I especially hate the editors who insist on a full description for every single no or NA response. What part of "NO they did not ask me that." is vague?

I am the OP on this one
Pretty sure this one editor has inferiorty issues and likes to wield their pitiful amount of power over shopper reports . The shop was submitted the 28th of August. Editor writes me today about not enough detail etc. Same editor and petty BS as the past two times.

This editor wants details about a test drive?
Be careful what you ask for!

I think a full report on the weather and road conditions should be in there
Stoplight light by stoplight descriptions of what we are passing. Distance markers.Descrptipns of what pedestrians are wearing.
This could be fun!
Ok- I am bored with no shops until Thursday so it will kill some time.

What happens during test drive is very important to client. If you know this picky editor from past 2 times & you know they want lots of detail why not give it to then first time?

Any shop requiring a test drive means we will have to give details about what happened. What would be the point otherwise? I've completed enough test drives on routes that providing thing like street names wouldn't be possible. What the client wants to know is what type of route you took, side streets, interstate, windy roads, and what the associate did and talked about during the drive.

Aayaey may have a degree in English, but the sentence:
"I don't understand why it's not ok to use contractions if it is used properly." should not use a singular "it" after the plural subject "contractions." Hmmm....

Its a holiday. Lets give grammar police the day off.

I've been shopping for a year and just barely got my first note from an editor saying please watch your grammar and spelling . Okay it's possible that my grammar was less than perfect. But I know my spelling was perfect. That made me so mad that I stopped taking jobs from this company. Maybe I'll get over it soon. Maybe I won't.

I would guess that most MSCs have more than one editor. 8 other shops with same MSC and no problems.

@Ronnie B. wrote:

I especially hate the editors who insist on a full description for every single no or NA response. What part of "NO they did not ask me that." is vague?

I could understand that for most questions, actually.The client doesn't just want to know if it's no, they want to know why it's no. "No, the area was not clean. There were x pieces of trash on the ground, 2 tables were not bussed for more than 20 minutes, and someone had spilled a drink which was not cleaned up for 15." "No, the employee did not verbally greet me. They did give me a nod, or they completely ignored me. This employee was or was not engaged with another customer at the time." "No, the item did not ring up correctly. The machine rang an incorrect number of times, or it did not ring at all." "No, the electronic signage was not working properly. Certain letters were burnt out, or it was not working at all. Or, there simply was no electronic signage visible at this location." "No, not all employees wore name badges and were dressed in proper uniform. 5 of the 7 employees I saw were wearing nametags and in proper uniform. Employee A was not wearing a company-issued shirt, and Employees A and B were not wearing nametags."

The worse the employees perform on an audit, in general, the longer it takes to write the report. It's an occupational hazard which comes with mystery shopping. I will say that as far as 'No, they did not ask me goes'---no, this usually doesn't require much explanation. However, I recently did one shop where the person I spoke with on the phone and the employee with whom I interacted on-site were the same person. In this case, I did answer 'No' for whether or not the person asked me such-and-such a question on-site. However, it was also important for the client to know that this was the same employee with whom I had spoken on the phone, she remembered our conversation, and she had already said something which implied that she remembered the answer to this question.

The client's reaction to something like "Were you seated in 5 minutes?" being no can be completely different depending on why it was. "No, I was not seated in 5 minutes because the employees were having a non work related conversation. I had to wait 7 minutes." "No, I was not seated in 5 minutes because there was some kind of emergency situation, and employee attention was focused on that. I waited for 7&1/2 minutes, and the employee who seated me sincerely apologized for the wait." "I sat for twelve minutes in the waiting area without even seeing an employee. When one finally entered, she handed me a menu, pointed towards an empty table, and left without saying a word."

And let's take bar shops as another example....I've heard some people say that they weren't carded because the employee claimed to remember them from another visit, and that is the kind of thing which the client would want to factor into their evaluation, as well.

There is always an elaboration for a no answer. Sometimes though, it does mean that you have to repeat things. It's just an occupational hazard of the job.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2015 12:58AM by OceanGirl.

Actually one of the best reasons to ask for a No answer to be commented on is to be sure we meant to mark the question No. I've contradicted myself in the narrative and not realized it at the time. None of us are perfect.

@dkpskipper wrote:

I would guess that most MSCs have more than one editor.

