I am doing several shops with the same client, so I'm supposed to use a different alias with each one. I used an alias for the first time today, and it felt so weird every time the sales person called me by my "name." I felt a little panicky, when I wasn't restraining myself from laughing. And I get to go through with it again in a couple of days, with a different name. How do you all pick your names? I went for boring, common names.

I am interested in more on this, too! I just did my first bank shop. I'd been nervous to do bank shops, because I don't have (hardly any) money and didn't think I'd come across as sincere. But I think I did OK. The MSC says if I take on more of these, to use different names. That would make me even more nervous.

So more info on using aliases & tricks to getting used to it & if you rotate aliases and whatever other helpful tips would be appreciated here, too.

I would start with picking names that are familiar to you so you don't forget them. I will often use names of family and friends or a combination of names of people I know. I might spell the name a little differently, though. I might use the same first name for a few shops but change the last name.

You'll get used to it after a few and spinning stories will become second nature. I never was good at lying, but now random lies just roll out of my mouth when I am shopping for an apartment, home or investment plan.

I had to do that today, my new name is Mirabelle . The real Mirabelle didn't mind, she just purred when i gave her some catnip.

I use names of dead relatives, high school friends and people I used to work with in other parts of the country. I do keep notes of which names I use and where.

Cettie and I do the same thing.

My cat has a different last name than me so it works out well as an alias. He got an offer for a credit card in the mail last week. I'm wondering if one of the places I shopped sold his name...ore perhaps he's been busy on the iPad while Im at work.

I use either my real first or middle name, and have a rotating list of last names that I use that start with the first two letters of my real last name. Close enough to reality to recover in case I should slip, but far enough away to keep my identity protected.

My name is Elizabeth so I start with the myriad of names/nicknames there. My last name is longer and is always mispronounced/mispelled and can be shortened and switched around a number of ways. I find that easiest.

Liz

What will we be ask to do next?

Dead relatives? Well, for me, that would be Elsie Mae, Edna, Twyla, Vera...I was actually thinking of using names of people on this forum, or maybe we could all come up with a pool of names and stories that we could reuse. We could make up a Shopper Town and populate it with them.

cvb42jeb Wrote:
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> I use names of dead relatives, high school friends
> and people I used to work with in other parts of
> the country. I do keep notes of which names I use
> and where.

cruiseguy Wrote:
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> What will we be ask to do next?


Provide new phone numbers and addresses per each purchase and return assignment when you work for the same client over the span of a few months or years. Some stores ask for these each time to catch "serial returners". Akward.

Here's a suggestion that I used in my IMSC seminar on creating and using complicated scenarios, most of which will require an alias.

First, make a list of the last names of, for instance:
your first grade teacher
your favoite musician
your favorite author
you maternal grandmother
your sister's/brother's married names
you prom date/the person you would have asked to the prom if your dreams had come true
your best man/maid of honor
your favorite actor
favorite actress
your doctor
your dentist, etc, etc, and so forth, until you have about 2 dozen surnames, at least.

Take the alphabet letter BEFORE the first letter of each surname that you have and create a first name.

So, if your favorite singer was Dolly Parton, when using the Parton surname, you would want a given name beginning with "0", such as Olive, Olivia, Oliver, etc. When you are being addressed by either the "p" surname or the "O" given name, it will be quite easy to remember the name "paired" with it.



Have fun.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2012 04:53PM by walesmaven.

Inquiring minds want to know. Why does Steve's cat have a different last name?

My cat has a different last name than me as well. When I got married, I changed my last name but the cat did not. I told her that was her decision.

I use my sister's name.

I have used 9 different aliases this week so far with 2 more to go tomorrow. I feel like James Bond. I never know who I am and barely respond when I am called by my real name (that may be intentional, but shhhh.....don't tell anyone. ) No matter what name you use, I have found that writing the name down a few times, and as odd as it sounds, saying the name outloud to yourself while you are on the way to your shop, will help you remember without even thinking about it. Trust me, in less than 5 days, I will have been 11 different people with 11 different e-mail addresses and phone numbers. I am confused on an hourly basis as to what my name is, where to reach me by phone, how to contact me on e-mail, how many children I have, if they are boys or girls, heaven-forbid how old they all may be, and if I am married/widowed/separated/divorced, etc.
Even when I don't know up from down, before I go into a shop using an alias, I always say outloud, "My name is ------" at least 3 times. I am sure people in cars beside me may have looked at me like I was crazy, but I doubt they would think so when they learned I was getting paid to say, "My name is ------".
Don't worry if you blow it. I have blown it before and felt like a complete idiot. But, in the scheme of the world, it was not that big of a deal. And look, I just got some use out of it my using it as an example on this thread!

I have been repeating my next alias as a mantra all day. I'm worried I'll get hit in the head, and when I wake up from the coma, I'll think I'm that other person.

The sales agent I worked with yesterday repeated my alias name so frequently there was no way I was going to forget it. It's just when I introduce myself that I have to be hyper-aware. Anyway, my husband thinks it's funny that he's married to so many women. Or actually not married, because most of my aliases are single women.

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> Inquiring minds want to know. Why does Steve's cat
> have a different last name?


