The question seems to pop up at least once a month: Is Silver/Gold certification worth it? The response is typically varied as is the case with most general questions due to the very individual nature of mystery shopping. A few of the typical good responses I have seen in various threads:
-Some shoppers who signed up when they first began MSing feel like the certification was worthwhile as an education tool and feel like they probably benefitted with more or better shops. (Tough to tell on that last part for new MSers)
-Some experienced, uncertified shoppers express anecdotal No’s, feeling that they have plenty of good work without the certification. I put myself in this skeptic category. I have had plenty of great shop opportunities over the years and have even been assigned jobs listed as being for Gold shoppers only.
-Some certified and experienced shoppers feel the answer is No, they have received no or little benefit from being certified.
-And some certified shoppers feel the answer is a definite yes, with a few even able to point to specific jobs that certification landed them. (I seem to remember MDavisnowell providing an excellent example)
As I’ve been thinking about personal, professional, and mystery shopping goals for the new year I’ve been wondering if getting gold certification could help me meet a MS goal or two. Even considering myself a skeptic, I think I’m ready to take a gamble on it and am planning to get Gold Certification in 2015. As illustrated by the typical responses to this topic, I have no idea if it will be worth the expense to me personally so I’d like to at least use the experience to be able to provide a good data point for the community.
So my question is, how should I conduct the signup to evaluate whether the certification is worth it to me? My initial thought is to do the following steps, but how could that be tweaked to provide a better evaluation?
-By end of 2014, sign up for as many additional MSC’s as I can find time for. Currently signed up with 90, but if I can bump that up to 100-125 that could help provide a broader base of evaluation.
-First Quarter 2015: Keep close tabs on job boards, noting all shops of some interest to me and applying for more shops than I typically do. During this quarter, pursue Gold Certification and time it such that it can be applied at around the start of the second quarter.
-Second Quarter 2015: Continue to watch the job boards. Note any new opportunities via email or job board. Signup for any assignments I might have applied for in 1st Q but not been assigned.
I feel like the certification should pay off within the first quarter of use, though I suppose you never know when it might come in handy. Things that would make the certification definitely worth my expense:
-Finding an additional AAA 4* hotel shop in Hawaii that I hadn’t seen before. One personal goal is to shop or at least find out who shops all the AAA 4* and 5* resorts in Hawaii. There are still a handful I have no idea who performs the shops.
-Be accepted for a valuable shop previously unassigned to me. There are two high value shops with 2 sassie companies I have applied for multiple times and yet to be accepted to perform the shops. This is likely in part because I will not accept their lower end shops first. If gold Cert is enough to get me one of these shops without having to do the junk shops first, I’d value that at the price of certification.
Any suggestions on how to approach this to make it worthwhile as a data-point? And if the answer is that you could care less and wish I hadn’t cluttered up the forum with this novel, feel free to express that too!
UPDATE 1 (1/14/15)
- Received the videos and passed the first two test modules. I only watched about 10 minutes of the video before agreeing with the general consensus that experienced shoppers won't get much out of the video content. I can only assume for now that the rest of the videos would have been equally as basic, but if I get the chance I may go back and watch them. The tricky part was poking around enough to find the "secret passwords".
- Have been keeping track of shop availability on the job boards once a week to compare with that available after certification.
- Applied with and received jobs for two new-to-me companies as well as some of my regular MSC's. All requests thus far have resulted in receiving the assignment.
UPDATE 2 - JANUARY SUMMARY(2/4/15)
- 49 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Shopped with 4 new-to-me MSCs
- Received all assignments applied for (Only 8 total for the month, but 4x last year's monthly avg)
- Average Reimbursement - $48; Average Fee - $60 (Boosted by one shop with reimbursement of $128 & fee of $185)
UPDATE 3 - (2/12/15)
- Ok, I was too impatient to wait and went ahead and passed the certification test. Am mostly (1 exception) holding off on entering my gold certification number into my profiles.