This has definitely been my experience. A lot of them seem to be assigned specific clients, like the schedulers. With the volume of shops that they do, it would be petty crazy just to have one editor. Some of the big ones apparently do tens of thousands of audits per month. In those cases, especially if you repeat shops regularly for an extended period of time, you're probably going to encounter multiple schedulers and multiple editors working on any given project.

@LisaSTL wrote:

Actually one of the best reasons to ask for a No answer to be commented on is to be sure we meant to mark the question No. I've contradicted myself in the narrative and not realized it at the time. None of us are perfect.

True.

I find one company in particuar is bad for that and maybe it is only my scheduler tat does that not sure. With a different company I get high grade marks but she always finds something and in fact will not assign me the high paying jobs so I do not apply to work for her anymore. There are many companies out there looking to hire.

The request was not to describe the food it was to tell why you gave it the rating that you did. I have done this shop at least 20 times before and I was never asked to describe the food or else I would have.

OP here. Got an 8 for a score. Pays the same as a 10. Editor got 8 paragraphs on the test drive. Hope they liked it. Next time I think I'll do everything metric.

@dkpskipper wrote:

OP here. Got an 8 for a score. Pays the same as a 10. Editor got 8 paragraphs on the test drive. Hope they liked it. Next time I think I'll do everything metric.

Lol! Let me know how THAT goes! :-)

A few MSCs I shop for have a reputation for bestowing low scores (to me that is a 7 or 8), with no explanation, or canned. For these busters, I give them as minimal as possible. The less they have to deal with, the better. This is either their loss, or it's what they wanted, and the scoring does not gall me.

You could also turn the tables and lets say you hired a contractor to build you a new addition to your house. Would you just prefer them to say, for example, sorry - we cannot build this room. Or, would it be better if they explained the WHY of it. We cannot build the addition adjacent to the master bedroom because the foundation is ........

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2015 01:53AM by Chix.

@Documentarian wrote:

@aayaey wrote:

Watch out for all those contractions you've used.
I don't understand why it's not ok to use contractions if it is used properly. I'm, I've, I'll, it's don't ... It's a common part of the English language.

I think I have it. Our reports are being edited by Commander Data from Star Trek.

That must be it! If only Lal had lived! She might have had the job, instead, and we would not be having this conversation.

Fairly new shopper here, I have been doing this only about 5 months. One MSC in particular that I have done the most work for is one that is well known for their extensive narratives. With such extensive narratives I thought I was sure to be torn to pieces by one if not all of their editors. Much to my surprise, 19 shops later I have not been asked for any clarification, I have had zero deduction in pay and everyone I have ever dealt with has been extremely polite and professional. Until now... A regular shop for me, (a Casino) I went out to the location this past Monday. Unusually slow.. even for a Monday. I was to have 2 interactions with 2 different card room servers among various others positions. A rather small (more like tiny) place. I had finished every interaction except the server. It was such a slow night, most of the employees were standing around visiting with one another. I counted only a handful of customers and not one of us were ever offered or brought a drink. In the past I have asked for a server and the poor thing is so busy that other employees step in to help and have served the drink themselves.

I was speaking to my guest loud enough to have the dealer hear me but without asking him directly figuring if I asked for a server he would call one of the other employees to get whatever I wanted. This way I thought he will hear me and based on the response I'd know if one was on duty that night or not. I told my guest I was thirsty, like clockwork the dealer called for a floor representative. I slipped away from the table because I wasn't contracted to evaluate a floor representative again, I had already interacted with him. I excused myself and walked to the lobby area, the restaurant host was there. He asked if I had been helped.I asked where I may find a server as I wanted to order a drink but wanted to return to the table rather than sit in the bar. The host not saying there was or wasn't one on duty that night offered to take my order instead. At this point I was certain she was not on duty. I made an excuse saying I was going to get my husband's order and would come back with both orders. Instead I finished my visit and I left.

A new editor nit picked every single answer. Not only the NO or N/A but all of them. Ultimately she deducted pay. Never in 5 months have I been able to order from more than 1 server, and most of the time she is there but it is not her who delivers it. This night I would not have been able to evaluate a server either way and I truly felt not accepting the drink was honestly the right thing to do. The reason she gave me for the deduction was I had failed to complete the 2 server interactions..

