Hi, I know many of my friends here have joined the MSPA Online and bought a Silver or Gold Membership. My question and probably that of many others is how will this advance our reputation? Do they provide education that's not provided by all the MSCs we've been shopping for over the years? Please help me figure out if its worth buying a Silver or Gold Status Membership and if it helps Shoppers become Air Port Certified? Thank you!

Here's a older list of your reviews, I think this topic might be in other's minds when asking about the benefits of having a Silver or Gold Membership but I must agree with everyone posts on this older closed thread. Do you all "still think its a worthless piece of paper?" I never signed up and done many-many-many shops, thanks for helping some of the newer people realize the costs of this is many shops for one year.


[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

There is nothing MSPA can do to get a shopper "airport certified." To be certified to get a badge to shop post-security areas of airports, you will have to get an MSC to sponsor you and then have a background check and fingerprints and TSA certification to get an ID badge. Same thing as if you go to work at an airport.

Thank's for that! Our field has so many opportunities I am having a blast now that I have more time to do more shops. The positive nature of the majority has been a different experience because so many Message Boards are only heard from people getting burned or angry about their Shops. I will look in to getting "certified for shops" though my MSC, thank you again!

If you have "many-many-many" shops under your belt successfully you are already building your reputation as a shopper. This will do more to promote your shopping career than any paid for generic 'shopper certification'. As one former scheduler mentioned, there was a tendency to avoid 'Gold Shoppers' because of an attitude that they knew it all so didn't need to read/follow directions.

Gosh, I've had my gold certification since 2003. I always study my guidelines and reports. I would hate to think a scheduler would stereotype me so horribly. I do know there have been shops offered that were offered to gold shoppers first. That being said, I also know that there are many shoppers who do quite well without certification.

@Flash wrote:

If you have "many-many-many" shops under your belt successfully you are already building your reputation as a shopper. This will do more to promote your shopping career than any paid for generic 'shopper certification'. As one former scheduler mentioned, there was a tendency to avoid 'Gold Shoppers' because of an attitude that they knew it all so didn't need to read/follow directions.

Thank you Flash for saying this out loud. One of my favorite schedulers told me to work more shops and expand myself by taking on shops I wasn't comfortable with in any way shape or form.

Best advice ever! Yeah, I didn't get the best scores, but I've learned a heck of a lot of what I need to do and not do for all my shops.

When I first started ages ago I got silver certified. Can I say it helped as a newbe yes. It gives you a minute advantage over other similar shoppers that don't have it. Also some companies send certified shoppers job opps before non certified. Once you get a good reputation with each msp it becomes more and more meaningless. Also I know one msp does give an added bonus to gold certified shoppers of a few dollars. Just thought I would add my 2 cents.

When you sign up with a company they often ask the question about prior MS experience. I've never given the MSPA any money to say I was "certified", instead I point out that I have 24 years of MS experience and tens of thousands of shops under my belt. I also do not cop an arrogant attitude, read my instructions and get the project done as per their guidelines.

Pennies, if you've been shopping for years and you have more work available than you can do, I don't see any reason to certify. On the other hand, if you need work that's different. The silver certification (when I took it) was inexpensive and easy. I noticed a difference right away on what was available to me but I was a new shopper and I don't know your status. Do I think silver certification will put you on a par with an established shopper? Absolutely not. What it does is differentiate you from other new shoppers who have not made any effort to certify.

Later I went on to gold certify and that also helped me pick up a few thousand dollars of work on an ongoing project that was offered to me as a gold shopper. Again, I'm not recommending either silver or gold if you have all the offers you can accept. All you can do is all you can do.

I agree with some above who've expressed that a sense of superiority will get you no where whether you are certified or not. We all have to produce quality work, which demands exactly the same dedication whether we're certified or not. The jury will remain out on whether to certify or not.

If I had it to do over, I would certify earlier because it helped me. Others have stated it did not help them. It's unfortunate we have to guess about the value of it and I suspect we will continue to get some of us who say it helped and others who say they didn't see a difference. Still others will insist based on years of experience that they know it doesn't help even though they've never certified. The upshot is all of us can report based on our personal experience but looking at it from an overall point of view, none of us have a clue. All we have is our personal opinions and there's no way to prove we're right or wrong.

What I would like to see is for the MSPA to rework the certification process to provide much more detailed and intensive training free of charge. Although I personally believe the certifications are worth the money, I don't believe it enhances their reputation to charge us for this training and I see no reason they couldn't provide it at no charge. That would greatly benefit the individual company members of MSPA as well as the shoppers, which I see as win win. As it stands, the MSPA receives a great deal of criticism for providing this program on a pay as you go basis. The way they handle it makes it look like a money making project rather than an effort to train shoppers to do a better job. It's my opinion that what we need here is for the MSPA to do a better job.

For the very best absolutely free training available today in the mystery shopping world, I recommend signing up with every company you can find and going through all their training modules and general information. There is no substitute available, as far as I know, for what you'll learn if you do that. I also recommend this forum which has great training value as well as emotional support.

I had been a heavy duty shopper (600 shops) for about 2 years when I got silver certified. Did it change the amount of shops I got? No. I did not think it would increase my reputation as a shopper, as much as me performing the shops accurately and making my schedulers happy. Does it help to be silver certified? I don't think much. But it felt good to say I was. I don't think I will go for the gold though...

I read the MSPA no longer offered the silver certification and changed the training packages. I have not given them a wooden nickel myself.

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@ wrote:

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2016 08:31PM by scanman1.

I am not Silver or Gold certified and I don't think it has hurt me at all. I have more assignments offered than I have time to do. Two members of my family also mystery shop. One is Silver certified and the other two of us are not. We all see the same jobs. The only difference I have seen is that one company we all 3 work for allows Silver/Golf certified shoppers to self assign and makes the others just apply for the shops. No other difference.

Mary writes:
>>I don't believe it enhances their reputation to charge us for this training and I see no reason they couldn't provide it at no charge. That would greatly benefit the individual company members of MSPA as well as the shoppers, which I see as win win.<<
Brilliant, Mary. I understood the cost at the very beginning when networking was the major benefit. There were physical costs to setting up the meets. Had there been one in my area that was convenient, the networking probably would have been well worth it. The move to a CD-based or online format meant that the cost was largely fixed and likely recouped quickly. Now it feels like a pay-to-shop sc....., let's say "scenario."

There are companies that offer training that is useful (SQM, for one). There are others who force you to become a better writer simply by working for them (Coyle, for one). Still others require creativity and the ability to think on the fly (Five Diamond, for one). Working for others helps to develop attention to minutia (HSBrands, for one.)
My point is that experience and education are both important, but there is no reason you cannot gain both while working.

I'm sure we are all going to have different perspectives here. You'll need to decide whether you think you will benefit from the education provided by the course or from the certification. For me, it was not worth it at any price.

Here we go again...

for me I usually wait for shops to offer more money, most shops don't pay a worthwhile amount in my opinion.

Yeah right?