As an editor, the pressure indeed, does come from the clients. Questions that don’t often make sense in how they are asked and we have no guidance on how to “grade” it - especially if we don’t have any guidelines. This is coming up more and more where a client can spend 45 minutes picking apart a report. Editors can’t spend 45 minutes per report. After 15 minutes, it becomes almost not worth it to do one at all.
Couple that with having to send it back to the shopper, it adds up fast. I like to put everything that needs fixing in one email. Sometimes that overwhelms a shopper and they ignore it. Sometimes, if that happens and it becomes a late report, NO ONE will get paid for the shop because the shopper dropped the ball. The scheduler doesn’t get paid, the editor that has probably spent 30 minutes on it by now doesn’t get paid and the shopper doesn’t get paid.
Shoppers need to monitor their emails for a day or so to be on the lookout for editor questions. Shoppers also need to run spell check and proof their own work at least once before hitting that submit button. You would not believe the things I see that should be caught. Every little thing takes time. Erratic spacing between sentences, feline instead of feminine, the same pictures for all the food ordered, no receipt, not following directions (one, in particular, is where you have to make a reservation during the phone portion). I send at least 15% of the shops back for that to be redone.
That said, I also shop. I received a score recently that was 8/10. No reason at all was given. I don’t like to give an 8 or receive an 8. I emailed the editor and asked for a review. It takes me just as much time to write to the shopper (in the hopes that their next shop will incorporate the coaching, making everything run more smoothly) as it does sometimes to edit the report. I wish I could get away with scoring and moving on.
Most companies have a time stamp for when you complete/submit your report, meaning, you submit it for review. That is your go-to for when your report was due. We routinely ding 1 point even for a perfect report if it is completed past the deadline. Sometimes, we may miss it as there is a second place we have to check for the date/time.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2023 08:30AM by wanderer.