I was quite ticked truthfully and I wanted clarification as this happens all the time at this casino. I asked her to clarify so to not have this mistake happen again as I had obviously used wrong judgement. I said "in the future, is it acceptable then to order and accept a drink from someone other than the server I am contracted to evaluate if that is all who is available" Her reply was "in the future you need to ask a dealer for a server" right, I only heard the dealer call for a floor representative to take my order, and oh yes I walked around in an attempt to find one, ultimately asking the restaurant host for a server. Outcome of that - oh yes, of course - The host also offering to take my order and deliver the drink to my table.

I felt it was probably a wise choice for me not to reply to this and instead take in a few deep breaths. . Ugh! Frustrating.

@gjohnston wrote:

Fairly new shopper here, I have been doing this only about 5 months. One MSC in particular that I have done the most work for is one that is well known for their extensive narratives. With such extensive narratives I thought I was sure to be torn to pieces by one if not all of their editors. Much to my surprise, 19 shops later I have not been asked for any clarification, I have had zero deduction in pay and everyone I have ever dealt with has been extremely polite and professional. Until now... A regular shop for me, (a Casino) I went out to the location this past Monday. Unusually slow.. even for a Monday. I was to have 2 interactions with 2 different card room servers among various others positions. A rather small (more like tiny) place. I had finished every interaction except the server. It was such a slow night, most of the employees were standing around visiting with one another. I counted only a handful of customers and not one of us were ever offered or brought a drink. In the past I have asked for a server and the poor thing is so busy that other employees step in to help and have served the drink themselves.

I was speaking to my guest loud enough to have the dealer hear me but without asking him directly figuring if I asked for a server he would call one of the other employees to get whatever I wanted. This way I thought he will hear me and based on the response I'd know if one was on duty that night or not. I told my guest I was thirsty, like clockwork the dealer called for a floor representative. I slipped away from the table because I wasn't contracted to evaluate a floor representative again, I had already interacted with him. I excused myself and walked to the lobby area, the restaurant host was there. He asked if I had been helped.I asked where I may find a server as I wanted to order a drink but wanted to return to the table rather than sit in the bar. The host not saying there was or wasn't one on duty that night offered to take my order instead. At this point I was certain she was not on duty. I made an excuse saying I was going to get my husband's order and would come back with both orders. Instead I finished my visit and I left.

A new editor nit picked every single answer. Not only the NO or N/A but all of them. Ultimately she deducted pay. Never in 5 months have I been able to order from more than 1 server, and most of the time she is there but it is not her who delivers it. This night I would not have been able to evaluate a server either way and I truly felt not accepting the drink was honestly the right thing to do. The reason she gave me for the deduction was I had failed to complete the 2 server interactions..

I was quite ticked truthfully and I wanted clarification as this happens all the time at this casino. I asked her to clarify so to not have this mistake happen again as I had obviously used wrong judgement. I said "in the future, is it acceptable then to order and accept a drink from someone other than the server I am contracted to evaluate if that is all who is available" Her reply was "in the future you need to ask a dealer for a server" right, I only heard the dealer call for a floor representative to take my order, and oh yes I walked around in an attempt to find one, ultimately asking the restaurant host for a server. Outcome of that - oh yes, of course - The host also offering to take my order and deliver the drink to my table.

I felt it was probably a wise choice for me not to reply to this and instead take in a few deep breaths. . Ugh! Frustrating.

Yes, sometimes it's just smart to just let it go.

You object to detailing negative responses to "No" responses? It has been my experience that most every form requires a full explanation of every "No" response to an objective question. A no response on a form is usually a negative service or performance issue. It is particularly important to focus on these transgressions because this feedback is the reason why we are hired. Do you really think your "No" response would adequately inform a client for a question such as "Did you receive attentive service?"

@Sybil2 wrote:

@pammie8223 wrote:

An example of the question was 'why did you give the food the rating that you did?' My answer, " I gave the food an excellent rating because it tasted delicious and was presented in an attractive, appetizing manner. Editor said that I should have described the food. I'm giving the company a break.

Actually I agree with the editor. Your "food" description is pretty generic. Reading it, the editor has no idea what type of food it was. Yes, I realize that it is probably somewhere else in the report but it still needs to be in the commentaries.

If it was a steak, how was it prepared? Was it cooked to the proper temperature; rare, medium, well done? Was it juicy? Did it melt if your mouth or was it a bit chewy? You said it was presented in an attractive manner. What made it attractive? What accompanied the steak? Steamed broccoli and a baked potato with sour cream and chives? Candied carrots and garlic mashed potato? You get the idea. These are the types of descriptions that many editors/MSCs/clients are looking for.

