Hi all,

Question: I have a shop tomorrow and the guidelines say to call the location first and ask some questions, but nowhere in the instructions or the assignment guidelines, does it tell me what the questions are. I’ve searched everything, my email, the guidelines, the assignment description... I emailed the MSC and no response. Shop is coming up soon. What would you do?

What kind of shop is this? If you can see the survey, then you can see the questions asked about the call.

Often, you need to know whether the location is still in business, what the business name is, the hours of operation, whether they provide some brand, product, or service, and anything else that would help you to identify this location as open; a re-brand; and a place that is worth someone's time and money to pay you for a visit.

Weird thought of the day: is the client or the MSC just testing your voice?

An MSC name or a client name or type might give someone a hint for you...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2019 01:11AM by Shop-et-al.

I’ve done many shops where I get to choose what questions I ask. That could be the case. Liz

You may want to save all the shop instructions so that you have proof that there were no questions, just in case you get called out on that. That is if you don't hear from the msc.

If there is a phone # for the msc, call them. Having the name of the msc would help.

With many msc you can see the questionnaire ahead of time otherwise you can go to the survey and pretend you are about to enter your data tomorrow morning. I have done this often. Just change the "time in" you are reporting to the latest you can before you close the survey and remember to correct it when you begin the real survey. Then you can see what questions you have to answer about the phone call. Most prior to the shop phone calls I have done allow me to ask pretty much any question such as if a restaurant you can ask about daily specials or you can ask about available parking. They often do not want you to ask things that can be found online like the hours they are open.

If you’re not given specific questions, you just come up with your own. Usually something besides hours and location. For a restaurant, ask a menu question or how they handle large parties. Services or stores, ask about the availability of whatever. It’s just to record how they respond to normal information requests.

I've had shops that ask you about calling. I just say I looked online and got the location and hours.

Here is what I thought would be an easy question for a restaurant (it turned out that I stumped the person who answered the phone): "Do you have handicap parking outside the restaurant?"

The huge msc that has the same initials as our famous video shopper has that question on every survey I do. At first I would think, was i supposed to call the store? But now I just check yes or no and it never seems to make a difference For other msc's the phone call needs to be made and full instructions are in the guidelines. If I reported I looked on the website I would be out pay for the shop and perhaps out of business for those msc's.

@johnb974 wrote:

I've had shops that ask you about calling. I just say I looked online and got the location and hours.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2019 09:20PM by sandyf.

In addition to the guidelines, you must also read the header of the questionnaire as well as the questionnaire itself. My guess is that the information you need is right there. If you can tell the forum what kind of shop it is, I'm sure you'll get many more specific suggestions. In the alternative, if you can tell the forum the mystery shop company, likely one of us can refer you to a supervisor. If indeed it is a restaurant shop, likely under these circumstances you'll be able to make the call after the shop. In that event, just be sure to put a note in your report so the editor is aware that the instructions were incomplete and that you were unable to reach your scheduler prior to the shop date. I'm sure it will all work out. Remember to have fun doing the assignment. We don't get paid enough to stress out!

@mom.for.hirehotmail.com wrote:

In addition to the guidelines, you must also read the header of the questionnaire as well as the questionnaire itself. My guess is that the information you need is right there. If you can tell the forum what kind of shop it is, I'm sure you'll get many more specific suggestions. In the alternative, if you can tell the forum the mystery shop company, likely one of us can refer you to a supervisor. If indeed it is a restaurant shop, likely under these circumstances you'll be able to make the call after the shop. In that event, just be sure to put a note in your report so the editor is aware that the instructions were incomplete and that you were unable to reach your scheduler prior to the shop date. I'm sure it will all work out. Remember to have fun doing the assignment. We don't get paid enough to stress out!

Sorry I haven't responded, been busy shopping.. I read the header to the questionnaire, but it had less information than the email confirmation.

Okay, so I've done the shop, and I'm sorry for not being more specific, but I really don't want to out myself to the MSC on this forum. I do think they are on here.

So, on to the problem: The MSC did respond to my email, but did not really give me a scenario to follow, and told me to ask general questions (directions/hours/etc).

I read the questionnaire thoroughly. Now, here is where it gets tricky: the shop is in a sports related industry, a sport I know very little about. I looked at the questionnaire and it had a couple of questions that seemed specific to a scenario, but since I had no scenario, I asked a friend who is better acquainted with the sport what I should ask. I did not want to give myself away as a shopper. I think I got through the phone portion okay.

The other thing that confused me was that one of the questions on the questionnaire implied that I was to purchase some time doing said sport, except the assignment did not pay enough to cover the purchase of sports time. It paid enough to cover two other purchases, and the MSC's email only said to make two smaller purchases. So, that is what I did, and explained in the narrative that I was instructed to make the two other purchases, not the sports purchase. (hope that is okay)

Another thing I noticed in the questionnaire, is that it looked like the client wanted me to interact with as many employees as possible and rate their customer service. Hooray! I can totally do this. Except, no one at this assignment had a name tag. I listened for names, got a couple, and just used descriptions for the rest of the staff.

Anyway, that was just one shop of a few I did today. It was definitely a simple one, or a complicated one, depending on which way I want to view the thing. I'll wait to see if I get approved.