Her latest? Emails with entire sentences or paragraphs in all caps. Example:

"SHOPPERS I KNOW SOME OF YOU ALREADY SENT ME YOUR LIST AND I WILL BE ASSIGNING THEM TO YOU BY TOMORROW BUT I JUST WANTED TO SEND YOU OUT AN EMAIL LETTING ALL OF YOU KNOW THAT I WILL BE RELEASING ALL OTHER SHOPS NOT REQUESTED BY YOU. I WILL NEED FOR ALL OF YOU TO SEND ME A LIST OF OTHER SHOPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMPLETE BUT REMEMBER YOU CAN ONLY DO A CERTAIN NUMBER A DAY SO PLEASE DO NOT LIST 15 SHOPS DAILY. I WILL ALSO SPLIT THEM UP AS I WILL BE CHANGING THE DUE DATE TOMORROW.

"I WOULD HOPE ALL OF YOU CAN HELP ME AS I HAVE GIVEN YOU PRIORITY ON THESE SHOPS AND HAVE NOT LISTED THE SHOPS TO OTHER SHOPPERS. I STILL HAVE OVER 100 SHOPS AND ONLY HAVE TILL THURSDAY OF THIS WEEK IF YOU ALL COULD HELP ME PLEASE EVERY LITTLE BIT COULD REALLY HELP ME OUT.PLEASE CHECK MY OTHER SHOPS FOR JUNE ON THE JOB BOARD. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!"

Does this make me want to help her? No.

GfK?

Wow, that's really something, BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz.

I realize schedulers are under a lot of stress but if we were to submit a report written in this fashion it would be denied payment and we'd likely not get another assignment from that company. I wouldn't be so eager to help either for the reason I'm not sure what she is trying to say or wants from the shopper.

If there are any schedulers reading this thread:
Please be clear and succinct. There is value in the adage, "Less is more." We want to help you because we depend on you for our livelihood. Well-thought, respectful, clear communication benefits everyone.

Yep, GfK. To make it worse, most of the GfK emails I see these days come from her.

I don't have anything personal against her and I definitely have no issues with GfK, but I really wish she would communicate better.

I've turned off emails from GfK. I got tired of all their repeated spam.

Yep. I'm almost at that point now.

I DON'T KNOW WHY THE SCHEDULER THINKS TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS OKAY!

I don't know either. I wish it were just the all caps.

The CAPS would totally turn me off......delete, delete, delete.....

As a former scheduler...

If I had 100 shops that HAD to be done by Thursday I would not be saving those for certain shoppers. I would have the list go out to everyone. That sentence did not make sense to me.

Liz

It sounds like a load of bull designed to alter the perception regarding the value of the shops. All caps aside, an email that is worded that poorly and takes me several reads to understand, would be deleted quickly.

gfk's favorite buzz words are "easy", "going fast", "very easy", "quickly", did i mention "easy"

Thanks for posting this issue! I am the scheduling manager at GfK and I would be glad to follow up on this issue. Would you mind forwarding me the email you received from one of my schedulers? This is certainly not the way a scheduler should be interacting with shoppers nor would I want to receive an email like this personally. My email address is: donna.goodwin@gfk.com

Thanks!
Donna

Donna Goodwin
Scheduling Manager | GfK Mystery Shopping | Consumer Experiences North America
GfK Custom Research, LLC | 401 Park Avenue South, 8th Floor | New York, NY 10016
Mystery Shopping Website: www.gfkmysteryshops.com
Corporate Website: www.gfk.com

DonnaforGfK:

you should start by telling all your schedulers
to stop using the word easy. experienced shoppers
know when a scheduler uses the word easy - to
find the delete button quickly...


with that said...ive never had problems with gfk
but the times listed for completing shops
are usually well underestimated...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2013 04:58PM by techman01.

@Donna I am sorry but I can't forward you the emails for two reasons. First, I already deleted them. Second, even if I didn't delete them, I would not be able to forward them to you without losing my anonymity.

Unless those emails were addresses to you alone, how about a PM telling her the name of the scheduler? One would think they keep copies of correspondence. At least Donna would have the opportunity for a little training.

Good point. Will do. Thanks.

After all these obnoxious emails, I asked for a bigger bonus on one of her 'over 180 shops!!' and I was told she was not giving bonuses because people would take them in order to have the privilege of doing the audits. Why are the audits just sitting there now too??? I am not a fool.

Someone is acting foolish but it isn't you.

I sent her an email when those first came out pointing out that they basically were limiting the audits to males under 45 because that is the demographic for most of the wing shops.

