I can tell you from my personal experience as a video mystery shopper, and now, a supplier of video shopping equipment, there is a big demand for good video shoppers. The money is far better, and the reports are short if there are any at all. It takes equipment. And it takes support. A good equipment company will have no problem helping a newbie with their equipment. A good video company has no problem starting new video folks out on easy shops and coaching them into producing great video. That in turn opens more doors. I have been a written mystery shopper for 25 years. I tried video decades ago when it was not very good. I have edited for a major written shop company. I have done video for several years and am fully vested in this industry. I certainly don't know it all. But I know the few that do.

Dan Thomas
Greyhawk

(Mod note: edited to remove commercial content)

greyhawk,
I do apartment shops, can you send me a link to your equipment site.

seerali,
The site address is below his signature.

I must be doing the wrong video shops. I have a video shop today that has 95 questions, a recorded phone call and the video. I've done 4 apartment shops in the past week that have the same questions as a non video shop. On the questions i want to answer,why did i video if you are going to ask me anyway?

Is that, by chance, for EPMS? Their clients demand a full survey, and it is also the most detailed in the industry.

Most videos that I do (in 10 years of video shopping) the reports are short to non-existent. For that reason, I avoid EPMS videos unless I need to fill in a route. But, I love their video fellow!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2015 02:52PM by walesmaven.

I refuse to work for EPMS.

Business observations has a new client that also has a full report with the video AND ONLY pays $30 for the video shop!
CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Without the video the shop fee is to low

I remember my first EPMS regular apartment shop. After about 3 hrs of debriefing the same info numerous times because it had a second debrief, about as long and detailed for them, once the client debrief was done, I believe I was in shock. It took almost 2 yrs to try again, and this time it was no better, even tho I remembered to look for piercing, tattoos and eye color. I noted what was on the right and left of the path we took around the complex. I copied and pasted...nothing made it better. I agree with bgriffin, I will not do their shops again.

You know you are tired when you keep reading the above posts and thinking the person typed PMS instead of EPMS! I need sleep but I do not have time to sleep. What is that saying? Something about catching up on sleep when I die. Tick, tock.

EPMS has a redundant department of redundancy. I refuse to do their shops now because of that.

I can't argue with the redundancy factor. That said, the reports normally take me an hour and my personal record is 45 minutes which was done while texting back and forth with another shopper and member of this forum. Once the bonus hits the right amount for a written or if they are video, I'll take them all day long.

Full disclosure most of the texting was "finished another section!"

For those of you who do video shops, do you usually have to make alterations to your clothing to do so? I was thinking about registering with a company which does video shopping, but there were all kinds of alterations you had to make to clothing and very specific types of things you had to wear. They wanted you to wear a button down shirt and replace one of the buttons, for example. I realize these shops pay well, but it was just too much hassle at the time for the particular shop being offered, and I couldn't afford at the time to go out and buy the types of clothing they were requesting. Are they all that demanding, or are some more liberal?

In order to properly mount the hidden camera, you will need to alter a shirt with buttons to do so. It's not a matter of being "liberal" or not; it's needed to do the job with proper equipment. Most video shopper own and use several such shirts. If you are using equipment loaned by the MSC, they may loan a shirt to fit you as well if you ask. However, most vodeo assignments give priority to shoppers who own their own video equipment.

@jackaroo
They won't be getting many experienced video shoppers at $30 unless it is an untargeted, 10 minute shop with no narrative,

What? 45 minutes to an hour, Lisa? I'm at 29 minutes using Siri.

Walesmaven, the reason I ask is that there are all kinds of different ways to hide recording equipment, and some of it is more easily concealed than others. Some companies may use different types of devices, meaning that what the shoppers need to wear might not be quite so specific.

