I've always wondered, I know the how variable the shopper end of this industry can be. Anyone have experience as a scheduler, editor or some other role in a MSC I'm not aware of?

Do they other roles pay regular rates or is it IC work like shoppers do? How time intensive are the other roles? Are they remote or generally run out of a traditional office space somewhere?

I wouldn't mind learning more about the industry and try out some other roles. How does one even find openings out there?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2020 04:40AM by Dongjuan.

I got into the industry working as a part time bookkeeper for a small MSC, that quickly evolved into payroll, massive customer reports, editing and collections. Same $15/hour for all. No thanks, I prefer the shopper life for me.

It depends on the company. Most of these jobs are IC positions.
For Servimer the managers are responsible for scheduling, editing & client relations. We are IC's, work remotely and are paid a set percentage of the total billable to the client for each accepted shop.

I've done both editing and scheduling. Editing can be a good gig if you can work quickly. Scheduling is usually a nightmare. You would not believe how many people flake, and most of the companies pay by the completed shop. So if you have a shop to fill and two different people flake before you get a shopper to complete it, you would get the same pay as if the first person did it. Triple work, single pay. It takes a dedicated scheduler to get their shop assignments filled. I have seen shops in towns of 300-400, where internet is sketchy and there are only 2-3 shoppers within 25 miles, yet the shops have to be filled. The upside to scheduling is that in addition to a lot of flakes, there are many delightful shoppers out there who will literally go the extra mile to get a shop done.

On the subject of flakes, in speaking with a vice-president, a scheduler and an owner, each with a different MSC, the rates ranged from 20 to 50%. The VP was at 50% and the non-MSC, for whom she started the division, exited shopping after four years. She candidly shared it simply was not worth the aggravation.

I'll post from an editor's standpoint. I've edited for several companies and the work varies from company to company. Most pay a per report fee which is usually a couple of dollars each. If you have a good shopper, it can be easy money. However, many shopper don't follow instructions, provide legible photos/receipts, or don't write clearly, so you have to rewrite the majority of the report. If I could salvage the report, great! If I couldn't, I get nothing and I've spent hours trying to rework it.

Msc's typically keep shoppers in difficult to fill areas regardless of how badly the reports looked. It got very frustrating very quickly.

One MSC I worked for required us to reach out to shoppers directly and I would get calls at all hours of the day and night. Or they would not return a call at all! These were high value event shops and the turnaround times were critical. Those would take hours to edit and in the long run, I could shop and write a report faster than I could edit somebody else's work.

I quit editing because I found that I was making more money shopping than I was trying to clean up other reports and remember all the different rules for each client. The nuances become the difficulty, you don't just edit one type of report you have to bounce between reports. Unless you can edit 10 to 12 reports an hour, it's hard to make any money.

I will say, it's in our interest to try and salvage reports because if the company doesn't get paid, the shopper doesn't get paid, the scheduler doesn't get paid, the editor doesn't get paid. Too many unfilled shops and you could lose the client.

I edited for a couple years, and foodluvr covered many of my thoughts about it. I actually enjoyed the work most of the time. It was frustrating when shoppers were rude or hard to reach or when they missed multiple guidelines. I was also paid by the report, and I also could not work quickly enough to be profitable. Maybe I cared too much about the report quality, but I couldn't bring myself to rush through. I agree that you usually have to rewrite the whole report or most of it. I like writing, so I really didn't mind the rewriting itself. Again, it was just that the per-report pay rate was too low for my speed.

I really liked the company I contracted with. Most people there (other editors, schedulers, and higher-ups) were really friendly and supportive. I believe some companies have editors as employees, but we were ICs.

Even though the hours themselves were flexible, there was still a lot of pressure to get the reports done quickly, and I would get stressed if I had worked the hours I set aside for the day but still had some lingering reports. So I had a hard time with the work-life balance as an editor. Another problem was that the work was so variable. It was hard to know how much work I should schedule with my other job, how many shops to schedule as a shopper, etc. because I didn't know if I would be getting 1 report or 10 on any given day. We did a rotating schedule too, so you couldn't really get used to a certain weekly routine.

Again I did like the company and most of the work, and it helped me with managing my time working from home, which prepared my for my current WFH job really well. It's a mixed bag, but I would be open to editing again if I could find a way to make it profitable and compatible with my schedule.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2020 09:08PM by RedRose22.

How do you apply to become an editor or scheduler? I keep searching and when I do find a one the links don't work!

Wordsmith Pros is hiring editors. They are looking for those who are excellent writers with a strong command of English grammar and usage. They ask that you do the following: To apply and/or for further information, please forward your resume and a list of mystery shopping companies for whom you have done shops to humanresources@wordsmithpros.com.