Has anyone worked for The Training Factor,[thetrainingfactor.shopmetrics.com]

Jamie Giles, an ACE scheduler, sent out an e-mail to ??? (I am assuming she is using ACE's shopper database) asking that shoppers check it out and sign up, giving her name so she can get a referral fee. I'm a little put-off by this. I am registered with ACE, and if an e-mail is sent to me as an ACE shopper by ACE and ACE is recommending another company, that is one thing. I get numerous e-mails from MSPs I work for recommending other MSPs. But I am offended by having my personal info accessed by an ACE scheduler who is sending a mass e-mail in order to receive a personal referral fee for notifying shoppers of a new company.

Does anyone know anything about this The Training Factor? I'd be more inclined to think a referral fee is earned by someone who gives me a little more information about the company: good, bad, fast pay, slow pay, types of shops, reason I should consider signing up, etc......

Never heard of 'em.

[www.thetrainingfactor.com]

I do quite a number of video shops for them. I had never heard of them before last April, but they have been easy to work with and pay on time. I am not aware of what their other shops might be.

I think that Techsavvy has also worked for them.

@AustinMom I am the VP of Marketing for The Training Factor. We definitely do not want any of our shoppers spammed in anyway. I have contacted our shopping department regarding this thread to clarify. Thank you for posting this. If you have any further concerns please feel free to contact me directly Jonathan@TheTrainingFactor.com

@Walesmaven Thank you for the compliment. We appreciate you working with us. Have a wonderful day!

@AustinMom I just spoke to the President of The Training Factor directly. To give a bit of a background about us, we have only been offering shop services as part of our business model for the past two years. Our Performance department needed a whole new set of shoppers for current and up and coming campaigns we have for our clients. We enlisted our current shopper network to help us find new candidates. If a successful referral and shop took place they would be compensated with a referral fee.

We apologize if this came across as offensive and I will definitely discuss this situation with the team. Our goal is of course to be well represented and to have solid network of mystery shoppers to work with us so that we can all accomplish our goals.

Again please feel free to contact me directly if you have any other concerns.

Yours truly,
Jonathan Saar

Since I just got a payment from them I looked up the shop dates. For shops delivered on September 26 and 29, I got full payment by check on October 13. The check itself is dated October 10.

I'm a happy camper, lol.

Where do I sign up

Before anyone tells me to read more thoroughly, I actually do see the link.

jonathansaar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @AustinMom I just spoke to the President of The
> Training Factor directly. To give a bit of a
> background about us, we have only been offering
> shop services as part of our business model for
> the past two years. Our Performance department
> needed a whole new set of shoppers for current and
> up and coming campaigns we have for our clients.
> We enlisted our current shopper network to help us
> find new candidates. If a successful referral and
> shop took place they would be compensated with a
> referral fee.
>
> We apologize if this came across as offensive and
> I will definitely discuss this situation with the
> team. Our goal is of course to be well
> represented and to have solid network of mystery
> shoppers to work with us so that we can all
> accomplish our goals.
>
> Again please feel free to contact me directly if
> you have any other concerns.
>
> Yours truly,
> Jonathan Saar

Hi, Jonathan, thanks for your post. I would like to read feedback about your company from shoppers. But what I found offensive was NOT directly related to your company. I was offended by having an ACE scheduler use ACE's shopper database, along with her ACE title and ACE e-mail address, to e-mail all ACE shoppers announcing a company while providing her PERSONAL e-mail address and asking shoppers to sign up and then send an e-mail to your company so she can personally get a referral fee.

Yes that was unfortunate and certainly not our intent. I just sent you an inmail in reply to yours. Thanks again for the heads up

I applied for a few phone shops the other day and one of them went to my inbox. I received an e-mail saying I needed to do the training so I would know how to perform phone shops for them. I went to look up the info of the shop in my inbox and it was gone.
I e-mailed the lady back who sent the e-mail telling me I needed to do the training and she was a bit rude asking if I was sure it was PHONE shop and that they have a list of people they assign phone shops to.
I understand schedulers are overwhelemed sometimes but if you have a list of certain people you assign phone shops to, maybe you should put that in the description so a shopper not on that list can either 1) enquire about how to get on that list or 2) not waste their time applying for shops they will never get.
She acted like this was my first time applying for shops and how dare I ask where my shop went to.
I've been doing for this for 6 years lady.

