How Do You Get Your Shops?
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I do not understand why a MYSTERY shopper would use FB or Twitter for MS'ing. It takes the mystery out of mystery shopper! Even if you use privacy controls, NOTHING on the Internet is truly private.
Agree. My FB and Twitter have nothing to do with mystery shopping other than being friends with a couple other shoppers. One put me into an invitation only mystery shopper group without my knowledge. I found while the group was closed the membership was visible to everyone. I removed myself and asked it not be done again. Most of my own FB friends don't know what I do for a living.
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.
"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.
I have read that some MSCs post shops via twitter or facebook. I actually do not like or use those apps. And the idea of being active in this manner does seem to remove the mystery.
I prefer email and check it very often. I also have visual voice mail on my phone to quicken the time it takes to "listen" to messages left by schedulers.
I prefer email and check it very often. I also have visual voice mail on my phone to quicken the time it takes to "listen" to messages left by schedulers.
Many of my schedulers text me directly on my cell phone which is great while I am on the road. I think they text in waves so if I am quick enough to respond, I get the jobs.
ETA: Many of my text message job offers never even hit the boards.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2015 02:03AM by Sybil2.
ETA: Many of my text message job offers never even hit the boards.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2015 02:03AM by Sybil2.
I do not use social media for anything having to do with MSing. I get my shops via email or from a few sites that I check regularly when I know that they will be posting new assignments.
Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
@Sybil2 wrote:
Many of my schedulers text me directly on my cell phone which is great while I am on the road. I think they text in waves so if I am quick enough to respond, I get the jobs.
ETA: Many of my text message job offers never even hit the boards.
Sybil2 - does the texting fill your phone with text messages? Some of the schedulers that I know well will call/text me when there is an urgent shop, otherwise, I have been steering away from too many texts. Do you get a lot? If you do, how do you many that several times a day. I would have to be able to distinquish "shop" texts from family texts.
When you learn, teach, when you get, give. Maya Angelou
I get about 1-3 texts per month from schedulers. However, I am not active with many MSCs like Marketforce and others that may be more likely to use texts. For MSCs that have the option in the profile, I opt out of texts and into email and cell phone.
Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
I tend to opt out of texts. Not that I would mind receiving job offers that way, the problem was too many that just said there was a shop in my area and directed me to log into the website. That's just not a good use of anyone's time.
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.
"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.
I never use any social media for mshopping nor do I want my timeline to be connected with ms. I get most of my shops from emails and phone calls on my landline. I did not opt for text messages nor cell phone calls. I prefer to be in front of my PC or laptop when I check on the available shops. When I don't want to do mshopping, I screen my home phone calls. I don't want to be put in a position where I would reconsider shopping at a certain day because of a bonus or my relationship with the scheduler.
@CureMS wrote:
Sybil2 - does the texting fill your phone with text messages? Some of the schedulers that I know well will call/text me when there is an urgent shop, otherwise, I have been steering away from too many texts. Do you get a lot? If you do, how do you many that several times a day. I would have to be able to distinquish "shop" texts from family texts.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "filling your phone with text messages?" When I get a text, I read it. If it is something I am not interested in, I delete it right away. If I am interested, I keep it. I have my phone set up to automatically delete text messages after 30 days unless I have them locked to save them. Periodically I will go through and do a clean-up before the 30 days. I am always stuck in some sort of traffic 4-5 days a week and I hate just sitting there so the lag time helps me keep things clean and organized.
I get double digit text messages per week from schedulers but I prefer them over a phone call at an inconvenient time. If I waited until I got home or in front of the computer, I would never have any work. My friends and I text all the time. V/M and emails are becoming obsolete. Many people don't even listen to their V/M messages anymore. They see a missed call and will just call the person back. Oh ya, I have unlimited everything on my cell phone.
Email via my laptop checked multiple times per day is how I get most of my shops. I of course get them through the individual job boards and platform job boards as well. I am old school. I sometimes will call if need be to ask about or get a job. Facebook and twitter stay away far far away from my mystery shopping business.
Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.
While a phone call might interfere with work I am doing, I do get a few from several schedulers, usually only when the shop is bonused. I have been shopping for a long time. I used to call in or fax results. One scheduler texts me about one shop in the area. I wouldn't mind getting texts as I can read them when I pull over into a parking lot or after another shop is over. Texting is very convenient and I don't have to write something down right away. I get a lot of texts anyway from family and friends. They don't clutter. My cell phone puts them in categories according to who they are from. If I haven't received a text from a particular scheduler before, I certainly hope he/she identifies himself. It is a nuisance on my new phone to add a name to texts, for some reason. I'll figure it out. The phone isn't very old.
@Sybil2 wrote:
V/M and emails are becoming obsolete.
I dare you to stop checking your Email for a month and see how your shopping works out for you that month.
I was talking in the general sense. Mystery shopping is not the typical business model. The company I work for is using texts A LOT more than email over the past two years or so. No one bothers leaving a V/M anymore.
You had to go back to an article from 2013 to produce that.
