I retired recently and took up mystery shopping for all the reasons that most of us do. I worked in the business development department of a major telco. Many of my projects required mystery shopping to be done. So, I became "a client" and I retained the services of a msc. There were times when, after reading the reports prepared by the msc, I would say to myself, "Whoops I never thought of that, I need some additional information." or "I wonder if the shopper could tell me if they observed "Blah blah...." I would call up the msc and ask if they could get back to select shoppers and ask an additional question or two. Wanting to keep the client, me, happy the msc went back to the shopper. I was the cause of the call to the shopper asking for more info.
Now, I am the shopper and someone else is "the client". I understand totally how and why the msc is calling me and asking for additional information. When I get requests for more information I do my best to provide it. After all, I want to keep my client happy.
I'd like to share with all of you something that I do that makes it easier to go back in time. I wear a digital recorder in my shirt pocket or sometimes I hand carry the recorder which brings the microphone closer to the subject. In today's world just about everyone is carrying a device of some sort in their hands. I've never been challenged.
I've made it a habit of taking photos of the storefronts of any location that I shop, whether the shop requires one or not. I also digitally store everything and anything that pertains to the shop including, the job board and any shop descriptions provided on the board, copies of the shop guidelines and project guidelines, the shop questionnaire and the shop report that I submit. On occasion I create paper notes which I then scan and store
Because all this information is either provided digitally or I create it digitally, it takes very little time to store the information. When your memory of a past event is not clear, being able to see an image of the shop location and to hear the words spoken during the interaction may jog your memory about what happened during the shop. I no longer have to keep my paper shop notes for weeks, months or longer. If the information being requested cannot be found in my digital audio, visual and text files, the event probably never happened.
Keeping my client, the msc happy, which then keeps the msc's client (aka the "Uber client"
happy is collectively known as providing good customer service.