So....does anyone have a guess what a mystery shop company bills a client for a shop?

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Let's say for a basic bank platform shop, or a retail shop paying a $15 shopper fee. Any guesses as to what a client is actually paying the MSC for our work?

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I would guess that's pretty variable depending on the size of the MSC, how detailed the report, etc.

I remember doing a revealed gas station/convenience store audit for $15 and the owner complained to me about having to pay $75 to corporate. He told me he was forced to pay, apparently as part of his franchise agreement.

It does vary widely. I know a particular gas station brand that paid $50 a shop for the audit. I know another gas station brand that only pays $20 for a mystery shop.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Are you trying to start your own Mystery Shopping Company?

This is outdated, but Second to None's CEO hinted out how much they charge per location to their clients as a lump sum price:

[www.youtube.com] @8:50

".... For a properly designed MS program at a store level, you're looking at an investment in an area of $2-3 a day.... If you wanted to really get a full suite of tools including customer satisfaction survey, you're looking at a $4-5 a day per store."

Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!

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@Tarantado wrote:

Are you trying to start your own Mystery Shopping Company?

This is outdated, but Second to None's CEO hinted out how much they charge per location to their clients as a lump sum price:

[www.youtube.com] @8:50

".... For a properly designed MS program at a store level, you're looking at an investment in an area of $2-3 a day.... If you wanted to really get a full suite of tools including customer satisfaction survey, you're looking at a $4-5 a day per store."

LOL....I would not want the headaches of starting a mystery shopping company. No Thank You. I'm quite content to be in the trenches working for the fees I am able to get - I've just been curious for awhile regarding what MSC's bill their clients for our services. In the same way I'd be if I were working for a temporary staffing agency - I'd wonder what the client is paying for me to be there working for them.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 05:09AM by spicy1.

I did see an article on an amusement park MSC's website they linked to, like a story about them that appeared in the local paper, and it was something like 3 or 4 times what they were paying shoppers.

$3/day probably means about 90 bucks, eh, probably $100, for just one basic shop for the month, for which they probably pay $12 to the shopper. And as we know, if any have reimbursement, they can leverage the fact that their cost for the purchase is probably half or less of what we paid for it.

@Tarantado wrote:

".... For a properly designed MS program at a store level, you're looking at an investment in an area of $2-3 a day.... If you wanted to really get a full suite of tools including customer satisfaction survey, you're looking at a $4-5 a day per store."

From a 2010 Inc. magazine article: "A mystery shopping program can be set up within two months with cost ranging from $50 to $500 per shopper visit." Even with overhead, it seems like there are pretty good margins, certainly enough for shopper bonuses.

Here are some fees that MSCs get paid for shopping in the funeral business:

[www.mysteryfuneralshopper.com]

You would have to register to see what fees they pay the shopper. That would help you better guess the margins & overhead.

I've often wondered how the compensation goes with restaurant shopping - the client is providing the meal, after all - although their cost is obviously lower than what a customer would pay.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2018 05:48PM by BarefootBliss.

$150-$200 for a two part bank shop - teller plus new account rep.

These prices are circa 2015 and from a smaller regional financial institution.

MSC is well known and does a lot of mystery shops for banks and credit unions. The price includes normative data so the client can see how their employees compare against other financial institutions. This does mean the price is higher. Price are lower if it’s less of an expert MSC.

Agree that cost to clients being about 3-4 times what shopper is paid is a fairly good rule of thumb but with wide variation. Something which provides a great experience to the shopper is obviously much different then something that has no value or even is unpleasant to endure for the shopper.

If an MSC paid me $150 without countering for a 30 min shop...I am sure they made more than that. Which is why I dont hesitate to ask for bonuses. Never feel bad for the scheduler or the MSC. They are doing just fine.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 02:05AM by indianyooper.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 05:09AM by spicy1.

@indianyooper wrote:

If an MSC paid me $150 without countering for a 30 min shop...I am sure they made more than that. Which is why I dont hesitate to ask for bonuses. Never feel bad for the scheduler or the MSC. They are doing just fine.

Not true at all. Sometimes they lose money on an individual shop but make money on the whole contract.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

@spicy1 wrote:

There have been times when I have had to pay for laundry by taking $ out of the grocery bill. The extra $135 I receive on a $15 shop, totaling the $150 came out of other shopper's pockets. The MSC doesn't pay for this, we do, if they were expensed fairly anyway.

This doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe I am not understanding what you're trying to say?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 03:05AM by bgriffin.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 05:08AM by spicy1.

Still doesn't make sense. I've never gotten a payment from anyone except the MSC. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I am taking it all to mean if we get paid a high bonus it is coming out of another shopper's potential pay. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I think that's what she was trying to say as well, but it doesn't work that way.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 05:08AM by spicy1.

It does work in the way that the initial shops, normally the most popular and easiest to access shops, are started at less in order to have extra money to pay for the outliers and ones harder to get to.

I do not know, and neither do you, if the particular shops you mentioned can pay $15 across the board. I imagine if they started them at $15 they would not have enough money left over to get the hard to schedule shops done, but I don't know that for certain, and neither do you.

Also, neither of your initial statements are true. "We" do not pay other shoppers. And I would hardly call it "stealing." Some locations of the same shop are worth more than other locations of the same shop. That does not mean that the locations that are worth more "steal" anything. They're just worth more.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I'll also add that the MSC in that particular instance is notorious for underbidding contracts. They do this because they are better at getting shoppers to take lower pay than other MSC's are.

What I don't understand is why you care? It's like you seem to think all shops should pay what you think they should pay and when they don't you get angry about it. Like doing the cheap shops is your only option and you're working yourself to death for half minimum wage, but then at the same time you claim you're doing quite well at this? Well which is it? Because I think I'm doing quite well at this, I would guess, and it's only a guess, that I probably make in the upper 20% of full time shoppers. And you know what? I don't give a rat's ass what somebody else does. If people wanna take crappy Jack In The Box shops for $7 per good on 'em. Happy for them and their $7 and happy that the MSC has lowballed another contract successfully. It doesn't affect me because I have enough work to make my goals. Why should I care what the rest of the shopper world does and if you're doing as well as you think say you are then you shouldn't care either.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 05:07AM by spicy1.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 05:07AM by spicy1.

I think the margins vary greatly. Some margins are probably large, many are probably small. Again though, why should I care? I care what I'm making. If the MSC is losing money or making 400x as much as I am it makes me no difference.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

^^^ Couldn't have said this any better.

You could if you tried really hard!

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

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So....does anyone have a guess what a mystery shop company bills a client for a shop?

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