I want to offer you an incredible gift, but first let me explain.

Last week I sent out an email offering help with mystery shopping.

And frankly, the response has been overwhelming. Between
email & MysteryShopForum.com messages, I got 144 responses!

The bad news is I can't respond to everyone individually.

But the good news...The incredibly good news...Which goes to show
the power of community, is that a lot of answers where already
given at MysteryShopForum.com

There were so many responses, and some of them just sparkled!

I compiled some of the best responses here:

[www.mysteryshoponline.com]

Be sure to read them.

And after reading them, you might come to the same realization
I did.

And...you might better understand why I have decided to offer
you an incredible gift.

You see, I believe there are few things more powerful than a strong
community.

The community of people at MysteryShopForum.com is really beginning
to shine. There is so much knowledge among the many people there
that it accounts for hundreds of years worth of mystery shopping
experience.

But, there are still a lot of people who have questions about
mystery shopping.

That's why I've decided to announce a special 'gift giving spree'
to people who post on MysteryShopForum.com.

During the next week I'm going to give away a hundred dollars worth
of Amazon.com gift certificates. I'm going to give four $25 gift
certificates to people who are the most helpful on the forum.

To be eligible to receive your gift you'll need to be a registered
member of MysteryShopForum.com. (You can do that for free)

But please don't post just so you can get the gift certificate...

I want MysteryShopForum.com to be a place where people can read,
learn, and discuss mystery shopping for the purpose of being
helpful, and creating value for as many people as possible.

So register, and start posting today!

Sincerely,

Jacob Jans

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2007 07:26PM by JacobJ.

i like the way that sound i wont to become a mestary shopper so put me in on it.

Dear Jacob Jans. 3/14/2007 Wednesday 12:50 pm
Jacob AQuestion from Willard Bowser// lonedriver04@yahoo.com
phone no : 231-878-2796 Cel 9:00am to 7:30 pm Eastern time Zone

Question : Jacob when you go on a Mystery Shoppingto Evulate a Retail store or place that you need to "spend Money to do the Evulation do I have to take this out of my own pocket first then you Rembursed after word's or how does it works please Advise me thank you Have a Great Week
Willard Bowser
Email address: lonedriver04@yahoo.com

i am interested in the job

Thank you for your help and knowledge. I look forward to your emails.

I just started shopping in May and have conquered a few of the obstacles of Mystery Shopping. I average over $300 a month in my spare time while working another job.

Here's an idea that may help others to get organized as that was my weakest area. I have a notebook that I keep with a spreadsheet. I have color-coded each company so I don't have to write that out each time. I write a brief note (ie: Sonic Longview Hwy 80) then record the pay. I have a column for mileage and then one to show when I receive my paychecks. On my next one, I plan to add on a column for faxes since many require a fax of receipts and I need to be sure to stay on top of that too.

The color-coding also lets me see which companies are keeping me busy so I know which sites to follow up on for jobs. My time is priceless so any steps to keep organized are time-savers.

I hope this helps others as much as it has helped me. Best wishes to all of you who are just getting started.

After reading through several of your postings, I see why some of you are not getting jobs. The companies that I work for are VERY careful to hire shoppers who can write well. Many of you are using incorrect grammar, cannot write complete sentences, or have many words spelled wrong. Buy a dictionary or thesaurus to help enhance your writing. You will get called back if your commentaries are well written.

I agree 100%. Some of the postings are really bad as far as spelling and grammar. I was hoping that maybe some people were typing a little too fast or were using some abbreviations like my teenage daughter uses when text messaging or instant messaging her friends. A good example of this is the post for this message written by abossy21!!!!!!

I find that it is easier to write my reports on a word processor and cutting and pasting to the forms. That way I can spell check everything before sending the reports. Also I like to keep a spread sheet of all my assignments, I include the shop dat, shop location, milage, pay, and date paid. All this information will make it easier at tax time, and I don't have to search oll over the office for the information that I need.
As DLerious states above, all the shopping companies that I have worked for will grade your reports, check your shop log with them, they will give you tips to make the next job you do a little easier. Also if you are accepted for a shop and can not complete it as required, let the scheduler know, sometimes they will let you re-schedule the shop sometimes not, but it will let the shopping companies know that you are a reliable person.

I am so glad somebody approached this topic. Sometimes the posts are just painful to read. One of the benefits I have received as a result of writing reports is the ability to articulate my thoughts and write them properly so they are easier to read. I spell check everything, including my posts on forums. I was told that schedulers and editors read these forums too. It is a shame when I receive a low score because I made a typo and did not take the time to spell check. Good luck!