No response.

I'd be glad to do some of those wing shops but I'm not going to bother looking through the whole list to find the one or two that allow any gender or age. Usually when I do find one, it's nowhere near where I'm doing my route anyway.

I find the whole thing incredibly insulting. Glad I shut off their emails, although now I'm wondering how I got the email about the audits? Maybe those started before I finally changed the setting to "stop spamming me."

Tell me about it. I've been getting like 6 emails a day for these stupid shops. Another company shops this place and pays a better fee for it. I actually applied for one of the shops with GFK and it didn't get assigned to me until an hour AFTER the timeframe to do the shop ended. I wrote a pissy email to the scheduler since I had literally just eaten at that place for fun and could have done up a report had I known to order a drink and had the full shop instructions. Now I don't even open the emails, I just DELETE DELETE DELETE.

I feel the same way. I understand needing to meet a demographic... to a point. But both myself and my male companion are only a couple years too old for these, but when I have asked, they haven't been willing/able to waive the age. Either waive the demographic requirements when needed or stop spamming people who don't meet them.

Add to that the fact that a wing shop we did for a competitor, who has better word of mouth here anyway, had a better reimbursement and no age or gender requirements! In that case, I took my male friend along because he really likes their wings and I wanted his companionship, but it was much easier for me because I wasn't *required* to work around his schedule.



itsasecret Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I sent her an email when those first came out
> pointing out that they basically were limiting the
> audits to males under 45 because that is the
> demographic for most of the wing shops.
>
> No response.
>
> I'd be glad to do some of those wing shops but I'm
> not going to bother looking through the whole list
> to find the one or two that allow any gender or
> age. Usually when I do find one, it's nowhere
> near where I'm doing my route anyway.
>
> I find the whole thing incredibly insulting. ... I finally changed the
> setting to "stop spamming me."

All,

California shoppers will have a new scheduler for July. My apologies for June as you will have about 5 different people emailing you trying to finish out the June shops so it's going to be a bit crazy. However, in July you will have Christy Ensley and you can reach her at Christy.Ensley@gfk.com Christy is one of my sweetest schedulers. I think you will each like working with her.

Also, please remember that a client decides how we can best serve them and their needs for reporting which includes specific demographics. Unfortunately there are certain demographics that spend more and in particular spend more at certain retailers so their opinion matters significantly to that client. It's no different than the clothing makers who cater to the tweens who buy their stuff more than any other segment of the population. You will notice that once we meet our prescribed quotas for the month we do open them up to everyone after that point so people do get the opportunities to do the shops.

My apologies for not responding sooner. Apparently I forgot to follow this topic.

Thanks!
Donna Goodwin

Scheduling Manager | GfK Mystery Shopping | Consumer Experiences North America
GfK Custom Research, LLC | 401 Park Avenue South, 8th Floor | New York, NY 10016
Mystery Shopping Website: www.gfkmysteryshops.com

Hi, Donna.

Thank you very much. Will Christy be the CA scheduler for all GfK shops? I'm looking forward to working with her.

BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi, Donna.
>
> Thank you very much. Will Christy be the CA
> scheduler for all GfK shops? I'm looking forward
> to working with her.


Yes, Christy will cover all of California on all programs ... once we get to July. And that transition will likely still be taking place as we move into July. As you know there is a bit to clean up on June so I had to throw a lot of people in the mix. Please overlook this a bit as that will mean more emails since there are so many who have responded to my "all hands on deck".

Thanks for alerting me to the original issue. While I do my best to stay very involved, even I miss a few things here and there.

And just why does CA deserve "the sweetest scheduler?"

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And just why does CA deserve "the sweetest
> scheduler?"

Because CA has bitter shoppers like me that need to be sweetened.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2013 12:40AM by BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz.

LMAO. I forgot you were in CA. Now I get it

Donna, I understand the client determines the demographic for the wing shops, but I don't see any relationship between the demographic for wing shops and the demographic for doing an unrelated AUDIT. It's a slap in the face to people who have been trying to work for you for months but could never find anything if now that you finally have something we might be able to do, you give preference to the people a totally unrelated client has been giving preference to all along.

And it would be nice if each job could state the demographic in the title of the job instead of making us click into the job to see if we qualify.

She told me on a wing shop it was perfectly normal for a restaurant patron to order both a beer and a coke and not drink the beer and leave it untouched. I told her it would be logical then to stick a white flag in the cup. I think it is a dead give away. I did not want to do a lunch shop with a beer. It is still sitting on the boards. No bonus and her thought was also someone would take it. Go right ahead.