- Did input my gold number into one Sassie company profile and was immediately rewarded with a fine dining lunch assignment I had been turned down on 2 previous applications. Contacted the scheduler and confirmed that my Gold status had been a determining factor in giving me the assignment. Timing was perfect on this as well with it being valentine's season and all!
UPDATE 4 - FEBRUARY SUMMARY(2/26/15)
- 50 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Shopped with 1 new-to-me MSC
- Received 7 of 10 assignments applied for (3 not accepted for are part of a package and probably weren't assigned to me due to travel requirement)
- Average Reimbursement - $75; Average Fee - $47 (Boosted by one shop with reimbursement of $87 & fee of $225)
- Two months into the year and I'm yet to see a single hotel shop available locally.
UPDATE 5 - MARCH SUMMARY (3/31/15)
- 49 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Shopped with 1 new-to-me MSC
- Received 6 of 6 assignments applied for
- Average Reimbursement - $6; Average Fee - $42.5
UPDATE 6 - April SUMMARY (5/2/15)
- 53 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Received 4 of 5 assignments applied for (The one I didn't get I was asked directly by a familiar scheduler if I could do and to submit a travel bid with a promise that she'd get right back to me... but she wound up ignoring all follow up emails)
- Average Reimbursement - $310; Average Fee - $15.5 (Boosted by a 1 night hotel stay with reimbursement of $1200)
UPDATE 7 - MAY SUMMARY (6/1/15)
- 54 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Received 5 of 5 assignments applied for
- Average Reimbursement - $5; Average Fee - $20
UPDATE 8 - June Summary (6/23/15)
- 55 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Received 7 of 7 assignments applied for (Two applications still outstanding for July shops)
- Average Reimbursement - $30; Average Fee - $13
General Data Summary:
- 62 of 110 MSC's have had at least 1 shop in my area YTD
- YTD Fees: ~1300 (Avg $36 per shop)
- YTD Reimbursement: ~2400 (Avg $65 per shop)
- YTD Assignments/Applications: 37/41 (Avg 6 per month vs 2 last year)
- Input MSPA Gold cert on following dates:
SPG: Feb 5th
BAI: 3/3
Everyone Else: 3/25
Value Gained from Gold Certification:
- Total of 1 shop I might not have been assigned otherwise. This was a great restaurant though, so let's say I got at least some value from this shop. No extra money in my pocket though. I wouldn't have paid $75 for the priviledge of doing this assignment, though I certainly would have paid $75+ for the meal if I didn't have to report on it.
- Essentially no value to me as an educational tool
- With the exception of one company's job board, i did not notice any new assignment types showing up on job boards or emails that I previously had not seen. Throughout the 6 months I kept tabs on every shop to show up on each job board at least once per week. The one exception (a prophet company) began showing hotel assignments scattered around the mainland as being "in my area" after I input my Gold cert. But at least locally, getting certified didn't let me see anything I hadn't seen before.
General thoughts:
- I would say I definitely did not learn a thing from the bit of the video training I watched, but I consider myself pretty experienced 10+ years into MSing. Tests were a breeze.
- MSPA NEVER sent me my gold certification number. Had to log into the website myself to check if I had passed.
- After registering my Gold cert with 5 or so companies, I started getting this message: "MSPA servers are unavailable to verify your certification code. Please try again later." Tried again the next day and had no further issues.
- Lost my day job at the beginning of April so cut down on shopping in April and May to pursue a new job (thankfully landed a new job within 3 weeks), and to focus all work energy on getting acclimated to new position. So wasn't as active as I meant to be on the shopping front. Unfortunately this meant passing up on a sweet island-hopping gig with great bonus money, but had to shift my focus to my new job.
- In 6 months I have nearly doubled the fees earned over last year, but I've only earned around a third of the total reimbursement I received last year. The drop in reimbursement value has been mostly attributed to a drop in local hotel shops available this year.
