Revealed shops

What do you think of revealed shops??? Ever did any that you could not give a successful certificate?????

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Probably between 25% and 33% of reward reveals I have done are unsuccessful. If employees were always doing what they were supposed to be doing there would be no point in offering rewards and sending in a secret shopper. The goal of a program such as this is to get them to do what they are supposed to be doing anyway. I have really not had a problem with reward reveals except where the company was sending me gift cards to be handed out if the employee succeeded. There the problem was that the company did not even ship out the gift cards until after the date I had scheduled to do the shop so I needed to rearrange my schedule to drop everything and dash out to do the shop as soon as the cards arrived.

I am hesitant about doing reward reveals where I need to front the cash reward unless it is for an MSP I trust 100% AND that reimburses promptly. I absolutely stay away from the reward reveals where I am potentially handing out 2x-4x what I am being paid to do the shop.

The currently available reward reveals, where the winner will be mailed a check, I find to be an absolutely perfect way to handle these shops.

I wish I had never done a reveal assignment. I turned down the last one I was offered. I live in a small town, and you'd be surprised how fast people think of mystery shopping. I was doing a gas station audit once, and an employee who saw me with the camera yelled out so everyone could hear, "Oh, you're the mystery shopper!" I was not in my town, but I don't want that to occur anywhere else. I even have people who see me merchandising ask if I mystery shop. Mystery shopping is too well known, if you ask me. It should have been given a different name.

There is, of course, that to be considered as well. In my area I rarely see people I know or who I recognize. I have come to know and be known by the managers of a couple of gas stations where I do reveals, but I don't worry about it because I am in those stations regularly anyway and there is little difference in their behaviors towards me or other customers whether it is a shop or not.

I remember your small-town problem, SS. Could never happen here, where the population is huge and the turnover of clerks is constant. Except, as with Flash, a few gas station owners with whom I've kibbitzed, but it's usually the clerks who serve me. On the other hand, because this is an anonymous metro area, it's carpeted with shoppers.

You could try a variety of hats, wigs and sunglasses.

Sneakers,

I've been unrecognized by a friend when I wore a wig years ago, but she was not a close friend. "Everyone" wears sunglasses in Texas. I am immediately recognized if I cut my hair or change its color. If not, I am recognized when I start speaking. Once, I went to the library after a drastic hair color change. The clerk said, before I had identified myself, "Sandra, it sounds like you but it doesn't look like you." Having had a home-based business for over two decades with hundreds of customers, and having been in many organizations, president of some, there is no way I can hide. They recognize my voice on the phone. They recognize my body shape. People I no longer recognize remember me because of whose mother I am. I once took my children to a club meeting because of who the speaker was and the educational value of the speech, and the club, which I had never visited before, was getting ready to elect officers. I got nominated!

Time to quit MSing.

No, Sneakers. They may recognize me from somewhere but they have little idea what I'm doing. I've always been out and about, and I've always been doing so many things that they don't blink an eye. Almost any excuse I give would be plausible. When I need a receipt, I tell them my husband is collecting them. Even if I don't know or recognize them, they know my husband used to do taxes, and they don't think about whether their receipt would have any bearing on taxes. I have to be careful which places I shop and how I act.

In that sense we all need to exercise caution about where we shop and how we act, whether it is a reveal or a mystery shop. What boggles my mind is the shops with the 'dead giveaway' scenarios that will as readily flag you to be a shopper as handing them the piece of paper announcing they have just been shopped. While sometimes it doesn't matter at all if the employee figures out you are the shopper, other times it can result in your not getting paid for your work or being reimbursed.

That's true, Flash. I have stopped shopping places because of the red flags.

There is an MSP that makes nametags for the gas station auditors who must make a purchase first. The tags say "mystery shopper". I refuse to wear one. A manager commented that her paperwork said I was supposed to be wearing a nametag. I offered my driver's license because "I forgot it at home", but she said it didn't matter. I don't like to do that client.

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