Not enough narrative wanted

I never thought I would complain about a report not wanting enough narrative, but the time has come!!! I did a Trend Source restaurant shop today and very little narrative was wanted. Mostly it was wanted for no answers. This is not too unusual except the questions were pretty specific like was the hot food hot and the cold food cold? Was the restroom completely stocked with supplies? And I could answer yes to those questions so no narrative. But there were no questions about appetizing appearance or proper seasoning. No question about cleanliness or maintenance. Those I could have answered no and given narrative about my nos. There was a question about whether I would recommend the place to someone else, but no narrative attached to that question. There was a question about whether I would return, but no narrative attached about why or why not? No general narrative question about the experience and what they could have done better. I put some of what I wanted to say in the general (non-required) comments section but I wasn't sure about how much to put in that section because I wasn't certain they wanted those details.

A little frustrating to say the least.

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

More About Reports

Certain firms want quality. Others not so much.

Isn't there a box at the bottom of every TS report, where you can add it comments that had no space to enter them in within the main report?? Every report I've ever done for TS has had these, and I have used them as necessary.

They have the easiest restaurants reports, I wouldn't complain.

Live consciously....

Yes, I agree with Irene...your title made me think about the reports where they do want narrative but ask you to write about the many no answers and they only allow a few words which I find frustrating. Of course they never seem to tell you the limit until after you have written a few sentences.
If they want no explanation like the ones you describe there is no problem for me. There are lots of other companies you can work for that want a full explanation if that makes you the happiest shopper.

If they don't ask the question they don't want to know the answer. Our job is not to tell them what WE think they should know it's to tell them what THEY think they should know.

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

@Rousseau wrote:

Certain firms want quality. Others not so much.

We don’t know what TrendSource’s scope of work is with their end-client... Minimal reports may be exactly what their end-client’s looking for, for their own reasons. In short, a detailed report from shoppers doesn’t necessarily indicate the quality of the MSC’s work. For all we know, the end-client might be paying much more for other consulting work from TrendSource where only minimal shopper reports are needed.

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

I agree. Oftentimes, expansion on a question just makes the 'overall' question convoluted.

I generally enjoy doing reports with little to no narrative. But in this case there was so much more I wanted to say. Oh well what can you do?

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.

Sassy, I do shops with zero narrative. In this case, one of the front doors was locked and had been for about a year. I had no place to mention the locked door on the report. After doing the shop many times, I finally had enough. I ended up calling the fire department. Both doors have been unlocked ever since.

MSPA Gold Certified 2003

Oh, I didn't know that you could do call the fire department. Those locked doors, especially without a notice saying it's locked really jars my arm. It's surprisingly painful.

It is a fire hazard!!

MSPA Gold Certified 2003

I had one last night that wanted to know if I observed anyone in the store being rude to customers. I then had to described how they were rude along with their name and position in under 50 characters.

@jasimon1 wrote:

I had one last night that wanted to know if I observed anyone in the store being rude to customers. I then had to described how they were rude along with their name and position in under 50 characters.

That's crazy.

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.

Doing a boatload of reports today. I see in an email heading "Not Enough Narrative" and I'm thinking UH OH, I did not put enough narrative in one of my reports and I'm very upset. I hate having reports come back and haven't had one in years. I took shoe store assignments from 3 different MSC and I'm wondering which one is narrative greedy. lol.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Not enough narrative wanted

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine