verizon photo audits

i have never done one of these but am considering it. for anyone who has done one before, how difficult are they? are lots of photos required and are they pretty time intensive? any input would be appreciated.

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They're easy, just have your audit forms printed out and be organized with your photos. Take them in the highest resolution in case you miss one. Take some overall shots of each wall in the store; that way, you can zoom in and crop to needed views if you happen to miss a close-up. The first few may take you more time, but once you have a workflow down, they go quickly.

I would also suggest taking a copy of the current brochure. I took a picture of the brochure and the asked for a picture of the back as well. I completed a couple prior to that but they did not request it. So I started taking the information I was allowed to.

Floyd

I think that these shops require a lot of effort for the $10.00 shop fee!!

So totally agree Peach, an audit w/ photos should pay more like 20 I only do Mystery cell shops and take a pic of the outside for that $. I guess unless you have a string of them.
In my opinion, some MSCs pay a reasonable price with reasonable expectations, get good shoppers to complete them and others try to get by with substandard fees to make more $ for the co.

I don't think the $10 is unreasonable. The audit takes 20 minutes, the report 10. $20 per hour with minimal work.

I have to disagree with the time quote for the report. I had all my photos ready to go and the shortest was 12 minutes, the longest 20. I'd say they average 15 AFTER you have renamed photos. Their photo upload system basically sucks. When it uploaded mine in order everything was hunky dory. At least half the time they were totally out of order and I had to do scroll back and forth to find them. I would tell people to be prepared for a 45 minute job (on-site and report) then if all goes well it will take less time.

Around here they started at $12 and then jumped up considerably to like $20 and $30. Now we're talking

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

Now we are talkin. Do not see any here only the short mystery shop and outside photo. 11 bucks.

EDITED : NO CLUES...

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> I have to disagree with the time quote for the
> report. I had all my photos ready to go and the
> shortest was 12 minutes, the longest 20. I'd say
> they average 15 AFTER you have renamed photos.
> Their photo upload system basically sucks. When it
> uploaded mine in order everything was hunky dory.
> At least half the time they were totally out of
> order and I had to do scroll back and forth to
> find them. I would tell people to be prepared for
> a 45 minute job (on-site and report) then if all
> goes well it will take less time.
>
> Around here they started at $12 and then jumped up
> considerably to like $20 and $30. Now we're
> talking

You're just slow

lol

Sometimes those 16 pictures in the front of the report wind up being 25+ pictures at the conclusion.

Then there were pictures that wern't needed. But you don't find that out until you do the report and try to match up questions with pictures.

Hey Kai, what did I ever do to you, lol!

I've done a few of them but won't do them again. I felt like there was just too much involved for $10. Too many photos and going through that lengthy form.

Lisa isn't slow, she is right on. I consider myself "pretty quick" and 45 minutes is about right.

KaiGywer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>>
> You're just slow

lol

I have two of these scheduled for this weekend. The other shopper flaked (at least, I think that's what happened) and the pay was increased to $30 each. I've never done one before but I wasn't willing to take them for $10.

I don't mind taking a bunch of photos; it's the "no jeans" rule I balked at. I rarely wear anything other than jeans, so it takes big money to get me to dress professionally.

I do them willingly since it's almost entirely indoors as long as they're close or convenient. If possible, try to go mid-morning or mid-afternoon when there's less chance of heavy customer traffic which can slow you down.

I scheduled 2. One was in a small town and conbined with a video rental and tanning salon. It didn't take very long because there was nothing much to see.

The other one...I never got to. The owner refused to let "just anyone" in to take pictures, even when I read her the letter over the phone. She said she'd talk to her district manager and get back to me...and never did.

Very easy shops and usually the managers are quite co-operative since they know you will be coming sooner or later. It's an easy enter, and if you don't have to travel far, the pay is reasonable. Since I live quite far from a large metro city, I ask for travel pay and it's usually granted.

FYI, The last time I did a shop for verizon (not a photo audit) The employee told me they were going to do away with the brochures and encourage customers to go online.

Hope all goes well with your shops.

~~*~~*~~*~~ kal ~~*~~*~~*~~
Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just forget to load the film.

Karen IL Wrote:
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> > The other one...I never got to. The owner refused
> to let "just anyone" in to take pictures, even
> when I read her the letter over the phone. She
> said she'd talk to her district manager and get
> back to me...and never did.