I signed up to do a shop for a particular company. The paperwork and internet questionnaire were so time consuming, I basically made nothing. Unfortunately, I signed up for another shop with the same company, prior to finding out how time consuming it would be. I asked to be removed from the second shop (allowing enough time for them to find another shopper). This did not sit well with them, and I was notified I got a "citation," with a 0 for 0 shops. Be sure to try out a shop for the first time before signing on for another. It can save you grief and a bad shopper reputation.

I think by reading some of the posts on this forum, people wants to make money but dont want to work, they cant apply for the shops themselves, they want you to give them the name of companies. if you dont want to apply for the companies on their websites then I suggest you pay places like shadow shopper that is what i did i didnt have the time to search the web or register so i paid the 39.95 to find the good companies. As for the paperwork the most time that it has taken me fill out a report is 15 mins i do not think that is time consuming at all

Hi, I want to add a little about the spellings on some postings. If they are in such a hurry to do a couple of lines on a post, imagine the rush to get a report in. I don't know about your computer, but mine has a spell check, that gets used! Also remember, that most shops wants details, details, details. I have been shopping for four months now, and I am still learning, thanks in part by some friendly evaluators, that sends me notes on what I need to do to improve my reports. Also, the other, much more experienced shoppers, who lets you in on some helpful hints. Thank-you...Gloria

Hello, The most important details in any of the reports are that there are no inconsistencies. The companies do not want a rushed report, and most are extremely critical of spelling errors. I have done a variety of different evaluations, however, the majority do degrade you for spelling. I think they are aware that not everyone is completely grammatically correct, so the key is do your best to describe the experience as you were reading them a story for the company so they can imagine what did happen.

It is really fun reading some of these e-mails. I really don't understand how some of these people can even fill out a report. They must only do companies where they have to click on an answer. The grammer and the spelling would never past the mustard with some some of the companies I have to fill out reports for. It would be nice if all of the companies had spell checks because I know sometimes I start typing too fast and don't catch a typo but I do make sure I proofread all of my own reports. I have been shopping for over a year and one company I do reports for the form is 14 pages long when I print it out. I do about 50-70 shops a month for them and it is mostly comments about what I saw and did in the store. If I didn't get $800 up to $1300 a month from them I would probably not do it. They money is too good there to quite just because of the length of the reports. When I do so many for them they they have been very good about extending my time to get the reports in. My income for the past few months is better then any other job and I can pretty much set my own schedule. I can work two or three days a week and usually take off the last week of the month and just take calls from companies offering the high commission jobs. When I get one I check with some of the other companies and get more jobs going to the same area and fill me schedule that way.

It seems that all my jobs have been ones that required much paperwork. Therefore, my home file cabinets are full. I am still going through my grown children's papers to see if anything should be kept. When I started mystery shopping again, I got some 9x12 manila envelopes. When I finish a report, I put it in one and store them all in a computer paper box. The envelope is labeled with company, client, date, payment, and occasionally something else important. If I've done several, they go in the same envelope, or I put a rubber band around several envelopes with a card (8-1/2x11" in front with the names of all of them. The first months were bundled together and when I went on travel loops to small towns, I bundled all them. So I don't have a hard-and-fast rule yet on how to handle them, but this seems to work. I can go back to one if something happens, such as an inquiry that they didn't receive the receipt, etc.

I used to print out blank calendar sheets, fill in the months and days myself and put them in a clipboard. Then any flyer or newsletter that I had from an organization would go under the calendars. I photocopied the blank sheets on differet colored paper. For example, one year would have green paper, and the next would have yellow. That way, it was easy to keep up with my children's and my activities.

I do it different now. I use a teacher's planning calendar or something similar. I have gotten in the habit of covering the calendar with wrapping paper. One year, I pasted a photograph from my vacation on the front. This makes it obvious where it is no matter where I go. I have my phone number inside. When I was substituting, I left it in a teacher's lounge, and another teacher called me before I began to panic. It was useful for substitute teaching.

When I started mystery shopping, I began listing each shop on the calendar. This helps me plan my day, even though a shop might be moved a day or two ahead or back if the scheduler's rules allow.

I make a list in the computer as well. I list the shops in chronological order how much they pay and whether I got paid. At the end, I list the companies I worked for that month, who the clients were and how many of them I shopped, and what my total for the month was. It helps. If I get behind, I write on my paper copy until it's time to go back to the computer.

I have another list that is of the companies I contact frequently. I have all pertinent information there, including the names of clients, whether their website has quirks, and which scheduler is nice or has an attitude. I forewarn myself.

It took a while to iron out the kinks in record keeping. I think this will work in the long term for me. When I started out, I put everything on 3x5 cards that were alphabetized. It helped because I could have a blank card by the keyboard when I was registering. The drawback is in flipping to the next card when I want to doublecheck a password when I'm checking the websites for jobs. It consumed too much time.

Sandra Sue