Just wanted to ask if you'all think investing in a digital voice recorder would be worth it as I plan on at least trying to make mystery shopping as a sideline. I know there are threads here on this topic - my ? is this though - for what kind of shops do you find this useful? I have done mostly retail shops where the only use I can really see for one is to make verbal notes of what transpired immediately after getting out of view and off the property of wherever I have shopped. I can see where this could come in handy to jog the memory.....is this pretty much how the pros here use them, or ?

As a side note, due to some survey sites I belong to that pay me in Amazon.com giftcodes, the DVR would be a freebie (in a sense, it did take time to do the surveys). How sweet is that?

squire,
If you do 10-18 short retail shops in an airport, at a zoo, or in an amusement park in one day, you will bless that little recorder! In addition, it will allow you to accept some shops that require audio recording of the entire interaction, including meeting that may run 2 plus hours at a time share or assisted living facility, and other fun stuff. Some storage facility, apartment, and oil change shops are also requiring audio recordings.


Sounds like you have not signed up with and established yourself with enough different MSCs yet if you have not seen any audio recording shops. You will start encountering applications for MSCs that will ask if you own such a recorder. That indicates that the either do, or anticipate doing, audio recorded shops.

I use mine ALL THE TIME. I live in a one-party consent state so I can record any conversation I'm a part of.

My memory stinks. I would never remember if the clerk said "good morning" or not without it, I'd be guessing all the time. I was given a pen recorder (Memo-Q) that I can stick in my shirt pocket, but it's backed up with a regular digital recorder (about the size of a cell phone) that will be in the cell phone pouch on the outside of my purse. I plunk my purse down on the desk or counter as a backup in case I run out of memory on the pen recorder.

Most smart phones these days have voice recorder functions. No real need to buy a separate recorder in most cases.

For personal use you are absolutely right. My preference for an actual audio shop is a traditional DVR. It is easier to conceal in chest pocked or in a bra and will pick up both sides of the conversation beautifully.

Actually, you would be quite suspect if you had your phone recording what is supposed to be a covertly recorded shop where you cannot just carry it around with you for 2 hours! Besides, most phone batteries would die during that shop. AND, some MSCs specify that you may not record on your cell phone and actually will ask you to verify exactly what dvr yoy propose to use for the shop.

I can't imagine life without my recorder. Best money ever spent, and I am much more accurate on my reports. There is no question about a greeting, or if they used my name when I have my recorder.

Ok, I have a question for those using voice recorders on their assignments to keep track of what transpired on their visit. Do you find that once you're back at your home office getting ready to submit your reports that playing back a recording adds to the time it takes you to glean the data you need to complete your reports?

Shopgal,
Since my DVR plugs directly into my computer, I can control the playback speed easily and skip around as needed. If that take a small amount of extra time, I figure that it saves time when Ido not get further editor requests for clarifications.

Folks who can only control their DVRs manually do spend considerable more time waiting aroun for the recording to get from one relevant bit to another, if it was a long shop.

I love the DVR on Post Office shops. I can do a cough when I enter the line, then I hear when I'm called. Makes it very easy to do the timing with the stopwatch on the phone.

On longer shops I make mental notes of any points to bring up, then write them down when I'm back in the car, along with about how long into the shop they occurred. Then I've got an idea about how far to go in the recording to listen for the point and give an accurate report.

I'm with James. I cough when called to the line. Used the same technique for the Golden Arches shops. On shorter airport shops I listen while riding the train home and make notes of the conversation and timings. On longer dinning shops I make time notes, ie served @ xx:xx, so I know where to listen. I also run the playback while filling out the form. Many of the yes/no,short answer I can complete with out specific info, then when I get to an important part I stop and complete that. It usually takes no more time to re listen than it takes me to complete the report anyway.
I used a DVR for many years. It was great. Looked like a cell phone (at the time), recorded even the soft spoken clerks while in my coat pocket or cell phone pocket on my purse. I now use the Voice Memo on my iPhone. It too works pretty good on the soft spoken and from my purse, plus it's pretty regular to see customers with phone in hand. It gives me the minutes and seconds for timings and picks up a good bit of the surrounding goings on. One pit fall is that it will stop sometimes if I have to use the camera, probably operator error, and if I don't let it load completely before renaming it when I stop recording there is no audio. It's happened a few times, waaaagh, but fortunately I had made timing and what they said notes.
There are a few shops where I have to use a mobile coupon, in those cases I have to revert to my DVR.
And like Walesmaven said, "If you do 10-18 short retail shops in an airport, at a zoo, or in an amusement park in one day, you will bless that little recorder!"

Originally the Voice Recorder on the iPhone would stop if you put it to sleep or when taking a photo. I've found it will now keep recording. Just be sure to put it in airplane mode since an incoming phone call will still stop the recorder.

Yes it is worth it! The End.

Thank you all for the feedback. When I first started out a few years back, I experimented around with using a friend's audio recorder on my assignments. It was taking me forever to get my reports done by the time I was going through the playbacks, so I abandoned that method. Your tips have me rethinking that it still might be a workable tool for me without requiring an excessive amount of time.

I started in 2012 using a micro-cassette recorder. It did ok with an external mic, but using the built-in mic I would get too much of the motor noise. I haven't regretted the switch to DVR.

