At times, it takes so long to get the right positive and negative phrases for the reports. Does anyone have a cheat sheet to work with? For example, sincere in thanking me, went out of his way to..., I will surely return because or the other side I felt ignored because..., the employee appeared as though he could care less, etc.

Well, zfaith,
The problem may be that different MSCs have different standards. That last phrase would get you taken off the shopper list at a bunch of companies, but would be okay for some that ask for your opinion.

I find myself typing the following little ditties many times per week, though:

"The entire area, including floors, counters, tables, fixtures and register area was clean, tidy and well maintained."

""As I approached the [Associate/TM/banker/teller/sales representative/elf/gecko) smiled, made good eye contact, and greeted me in a cheerful voice, saying, ...."

"The Associate did not smile and made very brief eye contact."

"During the entire observation period, no one who appeared to be a manager was seen."

Now, if you were very, very organized, you could program a whole bunch of macros into your word processing software and remember every one of them so that two keystrokes would produce any one of those as needed. But, if your memory is that good, you could make a lot more money by going on "Jeopardy."

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I want to make-up a cheat sheet but that is last on the burner. Every time I fill out the paperwork it takes to long for me come up with comments.

I am amused that for the 'one liners' Firefox remembers what I have said on some previous forms so will pop them as an option. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it gets in the way. It never helps on narrative.

I know that there are certain words I use excessively that I need to watch out for in narrative. I don't like 'she said' so much, so I use 'she told me' or 'she indicated that'. But of course what I need to communicate is what the employee communicated to me. I do my narrative in Word and when I am boring myself, I check the built in thesaurus for some alternative synonym that is not too pretentious.

I have a cheat sheet for this one shop I do pretty often. It requires every single question, with both positive and negative answers, to be commented on. So I have several variations of positive answers for each question saved off. If the answer was negative then I write the comment based on the situation. If it was positive I just copy and paste the closest comment I have already saved. It saves me A LOT of time filling out these reports.

But as stated above, having one generic cheat sheet for all your assignments probably would not work.

I, too, like the way firefox fills out the boxes. For a basic, "the counters and surfaces were clean", if I just start to type, it fills it out. Of course, I never do this for narrative and try to make each shop unique, but this helps when really what you want to say is something you said about the same shop or the same type of shop many times before.

Many Co's have their own cheat sheets at the end...check, as they all want different things. Some companies want you to give Server or employee's name in the report, others won't allow it, you have to check with each job. When you do a job monthly, you get to know what they want.

I just did three of the same jobs, and yes, it's a kick when they fill out certain things, I then change it around to make it different from the other two.

Never thought of using my Short Keys for this but that's a great idea. I start each one with MS and a character or two that gives me the whole line. I have neuropathy in my hands and have lost lots of muscle in my left one. It makes typing much harder. I'm also considering using Dragon Speak to help me type.

I agree with walesmaven. Most reports want an unbiased comment. What is "going out of their way to be helpful" to one person might be regular business practices to another. So, I try to put comments saying what they did that struck me as going out of their way. That way it is a fact, it is stating what they did, not how I perceived what they did.

Now some reports I fill out have a section that asks how an employee's actions make me feel. That is when I use the phrases like "They went out of their way to offer great service." or "They were rude."

lisams,
I will go a bit further and explain what action or inaction made me feel that the employee was rude. "The Associate ended the interaction without any acknowledgement, when she turned and walked away. I thought thiswas rude."

Being a paralegal in one of my former lives and I have had a few lives. I am a "wordsmith" when I must be. "It is excellent for a 2 minute burger." says nothing except that you are fishing for a complement that says nothing.

FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES, ask questions, do not argue, and DO reject the assignment if you feel the assignment is not mutually beneficial. Many companies will give you suggested phrases and then be upset when you plagiarize.

When asked to evaluate quality, quality is subjective. I do not compare unless asked to compare. When asked for an opinion, I start my paragraph with "Because you asked for my opinion" when I offer my opinion. In ALL other cases I NEVER report that "it seemed to appear like", or the employee acted like. I do not know why the employee gave the performance they gave. Maybe that is the way the boss scripted it, maybe the employee was "winging it". It was what it was the reader could figure out why it was.

I report that I observed, I saw, I heard, exactly what I saw or heard and exactly where I saw or heard it. I also report positive so they know I am not just looking for negative. When reporting times, I ALWAYS look at the guidelines. Some companies give a line specifically asking for________Total minutes (no seconds) another company would give a list of parameters ( )0-1 minute ( )1-3 minutes etc_______Some companies want times exactly to the second. (it does not matter that the food is not edible or the service is horrible or the location is just plain dirty). I would rather wait 6-8 minutes for a hamburger and great fries and all the peanuts you can eat than have road kill on a bun in under 2 minutes.

You can get in trouble for the truth. The only nice thing I had to say was the hostess smiled when she greeted me. The rest of the report was a disaster report EVERY TIME I EVALUATED THE LOCATION. The location went out of business it was so bad. The editor, with her head in the sand, said they couldn’t send a report like that to the client. Of course you cannot send a report like that to the client. The client would rather lose their investment because the location chased customers to the competitors, but I don't think so! If I was the person who had their investment evaluated, I do not want an editor to spray perfume on a pig. I would rather change the experience to clean, cute, cuddly, and I want to do that again, it was fun.

I have been an entrepreneur for over 50 years. I always operated my businesses with integrity and the principle that I could have everything in life I wanted if I just helped enough other people get what they wanted. On occasion customers do not know what they want, they must be educated not taken advantage of. Most customers want smiles, honesty, a good relationship and WILL PAY EXTRA FOR THOSE INTANGIBLES. If I see that, I report it.

Well said Shop 'n Flop. Or does my compliment depend on what your definition of well is?

Thank yourself so much for yours suggestions. I want to construct-up a cheat flat but that is last on the burner. Every time I fill out the paperwork it takes to long for me come up up with points out.

I do several bank and teller shops and restaurants. I type everything into a word document and change certain parts of it.

All areas of the restaurant were clean and well maintained.

The hostess smiled, made eye contact and seated me.


All areas of the bank, including the ATM, were clean and well maintained.

The banker greeted me in a professional manner, introduced himself and offered me a seat.