Edited 15 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2015 09:16PM by saacman5033.
-Some shoppers who signed up when they first began MSing feel like the certification was worthwhile as an education tool and feel like they probably benefitted with more or better shops. (Tough to tell on that last part for new MSers)
-Some experienced, uncertified shoppers express anecdotal No’s, feeling that they have plenty of good work without the certification. I put myself in this skeptic category. I have had plenty of great shop opportunities over the years and have even been assigned jobs listed as being for Gold shoppers only.
-Some certified and experienced shoppers feel the answer is No, they have received no or little benefit from being certified.
-And some certified shoppers feel the answer is a definite yes, with a few even able to point to specific jobs that certification landed them. (I seem to remember MDavisnowell providing an excellent example)
As I’ve been thinking about personal, professional, and mystery shopping goals for the new year I’ve been wondering if getting gold certification could help me meet a MS goal or two. Even considering myself a skeptic, I think I’m ready to take a gamble on it and am planning to get Gold Certification in 2015. As illustrated by the typical responses to this topic, I have no idea if it will be worth the expense to me personally so I’d like to at least use the experience to be able to provide a good data point for the community.
So my question is, how should I conduct the signup to evaluate whether the certification is worth it to me? My initial thought is to do the following steps, but how could that be tweaked to provide a better evaluation?
-By end of 2014, sign up for as many additional MSC’s as I can find time for. Currently signed up with 90, but if I can bump that up to 100-125 that could help provide a broader base of evaluation.
-First Quarter 2015: Keep close tabs on job boards, noting all shops of some interest to me and applying for more shops than I typically do. During this quarter, pursue Gold Certification and time it such that it can be applied at around the start of the second quarter.
-Second Quarter 2015: Continue to watch the job boards. Note any new opportunities via email or job board. Signup for any assignments I might have applied for in 1st Q but not been assigned.
I feel like the certification should pay off within the first quarter of use, though I suppose you never know when it might come in handy. Things that would make the certification definitely worth my expense:
-Finding an additional AAA 4* hotel shop in Hawaii that I hadn’t seen before. One personal goal is to shop or at least find out who shops all the AAA 4* and 5* resorts in Hawaii. There are still a handful I have no idea who performs the shops.
-Be accepted for a valuable shop previously unassigned to me. There are two high value shops with 2 sassie companies I have applied for multiple times and yet to be accepted to perform the shops. This is likely in part because I will not accept their lower end shops first. If gold Cert is enough to get me one of these shops without having to do the junk shops first, I’d value that at the price of certification.
Any suggestions on how to approach this to make it worthwhile as a data-point? And if the answer is that you could care less and wish I hadn’t cluttered up the forum with this novel, feel free to express that too!
UPDATE 1 (1/14/15)
- Received the videos and passed the first two test modules. I only watched about 10 minutes of the video before agreeing with the general consensus that experienced shoppers won't get much out of the video content. I can only assume for now that the rest of the videos would have been equally as basic, but if I get the chance I may go back and watch them. The tricky part was poking around enough to find the "secret passwords".
- Have been keeping track of shop availability on the job boards once a week to compare with that available after certification.
- Applied with and received jobs for two new-to-me companies as well as some of my regular MSC's. All requests thus far have resulted in receiving the assignment.
UPDATE 2 - JANUARY SUMMARY(2/4/15)
- 49 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Shopped with 4 new-to-me MSCs
- Received all assignments applied for (Only 8 total for the month, but 4x last year's monthly avg)
- Average Reimbursement - $48; Average Fee - $60 (Boosted by one shop with reimbursement of $128 & fee of $185)
UPDATE 3 - (2/12/15)
- Ok, I was too impatient to wait and went ahead and passed the certification test. Am mostly (1 exception) holding off on entering my gold certification number into my profiles.