Did U fill out the report anyway? I never had to read anyone a letter over the phone? or a letter at all. What's up with that?

I presented the letter when I did the audit. Most of the audit really had to with the franchises, to see if they were following Verizon policy and procedures. The code of ethics for any business.

I would go to the "refuse" business to see if they are running the business like they are supposed to. Maybe that ownwer had something to hide. :-(

From what I gather it seems there may be different requirements in different markets. Around here we can no longer just show up at our convenience unannounced. An appointment must be made at least 48 hours in advance.

Exactly as Lisa said. I had to call to make the appointment. The manager/owner was not at all cooperative. She asked who gave me authorization, so I read her the names on the bottom of the letter. She wanted to know what the letter said, so I told her. She then said she would not let me come in until she talked to her indirect distributor. She asked for a number to call me back and assured me that she would. Never called. So, I filled out the report saying the audit had been declined. I won't bother going to see how the business looks...It is in a rural community 35 miles from my house. I did drive by it while doing another shop in that town, and it was clearly a Verizon dealer from the outside.

I would be scared of that owner. :-(

If she was a owner she may hae been replaced. Good work KAREN IL. :-)

When I took pictures, I took a picture of the rug which conviently always had letters missing.

I like it when our audits work. (or lack of one. :-)

I did my two this weekend and had two completely different experiences.

Audit #1: Showed up at the appointed time and the manager made me sit and wait for 10 minutes. When he finally deigned to talk to me, he was very curt. Part of the audit required taking pictures of a couple different things on the computer, and he refused to allow me to take pictures of his computer screen. None of the employees were wearing nametags, and he refused to allow me to take pictures of the employees. He was borderline rude and really uncooperative.

Audit #2: Showed up and the regional manager introduced himself to me. He was nice as could be and helped me get all the required info/photos. He thanked me for coming in and said I was "a lot nicer than those other auditors", and said he hopes I audit his stores again.

Afterwards, resizing and editing my photos took longer than I would have liked, and the MSC's photo uploader was a huuuuuge PITA. Altogether I spent longer on the reports than I would have liked...I wouldn't do them again for the normal $10 fee, but I would probably do it if it was bonused again. Although I would not do the location with the unhelpful manager again.

There's one of those about 50 miles from my house that is up to 40$. I'm actually thinking about it because it's only 25 miles from the town I do my grocery shopping in and there's a grocery store in the town with the audit that I could do for another $40 or more if I can get a bonus added to that. After reading this, I'm not sure the money is worth it.

cake, are you using sometime of program to manipulate the photos in a batch? It really saves time.

LisaStl, wanna share the name of the program you use for that? I would sooooooooo Love thaT for the stinking bank shops that I do. I hate sitting there resizing the bloody pictures! I did three of them in one day, I vowed NEVER again! Unfortunately, I think I'm going to break that vow. I just got auto assigned for four of them with the same dates.

Microsoft Office Picture Manager. It had been on my computer and I didn't find it until there was a need. If you don't have it, a lot of other people are using various free programs. After sizing and saving it does take several minutes to save, but for me that is down time which can be used for something else.

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> Microsoft Office Picture Manager. It had been on
> my computer and I didn't find it until there was a
> need. If you don't have it, a lot of other people
> are using various free programs. After sizing and
> saving it does take several minutes to save, but
> for me that is down time which can be used for
> something else.

My new computer, for some reason, didn't come with Picture Manager.

I'm using a free program. I didn't do everything in a batch, I just did it manually.

jschilz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There's one of those about 50 miles from my house
> that is up to 40$. I'm actually thinking about it
> because it's only 25 miles from the town I do my
> grocery shopping in and there's a grocery store in
> the town with the audit that I could do for
> another $40 or more if I can get a bonus added to
> that. After reading this, I'm not sure the money
> is worth it.

For $40 I'd be all over that. I do them for $10 and think that's fair enough.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cake, are you using sometime of program to
> manipulate the photos in a batch? It really saves
> time.

I use the one recommended by CoRI (no, they don't do Verizon, so this is not an ICA violation). It's called Pixresizer and works great.

Did anybody get a $50 voucher from verizon after doing these shops?

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