amie068 Wrote:
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> I have been editing now for almost three years and
> thought I would give some insight on POSSIBLE
> reasons for scores that are lower than expected or
> comments from the editor that seem to be
> incorrect. I do not edit for any MSC's in the U.S.
> so I most likely have not edited a report from
> anyone that reads this. Prior to editing, I also
> received feedback and scores from editors that
> made absolutely no sense to me. After becoming an
> editor, I had a few "Aha!" moments. My focus was
> always on the assignment details and not so much
> on the reporting requirements with the exception
> of the deadline that the report had to be
> submitted. I glazed over that last part of the
> instructions that usually dealt with how to fill
> out the report. I presumed that I needed to use
> complete sentences, do a simple spellcheck and
> that was about it. I was more or less on
> auto-pilot after I had logged a few dozen shops
> under my belt. Good gracious, was I wrong! Here is
> a list of examples of the most common mistakes
> that I find:
> 1. Incorrect reference used for the employee(s)
> you encountered. The instructions should state if
> you should use their proper name or refer to them
> specifically as "associate", "team member",
> "employee", "staff member", "salesperson", etc. I
> used to use the same reference as listed in the
> question, however, that is often not how the MSC
> wants you to refer to them. It can more than
> double the amount of time it takes to edit a
> report when an editor has to go through a lengthy
> report and change every single incorrect
> reference.
>
> 2. Responding with only "yes" or "no" in the
> comment field. This one can almost seem
> unnecessary since there is not much elaboration
> needed for a question such as, "Were you able to
> complete the shop?" after you have already
> selected your response. However, if the
> instructions state that you need to write a
> complete sentence for every comment field, then
> the editor would need to change the response to
> something like, "I was able to complete the shop."
> It seems like overkill to me too, but if that is
> what the company wants, then that is what has to
> be delivered to them.
>
> 3. Not doing a spellcheck. Now this one is what I
> just do not understand why a shopper would not do.
> You would be surprised at how many reports that I
> have edited where the shopper did not click the
> option at the bottom of the report to do a
> spellcheck.
>
> 4. Incorrect format used to upload receipts. If
> the company wants the receipts uploaded in a PDF
> format and the shopper uploaded it as a JPEG, then
> that may result in an automatic downgrade.
>
> 5. Using contractions in the report. With the
> companies that I edit reports for, this is a big
> no-no and also a very common mistake that I see in
> reports.
>
> All, some or none of these examples may apply to
> the specific situations referenced in this thread.
> I just wanted to shed some light on the
> possibilities given my experience in the editing
> world.
Some very good points there. I have just a few comments.
Re: point 1: In my limited experience as a shopper, (5 months into this business, signed up for 41 companies, 190 shops for 19 companies), MSCs almost never give any guidance whatsoever as to how they want you to refer to the sales associate, team member, etc. (So far, I have tried to avoid the long narrative high-end companies, so my perceptions might be skewed.)
Re: point 5: Since contractions are a part of standard English, I hope that the companies who do not like them make some mention of that in their guidelines. (I make a point of never using them, just in case.)
And one last point, which I am not directing at you. For points 1, 2, 4, and 5, I would hope that the editor would put something other than: "marked off for errors in spelling and grammar." I see that you mentioned the extra work that an editor has to do to fix problems. I would hope that for their own sake, editors would mention something specific, when there was a specific problem.