- Did input my gold number into one Sassie company profile and was immediately rewarded with a fine dining lunch assignment I had been turned down on 2 previous applications. Contacted the scheduler and confirmed that my Gold status had been a determining factor in giving me the assignment. Timing was perfect on this as well with it being valentine's season and all!
UPDATE 4 - FEBRUARY SUMMARY(2/26/15)
- 50 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Shopped with 1 new-to-me MSC
- Received 7 of 10 assignments applied for (3 not accepted for are part of a package and probably weren't assigned to me due to travel requirement)
- Average Reimbursement - $75; Average Fee - $47 (Boosted by one shop with reimbursement of $87 & fee of $225)
- Two months into the year and I'm yet to see a single hotel shop available locally.
UPDATE 5 - MARCH SUMMARY (3/31/15)
- 49 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Shopped with 1 new-to-me MSC
- Received 6 of 6 assignments applied for
- Average Reimbursement - $6; Average Fee - $42.5
UPDATE 6 - April SUMMARY (5/2/15)
- 53 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Received 4 of 5 assignments applied for (The one I didn't get I was asked directly by a familiar scheduler if I could do and to submit a travel bid with a promise that she'd get right back to me... but she wound up ignoring all follow up emails)
- Average Reimbursement - $310; Average Fee - $15.5 (Boosted by a 1 night hotel stay with reimbursement of $1200)
UPDATE 7 - MAY SUMMARY (6/1/15)
- 54 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Received 5 of 5 assignments applied for
- Average Reimbursement - $5; Average Fee - $20
UPDATE 8 - June Summary (6/23/15)
- 55 of the 110 MSCs I'm signed up with had local shops available at some point this month.
- Received 7 of 7 assignments applied for (Two applications still outstanding for July shops)
- Average Reimbursement - $30; Average Fee - $13
General Data Summary:
- 62 of 110 MSC's have had at least 1 shop in my area YTD
- YTD Fees: ~1300 (Avg $36 per shop)
- YTD Reimbursement: ~2400 (Avg $65 per shop)
- YTD Assignments/Applications: 37/41 (Avg 6 per month vs 2 last year)
- Input MSPA Gold cert on following dates:
SPG: Feb 5th
BAI: 3/3
Everyone Else: 3/25
Value Gained from Gold Certification:
- Total of 1 shop I might not have been assigned otherwise. This was a great restaurant though, so let's say I got at least some value from this shop. No extra money in my pocket though. I wouldn't have paid $75 for the priviledge of doing this assignment, though I certainly would have paid $75+ for the meal if I didn't have to report on it.
- Essentially no value to me as an educational tool
- With the exception of one company's job board, i did not notice any new assignment types showing up on job boards or emails that I previously had not seen. Throughout the 6 months I kept tabs on every shop to show up on each job board at least once per week. The one exception (a prophet company) began showing hotel assignments scattered around the mainland as being "in my area" after I input my Gold cert. But at least locally, getting certified didn't let me see anything I hadn't seen before.
General thoughts:
- I would say I definitely did not learn a thing from the bit of the video training I watched, but I consider myself pretty experienced 10+ years into MSing. Tests were a breeze.
- MSPA NEVER sent me my gold certification number. Had to log into the website myself to check if I had passed.
- After registering my Gold cert with 5 or so companies, I started getting this message: "MSPA servers are unavailable to verify your certification code. Please try again later." Tried again the next day and had no further issues.
- Lost my day job at the beginning of April so cut down on shopping in April and May to pursue a new job (thankfully landed a new job within 3 weeks), and to focus all work energy on getting acclimated to new position. So wasn't as active as I meant to be on the shopping front. Unfortunately this meant passing up on a sweet island-hopping gig with great bonus money, but had to shift my focus to my new job.
- In 6 months I have nearly doubled the fees earned over last year, but I've only earned around a third of the total reimbursement I received last year. The drop in reimbursement value has been mostly attributed to a drop in local hotel shops available this year.
Edited 15 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2015 09:16PM by saacman5033.