Have any of you tried using the dragon speak program thing? It willtype out what was said on the digital recording. I've been thinking about purchasing that because then I've got quotes already typed out for and I can just copy, paste, and modify. I imagine it would make the detailed shops so much better. Anyone tried it?

There is a Dragon app for the iPhone and has a free and paid version. I've played with the free version and it works great. It 'gets' the words if you speak in a clear steady voice but there is a learning curve to be able to dictate your thoughts AND insert the punctuation. At least for me there was and I was more time effective for me to just transcribe my recording while on the train home and then type up the narrative on my PC. There was no need to train it (to your speech pattern and words), as I think you have to do with the PC version or older ones. You can email yourself, or anyone, a copy.
I'm thinking I may get brave enough to update my iPad to iOS 6 so I can give Siri a whirl.

I have used both Dragon and SIRI on the iPad and Siri. I actually have found Siri to typically contain fewer errors.

Awesome! I havew a droid so I don't have dragon. I'll check the app store though. Then I can try it out.

I use my digital recorder for every single shop and I cannot imagine NOT using it.

Before I start the shop, I record the date, time and location.

Then, I record the entire shop. As I am entering the door of the establishment, I cough, so that I will know - when listening back, how long it took me to be greeted from the time I entered.

After I exit the location, I turn the recorder off. I start another recording saying the time I exited, and then I describe the employee(s) I interacted with and give a full summary of all of the pertinent things that happened.

When doing the report, I don't usually have to listen to the entire shop. Normally I listen to the beginning of the first recording to get the entrance time, then the last recording to get the exit time, descriptions and summary of everything. But the full recording is good to have in case there is a question on the report that requires information I can't remember, or forgot to mention in my verbal summary on the recording. It's like a safeguard.

I keep my recorder in a cell phone holder, clipped to one of the pockets of my purse, just like a cell phone and if I need to speak into it while in a shop or restaurant, I put it up to my head like a cell phone and talk into it like a cell phone. Nobody ever is suspicious because I hold it this way. They just think I am on my cell phone.

Edited to add:

For restaurant shops that require a lot of timings (time order placed, time appetizer received, time entree received, etc.)....I just make short recordings while in the restaurant - again, using the "cell phone" technique...and the pause button. I don't record the whole dinner. The entire recording will only be a few minutes long because it's just short statements by me saying timings or summarizing an interaction.

One thing I do, when talking into my recorder pretending it's a cell phone, is to make sure I am making facial expressions and saying things like, "oh really?" etc. so it really appears I am on the phone. And I always say, "Ok, I'll call you back later" just to make sure it seems like I am on the phone, not talking into a recorder.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2013 12:04AM by SassyGirl.

Ok, so after reading the raves about using voice recorders, I downloaded the free android app "Voice Recorder" to my cell phone. I tried it out on two quick assignments. A couple of things didn't work out so well. First, my computer didn't recognize the files when I tried to open them later. Second, it seemed to take a lot of time to review the recording to get the details for my report.

What am I doing wrong?

Not sure about the app, but I would recommend buying a real recorder. You can get one for about $50 at Radio Shack and they are very reliable. I like the Olympus brand.

It does take a long time to just listen to the whole recording. I find it works best on either short interactions where timing is important or when I want to have a back up to jog my memory. For the longer ones I just keep it running in the background while filling out my report. The recording also gives me start and end times, but normally I will have noted associate names and other little details somewhere else.

I have no clue about transferring to your computer. Can you see the extension for file? My DVR records as a .wav file.

Shopgal: Is there a reason you wanted to upload them to your computer? If so, then yes I'd get a real recorder that has that capability. If you just want to review them, why not listen to them via the phone while you complete the 'yes/no' or simpler aspects of your report.

I don't listen to the whole recording, unless it's a short shop. For the longer ones, dining and such, I've made notes (somewhere) as to approx times of interactions to check, then just fast forward close to those times. If you have a longer shop with lots of interactions, then it will take time to review the whole recording.

There is a convenience to uploading since it is more accurate and just plain easier moving around within the recording. My fingers are too fat to be all that exact with a recording on my phone and I end up way before or way after where I really need to be

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> I have no clue about transferring to your
> computer. Can you see the extension for file? My
> DVR records as a .wav file.

It's called a 3GP file. I transferred the file to the computer as I had read in another discussion that it would be easier to deal with the playback.

So when the computer wouldn't open it, I played back directly from my phone. This was not easy, as the free version of this app doesn't seem to have any usable controls to rewind or fast forward. Looks like it is limited to play, stop, and send.

Bummed that my experiment didn't go so well.

Doesn't that app allow you to e-mail it to yourself? Why don't you try that and see if will convert the file to something that can be played on something other than the app itself.

That's what I did. The app gave me the option of emailing the file to my computer rather than playing the file on my phone. Nothing opened it. In the interval since I last posted, I checked out the app and it gives you the option of buying an MP3 converter.

I'm just not sure which, if any, financial investment to make in an app or device. If using a voice recorder is going to extend my reporting sessions, I might not find it to be as useful as I had hoped.

My phone had a built in voice recorder that I use for many shops. My Olympus DVR was not purchased to help with general shops, it was for audio recorded jobs. The extra money from those shops more than covered it. The only problem, I don't see many audio shops anymore. It seems more of them have gone to video.

I might look into some other apps, or do more research on Voice Recorder. I want to have more capability with an app other than play and stop.