Allow me to clarify, I was not asked to describe the food, I was asked why I gave the food the rating that I did.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2015 07:57PM by pammie8223.

Generalizations are not as helpful as details. We are hired for details. Sometimes the required detail for food is relative to the purpose of the evaluation. If one is doing a fine dining evaluation the food detail is particularly important. If there is something wrong we report it with details. The same applies for recognizing a job well done. Things to look for to compliment on might include the timeliness of delivery, if food was attractively plated (clean plates/rims/placement/no drips) and if the food arrived hot and to the correct temperature/doneness and looked appetizing. Was the order filled as presented on the menu, including pricing? Garnishes could be important to some chain restaurants that maintain strictly uniform presentation standards. By naming the selections on the plate you may be disclosing substitutions made by the kitchen which could reveal an inventory, ordering or vender delivery deficit.

Yes, MSCs differ in their requirements and expectations. The client and MSC also need to know an evaluator understands what to look for in order to be satisfied that your evaluation is representative of knowledgeable judgment. I was not offended recently when I was asked to explain a food grade. I was asked why I gave the plain dinner side a 7/10. I was asked to justify why it did not make a better grade. It turned out that anything less than a 10 needs to be explained like a "no" answer. This was in the extensive directions but I missed understanding that they want to know what I think would have made it a better product, 10/10. Another editor/MSC had noted not to give this sort of detail as they consider it opinion. I had included in my criticism of coffee service at an Irish Pub that Servers include articulating Irish Coffee as an after dinner drink suggestion one St. Patrick's Day instead of offering "coffee or anything else?" One MSC deducted once because I included race with the physical description and it is their policy not to include racial references. It is in their training but I forgot to apply it upon submission because it is generally required description elsewhere. My mistake. When I can't identify race with good certainty I leave it out and have been asked to address it in a case when I was unable to obtain a name. My response was "unknown ethnicity"

I actually appreciate constructive feedback. It is rare these days and not just because I have become more experienced. It is supposed to be a learning tool. I bet editors fix more sentence structure and flow than I am aware of. I cut them a break and transcend my defenses now and again and expect they understand our situations as well. I think evaluators need to better understand objective writing, guidelines and style standards per MSC before we criticize editors and schedulers.

Something I'd love to say to the editors: If you ask me about the food presentation don't expect me to write about the weather. This means, "if you ask me about something, I will answer THAT question and not something else. Say what you mean, and mean what you say!

I've noticed some editors just have to say something critical. I noticed the feedback on one of my shops recently. The editor put something like: "Be sure and add lots of descriptions, I gave you an "8" so you'll feel encouraged to write more."

Encouraged to write more?

First of all, more is not always better when it comes to reports. Second of all, your job is to edit the report so the client is happy. I don't need your encouragement or slap on the wrist. Let's all just do our jobs and get paid shall we?

I have an interesting story unrelated to any of the above. I have read the forum frequently and one of the frequent complaints is pay. I have done many, many for a particular company and have made suggestive responses about the low pay. When they call I almost always go out of my way to help them. On the last shop I suggested shoppers might try harder for perfection if the pay was commiserate to the job and time spent. Someone, I don't know the level of command she held, ask me to not apply for shops if I didn't agree in the payment. My initial response was anger, but she did it in such a professional way I had to laugh. Anyway, I tried guys. Again, supply and demand.

Do editors help schedulers make decisions on who gets the job? If so, I'm screwed. I swapped the pic for two shops. It was a shop that had to be in within 12 hours due to "client request", but didn't get edited for a week (so I call BS). I fixed it within an hour of being notified. And I got a 7. So the next time that company needs somebody to drive to Timbuktu, it's going to cost them a hell of a lot of money. Call it ego repair.

I never use contractions when writing my own narrative copy. However, if I'm asked to quote an employee directly, and that employee uses contractions, I'm going to quote exactly! The very use of quotation marks should tip off any editor, no matter how picky, that I'm doing as instructed!

I'm always worried that a wet-behind-the-ears editor who has never written, edited, or proofread in a professional capacity and who doesn't have outstanding grammar, punctuation, and spelling skills will mark something in my narrative down on grammar that is, in reality, correct. I've seen it happen before in other situations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2015 05:51PM by BirdyC.

One MSC is on my short list because of a wacky editor. Some people just feel power hungry when they get that title. I didn't write enough to suit this nameless person, to describe a 30-second transaction.

The next time the scheduler calls, I'll let them know.