All,
Hello all! Someone was kind enough to forward this chain to me so I could follow up! Thanks everyone when you do this, because while I try to keep up with the forums it can be challenging.
1. I do not think the proofing supervisor that is referred to and is named Donna... is me. I have been out of the country from Aug 15-26 and I do not think I sent 10 emails during that time because I could not login most of the time I was gone. However, having said that, I would like to better understand the interaction with that "Donna".
2. We have outsourced out of the country in the past. The company that we used in the Phillipines though was a GfK company and those were GfK employees. We also outsourced some of our scheduling to India for awhile. As we all know, outsourcing causes it's own set of issues but all companies try it from time to time to see if it's successful. Any more it's rarely, if ever, a cost savings, it has more to do with volume fluctuations and the ability to handle those fluctuations which honestly is a little challenging for a lot of US companies to do. And unfortunately in the mystery shopping world you can go from 100 shops to 10,000 shops in 48 hours so fluctuations are quite common.
3. All of our schedulers and proofers live here in the US as far as I know. I know the schedulers do as that's the team I manage. We outsource our proofing to a US based company in the northeast who also proofs for 3-4 other well known mystery shopping companies. I would have to read the forums to see if those companies get the same complaints but from what I had understood this company has a good reputation and these proofers are editing for a lot of companies. I would hope that would mean a better level of service and more consistent service across those multiple companies.
OK, having said all that, I am quite shocked that you were told your information was "nonsense". I would like to follow up on this and get it to the person who surpervises proofing (It's not me, sorry, or I would handle right away).
AnonymousNYC, I think the people on this forum will tell you that I am fair and really will follow up on the issue you are experiencing. It is going to be challenging because I have to travel twice more in the next week, but I will make sure your issue gets seriously looked into. Would you mind PM-ing me more specific details?
Thanks and I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!
Donna
Donna Goodwin
Operations Manager
GfK Mystery Shopping
GfK | 200 Liberty Street | 4th Fl | New York | NY | 10281 | United States
donna.goodwin@gfk.com
PS. Below are the standards our proofing team is supposed to follow. Just for your info, any report score of "7 and up", we consider to be "good" and you have access to self-assign shops on all programs.
Report Scores – what do they mean?
This report rating system below is used by our editing team to determine the rating for each submitted report. The rating can be found on your shop log page after your report has been fully submitted and edited.
• 10 – This is a perfect report and does not require any editing at all. It contains excellent detail, full complete sentences in all narrative questions, and no errors.
• 9 – This is a great report. 1-3 errors found
• 8 – This is a very good report. 4-6 errors found
• 7 – This is a good report. 7-10 errors found
• 6 – Shopper should review shop guidelines for next shop. 11-15 errors found
• 5 – Shopper should review shop guidelines for next shop. 15+ errors found
• 1 – This is an excluded shop due to a shopper not following the shop guidelines. (revisit and/or non-payment)
Additional Information
• All ratings are final and are non-negotiable. You should not challenge the editing team or your scheduler for any rating given. No score(s) will be modified.
• If you have an overall rating of 7 or above you are considered a “GfK top tier shopper” and would never be disqualified from conducting any particular shop. Your overall rating can be found on the top right section of your shopper log.
• An “error” is defined as any edit the proofer has to make to correct a report. Examples of errors are: a spelling mistake, grammar mistake, inconsistency, or any other necessary update. No Score should be provided for any shop that goes into “excluded” because a location was closed.
• 1 point will be deducted from your report’s overall score if you receive an email from an editor because something in your report needs to be clarified. (report clarification).
o For example, if your report had 4 grammar mistakes and the shop was put back to the “incomplete” status for you to upload a better picture of a receipt or store front photo, you would receive an overall score of 7. (Minus 2 points because of the 4 grammar mistakes and minus 1extra point for the report clarification)