In reality, Email is very much alive and kicking in the business world. It is all about transparency and records of transactions. In fact there are laws in many fields require email to be used to do business in the legal trading fields.
Ask Hillary Clinton how well her using her Hubby's personal email server in the basement for all her Government email for her post as Sec. of State is working out for her!
In reality, Email is very much alive and kicking in the business world. It is all about transparency and records of transactions. In fact there are laws in many fields require email to be used to do business in the legal trading fields.
Ask Hillary Clinton how well her using her Hubby's personal email server in the basement for all her Government email for her post as Sec. of State is working out for her!
I did a quickie 2-minute search. I am not wasting my time doing a bunch of research that I won't be paid for. And I also added an article that is only six months old. I'm sure it is a generational thing. None of my friends use snail mail or email anymore.
And Hillary is NOT my role model.
And Hillary is NOT my role model.
And Hillary did nothing that her predecessors didn't do since there was no policy regarding using personal email vs government email. Let's have all of them pull their records from their personal email servers.
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.
"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.
Actually, the same this are being said about "email" that were said about the automobile when it first came out. But if yolu look at it, the automobile is still around and it has "progressed" to trains and planes. So has email. Where do you then text messaging came from? It is an automated transmission of words via derivitives of computers. And to be honest, all that derived from ye old morse code transmissions. Things evolve :0
But the questions for this thread deal with how we best use the tools at our disposal for mystery shopping. Maybe I should have phrased the question better. I guess I loose a point for that.
But the questions for this thread deal with how we best use the tools at our disposal for mystery shopping. Maybe I should have phrased the question better. I guess I loose a point for that.
When you learn, teach, when you get, give. Maya Angelou
When searching for jobs I always start with my email. That has been the quickest way for me. When I have to I go directly to the job boards. Have never used facebook, twitter or other social media to search for jobs. Checking my email and the job boards pretty much fills in my schedule.
ACL was late with postings this month for my area. I knew they dropped by the emails I got as soon as they were being placed up. I self assigned one and for the other two that they set for apply, I got those too. 
They dropped them after 9:00 PM on a sat night. There is one other company I'm waiting for the shops to drop. I would eat some cheesecake, but they have MUCH better shops than the cheesecake offering in my area.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2015 01:14AM by scanman1.
They dropped them after 9:00 PM on a sat night. There is one other company I'm waiting for the shops to drop. I would eat some cheesecake, but they have MUCH better shops than the cheesecake offering in my area.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2015 01:14AM by scanman1.
And while there are ways to save texts, they are basically just on our phones as far as I know. In this business there are way too many instances where an email trail which includes dates and times can be the difference between being paid and being SOL.
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.
"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.
I am curious how long some of you have been shopping for. I hardly ever rely on emails or visit job boards anymore. I work more on projects that are automatically sent to me, phone calls and of course, text messages. I have a quarterly merchandising project that pays quite well. I think the only job boards that I kinda have to visit are for hotel shops. I only do this part time but I have been shopping or merchandising for almost 10 years.
My work is a combination of work assigned for up to a year at a time, projects that come up monthly or quarterly and fillers. Since I'm doing this full time and since there is no such thing as too much money, I still read emails even if my visits to job boards are infrequent.
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.
"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.
Gee wiz. Unless I am much mistaken some of our more techie colleagues have also spent a couple of years predicting that the Google glasses would make all of our video shopping equipment obsolete. What ever happended to Goolgle glasses? Discontinued last I heard.
Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
@Sybil2 wrote:
I'm sure it is a generational thing. None of my friends use snail mail or email anymore.
My children all prefer texting as their main means of communication. It took me a while to learn not to leave them voice messages, which they wouldn't even listen to :-)
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt
I'm not saying that I never use email but I hardly rely on it to receive jobs. I will use it to put negotiations in writing or to document the resolution process while trying to fix a problem. Important text messages are saved and locked. Hey it works for me.
scanman, I have gone 3+ months without email while traveling/working and I did not miss it one bit.
scanman, I have gone 3+ months without email while traveling/working and I did not miss it one bit.
@walesmaven wrote:
Gee wiz. Unless I am much mistaken some of our more techie colleagues have also spent a couple of years predicting that the Google glasses would make all of our video shopping equipment obsolete. What ever happended to Goolgle glasses? Discontinued last I heard.
If your referencing me in any way, you never read any of my posts or clicked on the links to learn what I'm showing and not selling. Wait for 007 to review some of the newer hidden camera's. Technology is changing so fast that anything you used last year is OBSOLETE.
The RC people are on top of the light and small cameras, and we are not talking go pro bulky mount cameras. Your video client don't want 1080p, and the cameras that are 720p are getting as cheap as a single shop now and capable of everything the 500 did for a fraction of the cost. The camera's I am referencing can be programmed for bit rate and resolution, so the MSC can choose the size and quality of the video.
I'm starting to think that the video shoppers are afraid of sub $50 camera's as it will bite into them making $$$ routes as local shoppers will do it for much less if the MSC's approve them.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2015 07:29AM by scanman1.
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