Am I the only one feeling that some mystery shop reports are poorly designed?

I often see questions that asked for a black and white answer (fixed choices), which really should be answered with something else (not in the range of choices).

When I need to clarify something, I also often see reports that don't allow enough space to type. For example, they might limit you to 50 to 100 character, which is only like two sentences.

I've done a good number of reports, where I felt very bad that I had to answer things in a way that didn't best reflect what happened, because of the limited options and way the report was written. The design of the questions was bad and/or they wasn't enough free writing space.

On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes it can feel like we're asked to write/comment too much (with unnecessary redundant and required writing space for things we've already answered).

Just venting for the moment...but also wondering how others feel and handle these situations.

I will write a separate follow-up note to the scheduler or help desk, etc. to explain my report answers that I felt were not expressed in the best possible way due to the limitations of the report form. I never know if they let the client know my follow-ups, so that's bothersome to me too. Because I wonder what would happen if I was forced to answer a question in a simple yes/no way and it required a more nuanced response. Yet, that answer might affect someone's job and livelihood. If the scheduler/help contact person doesn't forward my information over to the client regarding that report's answers and follow-up comments, then what if the worker gets fired?

I feel I've done the best I could in those cases and did my duty to let them know that the report formats aren't very good, but I don't know if they ever do anything about it.

Yup. I imagine most everyone of us feel like that sometimes. I too do the same in emailing schedulers and helpdesk and never find out the outcome.

Me, too. But I often get responses, such as "we've forwarded your additional comments to the client, and we are sure they appreciate the extra effort". Always makes me feel good!

I think you are way over thinking it. If a report only has 50-100 characters available that's all the information they want. You have to stop thinking in terms of what you want them to know or think they should know and instead focus on what *they* want to know. If they only want a yes ot no they are not interested in no I didn't see a name tag but she was wearing a jacket that may have obscured it. They want a yes or no based on what you could see.

@bgriffin wrote:

I think you are way over thinking it. If a report only has 50-100 characters available that's all the information they want. You have to stop thinking in terms of what you want them to know or think they should know and instead focus on what *they* want to know. If they only want a yes ot no they are not interested in no I didn't see a name tag but she was wearing a jacket that may have obscured it. They want a yes or no based on what you could see.

Tthat's true for some cases.

But sometimes something unique happens or there's just some weird thing that makes the question need context or else the yes/no or black-and-white answer could make things look bad for an employee (if not explained in detail). It's the bad design of the survey in some cases really.

Thankfully, this doesn't always happen, but I notice certain clients have bad surveys. The wording of questions can bad and then to make matters worse, you can't even explain things, b/c you've got limited space. I don't mind explaining things if need be. But sometimes you can't even do that.

Personally, I think every report should have a 7-8 sentence paragraph (optional) commentary section at the end to address anything that wasn't able to be talked about in the survey. That'd be like a safety mechanism to make sure clients aren't missing things, due to a faulty survey or some freak/unique circumstance.

Weird things do happen on jobs!

And I just disagree. Sometimes the client is only interested in black and white and only wants a yes or no. It's not up to you to decided that their survey is wrong or bad or doesn't tell them what they should know.

Two points: One time I did a great narrative for SCM (Sinclair) and after I wrote my heart out, it said you may only add 500 characters! I had to really trim it down to fit.

I went to a movie and the side door was open! (this was before the mass theatre shooting) but it kinda tripped me out. I kept staring at the open door, waiting for someone to sneak in. There was no real place to put this narrative for the "Did anything unusual happen?" but it sure was unusual to me!

It is frustrating when you need to explain something and there is no comment box. However, I'll bet it is a lot easier to code the reports with yes/no answers. Someone at the MSC is writing these, with, I would hope, input from the client. If they don't put a place for it, then they don't want the information.

Now, what's more frustrating is when you have no place to put the information and then the editor emails you after you submit the report and wants the information that was not asked for in the report.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Just happened to me!!

There was a report that required a timing of when you entered the store and when you left. Additionally, there was a timing of how long you spoke to Person X.

However, there was some unspecified time in between when I was seeking out Person X that isn't accounted for in the timing questions.

I got a "fix report" message saying my timings of when I entered/exited and the length of time it took to have my convo with Person X took didn't match up. But that's because the timings assumed I met Person X as soon as I walked into the store!!! Of course, I didn't! GRRRRRRRRRRR. It took a few minutes to find Person X.

Their computer system seems to view this as an error when it's the bad design of the survey! More "unpaid" time I have to spend explaining things to the shop editors.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2017 10:41PM by shoptastic.