OceanGirl,
The last I checked there was only one video MSC that used the glasses cam extensively and they seemed to be limited to small retail shops in the SW. Elsewhere in the industry the glasses cams tend to be limited to shops where it is important for the shopper to be able to look up at the target (like bank drive thru windows) or see over a high counter (such as those in rental car agencies or at hotel check-ins.) Shirt-mounted cameras are required by all of the big five video MSCs plus EPMS for apartments, new homes, automobile and senior living shops and by others for inside banks and furniture stores, for instance. The reason is that the shopper needs to be able to keep the target SA in the frame while turning her/his head to look at things that the target is pointing out. Cameras in pendants have been tried and found not to produce acceptable video for these types of shops, even in the newest iterations. Cameras mounted in broaches cannot be changed out like you would change a shirt, so quite soon the word gets out about that the SA should look for to find a camera. Although it has been years since any big MSC has used purse-mounted cameras, a lot of sales agents are convinced that they are still in use and experienced video shoppers are amused to watch the SAs who peer at their purses to see if they can detect a camera. (I have to laugh to see a SA relax as soon as I put my purse on the floor next to my chair.) The MSCs that run VSN (Video Shopper Network) regularly test everything new that comes on the market. For a look at current equipment offerings, contact greyhawk.com, who also posts here. He is always in touch with video MSCs about what is current and useful.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2015 06:47PM by walesmaven.

Walesmaven I laughed at your comments regarding a purse camera. I've seen the catalog and they are black and ugly. I recently got a comment that a target thought I had one in a bright lime green summer style. I actually had a button cam on my blouse. The next one I did I left the purse in the car and both of us were more at ease. I bought a blouse with the cam holder but now I've lost weight and looking at thrift stores for appropriate weight, existing buttons, and fit. I'll use that as a model for the Velcro placement.

What do you very experienced video shoppers do in the winter when it's cold or rainy and you need to wear a coat for new home shops? How do you let the camera do its' work?

Me again. Regarding pay and reports, I'm finding that video shopping is a different world than written ones (perhaps with the exception of EPMS). It's very closed, not posted, and based on reputation. All that is fine. I've learned to negotiate pay...especially travel pay. However, the $100-$200 shops I was told about are not materializing. If there is still such a shortage of video shoppers, and the housing market is busy selling new homes, and there are more assisted living facilities then why is the pay so low? We should have some leverage.

MBshops, where are you located? Are you setting up overnight routes? Are you active on VSN? Have you taken a video certification workshop? Have you sent sample videos and letters of introduction to the Big Five video MSCs or to VSN? All of these can/will affect how many video jobs you see. Also, there are a couple of new players in the video MS category that are trying out very low fees for assisted/independent living shops. Experienced video shoppers just are not taking those! Those new companies do not have anything else to offer in the way of video, so we don't miss much by letting their shops sit on the board.

MBShops, in the winter, I generally wear an overcoat or jacket and just leave it unbuttoned or unzipped. I don't usually wear a coat/jacket while driving, so it's easy to just slip it on when I change to my video shirt and drive the last few blocks to the location. If it's raining/snowing, I will grasp the overcoat together to protect the camera, or zip up the jacket, then I'll unzip it once I'm in the model.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2015 03:15PM by James Bond 007.5.

James: Thanks for the tip. I think a trench coat in the winter will suffice and still look OK hanging open.
Walesmaven: Answers to your questions are: Seattle/Phoenix, yes, yes, yes and yes. I'm frustrated by the inactivity on VSN. Thanks for the answer regarding the low pay/new player. I'll let those pass as well.

Video shopping has changed over the last five years. Some changes are good, others not so much. There are more clients and more MSCs, some fees are lower and some reports worse. Travel money is also not as plentiful. One MSC in particular has a video scheduler who is not available for shoppers to call, she flat out refuses to take calls even if she is sitting next to her phone, and has the attitude we should do shops for the base pay or a "gas money." I have not completed a video shop for that company in well over a year.

She also has no video shopping experience.

MB, try getting in touch directly with LeBlanc (a member of VSN sponsors). They do a lot in the SW. I think that Clear Evaluations may also do a lot there.

Thanks for adding that b. I thought it was there because it is yet another thing that galled me about having to deal with her and made me decide shopping for the company is just not worth the aggravation. I'm not even sure she has any experience as a shopper and there is no way she has ever tried to route shop.