Scheduling

What happens to the shop, if it isn't accepted to the time frame on the scheduling site, that it is due? As in, no one accepts it? Do they extend it?

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Everything depends on the MSC, the situation, and the client. In other words, there is no rule. Some clients have "drop dead" due dates that they will not extend. Some situations that are the reason for the shops (a 30 day performance contest, for instance) just end and there is no more reason to send a shopper. Other shops may have a 90 day window, for instance. They may be posted in the first month at one price. If not filled they will be reposted, etc. Now multipy by about 75 to get the number of other situations that may or may not result in shops being reposted.

Now, THE REAL issue is when to go looking for a nice bonus to do what begins to look like an orphan shop. That deserves an entire thread, and there may already be such a thread here (I did not search.)

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

Smart schedulers post the jobs early enough in the cycle that they have several 'rounds' of shops to get them done. So lets say it is a quarterly shop. Try to post the historically hard to fill shops in the first month so that they could in theory run 3 months. If they aren't taken in the first month, change the dates to coincide with shops put up for month two and repeat the process for month three if needed.

There is one company that posts shops with about a 5 day turn around time. What is not immediately taken the due date continues to roll to show a 5 day turn around time up until the hard due date.

For some shops the companies only need a certain percentage of locations completed, so untaken jobs just die if they have not been taken and the company has met the percentage goal.

In addition to that, sometimes the MSCs only have to perform a percentage of the shops. For a major chain that has 100 locations shopped monthly, they may have set a promise to shop 95 of them. They still have to get to every location on some sort of rotation, so may only get desperate to fill it every 3 or 6 months if it is out of the way and no one grabs it.

This sort of pertains to the topic...somtimes I'll see a shop that hangs around for a while, (mostly because it's in an isolated area or a bad date) I've had success by calling my scheduler and asking "Hey there are two other shops in that area and I'll do the XXX shop if I can do them all on the same day. More times than not he'll say sure and assign them all to me.

@ cadwelder ~ I would love if shoppers would create a route for me to help with those hard to fill areas!!!

We at ACE Mystery Shopping do have small windows because shoppers (and schedulers as well) are human and can forget about assignments if they are scheduled to far in advance. However, for shoppers who have successfully completed assignments for me in the past, I can sometimes extend a due date for them, but they MUST email me asap because a lot of our assignments good standing shoppers can self-assign and we can't see in their "apply note" if they requested a different day if they self-assigned.

For our hard to fill areas, I do try to recruit shoppers for there more often then the majority of our assignments and will email our current shoppers... *sometimes* we can even offer a small bonus early in the month if a shopper asks for the *hard to fill areas*. I think shoppers know which ones these are because they usually see begging emails from me EVERY month!

Deva Roberts
Scheduling Manager
ACE Mystery Shopping
[www.acemysteryshopping.com]

i was thinking about taking a day, and doing every single Booneville, MO shop I can schedule...(ugh, 1 1/2 hours east.....1 1/2 hours back home.) But I can't take off a weekday from my regular 8 hour job, to do it, and Booneville closes at noon on Saturday. Most shops can't be done on weekends anyway. Or the same with Excelsior Springs, MO.

DevaACE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @ cadwelder ~ I would love if shoppers would
> create a route for me to help with those hard to
> fill areas!!!
>
> We at ACE Mystery Shopping do have small windows
> because shoppers (and schedulers as well) are
> human and can forget about assignments if they are
> scheduled to far in advance. However, for
> shoppers who have successfully completed
> assignments for me in the past, I can sometimes
> extend a due date for them, but they MUST email me
> asap because a lot of our assignments good
> standing shoppers can self-assign and we can't see
> in their "apply note" if they requested a
> different day if they self-assigned.
>
> For our hard to fill areas, I do try to recruit
> shoppers for there more often then the majority of
> our assignments and will email our current
> shoppers... *sometimes* we can even offer a small
> bonus early in the month if a shopper asks for the
> *hard to fill areas*. I think shoppers know which
> ones these are because they usually see begging
> emails from me EVERY month!

Amazing what a phone call or email will do somtimes.

It's true though! :-D

Deva Roberts
Scheduling Manager
ACE Mystery Shopping
[www.acemysteryshopping.com]

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