When I adopted him, he was just listed as Mr. Roarke and seemed to answer to that, so I simply gave him a first name. I only use his full name when he's in trouble, since he prefers to be addressed professionally. He's a tuxedo cat, so the formality makes sense....

Mother's maiden name, grandmothers' maiden names, old school mates' names...

Amie,
Your experience is more like that of shoppers who do a lot of complex scenarios. Last week I was supposed to be Della Edwards, following the "successive first letters" rule. When I entered I had a brain freeze. All I could think of was a given name of Ella, and the surname Fitzgerald, which was NOT going to work. So, I inverted the rule and became Ella Dawson. Fortunately, I remembered my unique phone number and email address.

walesmaven Wrote:
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> Take the alphabet letter BEFORE the first letter
> of each surname that you have and create a first
> name.
>
> So, if your favorite singer was Dolly Parton, when
> using the Parton surname, you would want a given
> name beginning with "0", such as Olive, Olivia,
> Oliver, etc. When you are being addressed by
> either the "p" surname or the "O" given name, it
> will be quite easy to remember the name "paired"
> with it.


I'm sure that works for some people, but getting that intricate would actually cause me to forget the name quicker.

Ah, but when the target addresses you by one of the names, it will remind you of the other! It becomes sooo simple.

walesmaven Wrote:
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> Ah, but when the target addresses you by one of
> the names, it will remind you of the other! It
> becomes sooo simple.


When the client uses my real first name, it's even simpler.

I have been known to use my mother's maiden name; my married name(which I do not use but paired with a different first name)my maiden name usually paired with that of a long dead great aunt;and the maiden names of both of my grandmothers(also dead for a very long time.)

I pick an alias and use it all month whether it is for phone, internet or in-person (when I can and want to be anonymous) shops. It gets easier since I hear the name over and over throughout the month.

I'm lucky because I have 7 sisters so I just rotate using their names. That way when I'm called by one of their names I recognize it immediately!

Here is another tip you may want to use if you have an alias e-mail and/or phone number. I either type the info in my notes on my iPhone or write it on my middle or ring finger of my left hand (only because I am right handed and it would probably wear off!). If it comes time to give my number or e-mail and I am drawing a blank, I will act as if I am getting a call and ask the person to excuse me while I check a call in case it was my son's school calling. I never leave the area. I just look at my phone which I leave with the notes open so it is the first thing that pops up, look at the info to jar my memory and then say something like, "Oh good. It was not his school. I will call them back later." As for writing it on my finger of my less-dominant hand, if I need to glance at the info, I act like I am about to sneeze or I cough so I have to put my hand up to my face.

StacyP Wrote:
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> I am doing several shops with the same client, so
> I'm supposed to use a different alias with each
> one. I used an alias for the first time today, and
> it felt so weird every time the sales person
> called me by my "name." I felt a little panicky,
> when I wasn't restraining myself from laughing.
> And I get to go through with it again in a couple
> of days, with a different name. How do you all
> pick your names? I went for boring, common names.

The first time I used a fake name on site in a shop, I used my husband's ex wife's name. I have no idea why it popped into my head at that moment. The next time I used my read first name but dropped the first letter of it, no one ever hears it anyway. When she called me by it the first time, I had to fight the urge to correct her. Odd that I was going to correct her, since I have given up correcting people at work. When she asked for my last name, I did this stutter and then popped out a name and laughed. i told her I had just gotten married and wasn't used to giving out my new name yet. She had fun with that when she asked my phone number. She actually asked me if I even knew my own phone number. I told her that I did, but it was changing soon since I had just moved. I suck at coming up with aliases. My did a shop where i had to pretend that I was Hispanic. I didn't need an accent, but if I didn't have one, I had to make sure I sounded "American" which is interesting because people from Texas are still American. Anyway, glad I lost my Massachusetts accent when I moved to Colorado. I used one of my co-worker's sisters' names.

For those who need only a couple of aliases per month, you do not need my system. It is most useful for shoppers who expect to agressively market themselves to MSCs that have clients with large, interlinked, data bases. It is NOT true, as someone has stated (here or on a related thread) that the clients purge their data bases regularly. Several MSCs have actually offered to pay the client's costs to purge the shoppers from their data bases, and the offers have been declined! So, the demand for shoppers who can build and maintain unduplicated aliases is growing, rather than shirkning.

If like me, you ma do six shops in a 2 week period for the builder or Assisted Living management client, which has all of its data bases linked, it will NOT work to have fewer than six aliases. Also, some of us will then turn around and do our 35th (or 135th) shop for ABC builders, which keeps its data base active, across the country, forever. Since I have a very unusual first name, it would be very obvious that too many people with that first name (remember, these data bases will offer to autofill any element) have been in their New Jesery or North Carolina location this month/year/decade.

So, I like to start a client with my surname that begins with A, move on to the B surname for the next shop, and so on. When I reach the end of one alphabetical list for that client company, I need to start a new list. THAT SAID, if I am doing a new home for ABC Builders in the AM, I will be glad to used the same persona for my shop at XYX Builders in the afternoon, etc. Those are nice easy days, lol.

I recently did this for the first time, too. I did a phone shop where I was interested in enrolling my daughter in a certain school ( I don't have any kids). I just picked some names at random. Sort of fun, really. I created her out of thin air, and she never talks back.