I have only completed one shop for Training Factor but I was paid quickly, emails were responded to in a timely fashion, and overall it was a good experience. 2 thumbs up. Wasn't aware they do video...good to know.

To those who have completed shops for this company, are the reports similar to EPMS?

Jonathan, thank you for your post. It's a treat to have someone from above comment. I did sign on to The Training Factor, I see lots of apartment shops in my area. I put them on the back burner but after this I've moved them up to the front.

And the other answer is, yes I have done some work for them. They were doing recorded phone shops for leasing agents. I ran into problems where the agents did not do the things they were supposed to do. I was told in their training that I was not to lead the agent so I did not ask about the items. I got dinged for putting the comment in that, "The agent did not ask about this" or, "The agent did not mention this". I was told that this was not useful information and they did not pay me for most of the calls I made.

I understand not leading the agent, but do not ding me for following your instructions. If an agent never mentions amenities and i am not supposed to ask about them, how else can I answer your question?

I decided that the fee was not worth the time when they rejected half my reports if the agents did not follow their scripts. The times the agent does what they are supposed to, I got paid no problem. If the idea of the calls is to see who needs training AND you have the recording of the calls, then you know that I am being truthful in stating that they did not ask or mention something....

The reports on Training Factor are much easier than EPSM in my opinion. I've done over 10 shops for EPMS in the last 6 months and so far I've completed 5 for The Training Factor in One Month. Go figure.

I wish all the schedulers working with this company responded to emails in a timely manner. The scheduler I am dealing with says she does not see any of my emails. Every time I tell her I sent her an email, she tells me she gets over 400 emails a day and schedules for a number of different companies so she can't be expected to see all of them. She doesn't seem to realize that I really don't care how many companies she is scheduling for because I am only concerned with the company I am shopping for. If I send an email, I expect a timely response because I am needing answers or direction concerning the shop I am scheduled to complete. I don't email to chit chat or send jokes so I am emailing for a shop related reason. Every time she says she did not see my email, I want to scream at her but, as we all know, if you get mouthy with a scheduler, it might be the end of getting any jobs.

Hello niclinblue,
Thank you for your post, and letting us know that you were having trouble reaching your scheduler. While you are correct in saying that sometimes it is not in our best interest to get on the wrong scheduler, it is not appropriate to leave shoppers in the feed needing answers. I am the head of our division at The Training Factor, and can assure you that we will discuss timeliness with our scheduling service and the tone of emails that go out to our shoppers. Inside of your mystery shop correspondence there is a number and email (shopdept@thetrainingfactor.com) to reach the office.

Due to a recent acquisition, The Training Factor will soon have an even greater need for dedicated apartment shoppers. Again, our apologies if any TTF schedulers were not responding to you in a timely manner. In their defense, at times, they must reach out to our office, and then we may need to discuss any unique situation with the client. This could prove to cause a delay. My guess is that all schedulers receive hundreds of emails a day, as do I on most days. That does not excuse negative emails to those filling jobs for our schedulers.

Should you ever need additional assistance, please reach out to us personally at the email above.

Sincerely,
Amber Sisson
Manager, Mystery Shop Division

I did two apartment shops for them and I was very impressed with the overall experience. Cheque came in the mail sooner than expected. I would do more non-phone shops for them if any more come available in the GTA. Keep up the good work!

Thank you dixiewhiskey...we appreciate you greatly, and are working on an increase shopper base in Canada.

Amber Sisson
Manager, Mystery Shop Division

tgihvaa,

I see where you tried telephone shopping for our apartment shops and had a bad experience. If you wish to speak to the head of our Shopper Education, please email our offices at shopdept@thetrainingfactor.com

Target telephone shops can be challenging, but if you followed the directions in the shop then that should not result in a rejection. I am happy to revisit this issue with you if our shops are of interest.

Thank you!

How is the report for recorded phone shops?

I have completed both the recorded phone call shops as well as onsite visits. It took a couple of weeks to get through to the target, partly because of snowy conditions at the time. The schedulers were great to work with. The reports were comparable to other msc's but slightly less narrative heavy as another popular msc that conducts apartment shops. I think that is due to not having to repeat the same information throughout the report numerous times like the other msc. I would work for them again as they were a pleasure to work with. Hope that helps.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2015 04:23AM by Mbrookes.

tnx for a quick response