, is the 9 month old really a kid? Why would it matter that he sits in a stroller and he's quiet? If he's a kid and the bank shops say NO KIDS, then why would you ask if that's okay? Following the guidelines is the way to be successful.