Mystery Shopper Magazine: Interview With Market Force CEO, Karl Maier

I do not believe Karl knows what the left hand is doing. His computer does deactivate talented valuable evaluators.

I was deactivated and after a few years I was reactivated.

I will not give the names of the clients but the schedulers had me on speed dial when a shopper who had no business going into an area where they were unprepared flaked the shop. The shoppers did a "drive by" and kept on going for fear of their personal safety. Newbies should drive by when they feel "over their heads"

I often told the schedulers I would be deactivated if I go back to a location too soon. The schedulers were heart broken when they attempted to assign me to shops and found I was deactivated.

Shoppers get a cultural shock when they see what they signed up for. I drove into locations and men and women would greet me and "ask for change" (panhandle). Females obviously on drugs and in need of dental work, clean clothes and a bath would offer themselves. The managers would not interfere with that activity but did lock their restrooms and remove self service items from outside the counter in many of the locations. Police chased a car into a lot, cuffed the motorist and took him away. They ignored the panhandlers and "ladies" who were not worth arresting for misdemeanors. I can not tell you how many times I was asked if I was buying or selling drugs.

A person like myself is aware of the risks. Locals are prisoners in their homes. Most do not go out on the streets. The news is filled with incidents where innocent children and people involved in the criminal activity are injured or killed. The billboards and public service announcements ask that the violence be eliminated but I go down there into the area and do not drive past. I am worth the money that the schedulers bonus. The shops are offered last minute when they can not be included in a route to share the costs of the shop and the schedulers cover the cost of a single shop when they are desperate. I would not take the shops at regular pay but I do "visit" just to know I can still be believable if the scheduler really appreciates my efforts and ability and pays reasonably for it. It is an adventure.

Why do I take the shops? Because of my "checkered past" I have experience in mingling with people from the executive board rooms to the ghetto. In some areas even the locals have sense enough to go home and be prisoners in their own homes for fear of going out on streets where the law enforcement is unable to maintain law and order. I have to dress the part and use the correct vehicle when I shop at the upper end of the economic scale or when I play the part of the local customer in the ghetto area. That was all taught to me by "handlers" before I worked the streets and on the job when I was on the streets. We had to let the panhandlers and "ladies" do their thing as long as they did not cross the line. I take the upper level assignments for the same reason. I can drive the very expensive vehicles and eat the $150 lunches in restaurants where the menus are read from left to right because I am believable.

I do write my posts with the idea that clients are reading them. This particular chain is focused on speed of service. Most people know you can not cook and serve a particular food item in under two minutes. It amazes me how the company can pull a precooked food item out of a greasy drawer microwave or grill it and serve it as "fresh". They are selling convenience but when there is an alternative the customer goes elsewhere for a properly prepared food item. The nightly business news said this chain's figures are off from last years totals. It is because this chain's competition offers "fresh" fast food cooked for a reasonable and appropriate length of time. Still the chain does serve "billions and billions" because they are "in the right place at the right time" and few wants to compete in the locations that are truly an adventure.

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If anybody has any specific follow-up questions you would like me to ask the CEO, please either post them on this thread or PM me. I plan on submitting them next Monday. Thank you to vlade5394, who has already sent me a couple. smiling smiley

(heart)

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
I guess my question would be to re-ask the deactivation/reactivation question to see if he might address the actual question.
I think I may need to ask it in a different way. Any ideas/suggestions? Anybody?

(heart)

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
Dear CEO,

"Thank you for clearly and directly declaring that there is no maximum number of shops. Thank you for telling the people who feel that they were deactivated without cause where to make contact. I know you already gently and diplomatically described the huge size of your company, and the problems you have with collusion and falsified data by shoppers. I know you already gently and diplomatically explained that your company feels it is best to break all contact with someone suspected of collusion or falsified data. Some of my readers feel that this is insufficient and unfair. Could you please provide a contact person who is paid to listen to the complaints and pleas of deactivated shoppers while telling these suspected fraudsters exactly where and when they tripped the alarm?"

~
up, up, down, down, left, right,left,right, B,A, start.
Michael, between your "Most Disliked Shops" post [www.mysteryshopforum.com] and this one, I don't which is more hilarious. Thanks for making me laugh out loud! smiling smiley

(heart)

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
I was deactivated a year ago. I was told it was due to errors on my part. But the errors where in the past with the same shops and were never an issue. At the time of deactivation it was when I had done $800 with them in a few month in a row. Before that for years I had not done that much with them ever but used them every month. Just my two cents on this, I would say more but my name appears at the top of this post.
Yes, I was pulled from a client when my monthly totals from that client alone were averaging $300 a month. With out that client I average about $100 a month with them. I only shop part time and that $300 makes a hugh difference in my bottom line.
Part of the reason I found Karl's interview so unsatisfactory was that it read like an excert from a company marketing pamplet and did not directly address the questions. I assume the interviews are edited before publication. Was this an investigative interview or did the company pay for advertising space? When asked about deactivation, Karl noted those removed for conflict of interest or those who submit shop data without having done the shop or those who provide inconsistent data. A couple of the many questions still in my mind:

1. How does the company determine that there is a conflict of interest?
2. By "inconsistent data," does Karl mean reports that provide incorrect data (or shops that show unusually long service delivery times?) or is he referencing mistakes - shops completed incorrectly and not paid, i.e., shopper shopped the wrong location or the wrong time frame.
3. How exactly is a shopper "warned" of pending deactivation for "inconsistent data?"
4. How many mistakes is a shopper allowed before deactivation? Is it a set number (I have heard 3 mistakes) or is it a percentage of the total number of the shopper's completed shops? I see a big difference between a shopper who has performed 1,000 shops and one who has performed 12. Is increased experience and larger volume of completed shops valued and rewarded?
5. Since Karl says shoppers are encouraged to request reactivation if they believe they were deactivated "without cause," how will the shopper determine that? In many cases, the shopper is not even notified of deactivation - their ability to select new shops is simply removed.
I am curious to hear his thoughts on why an attorney for his company publicly agreed, on a nationally syndicated television program, the only requirement to be a mystery shopper was to be breathing.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
I once worked for a company with a number of entry level clerical jobs and the only "requirement" to get the job was the ability to "walk, read, and write." They would teach you everything else. And I'm guessing after the ADA, they dropped the "walk" requirement.
I was deactivated in 2010. Health problems and my father's death forced me to take off 4 months. When I returned I continued my usual work load. I still work for 5 other mystery shopping companies at that time and today.. To make a long story short my 5 year association ended over that billion Hamburger sold company. There was no explanation given but was told that I could reapply after a year. In 2013 I reapplied and was emailed that I had been denied again with no explanation. So I called the Helpless desk and was told that there was a complicated formula that they used. The implication was that my termination was based upon a Top Secret Formula and a computer. A company that provides consumer data and business trends yet they can not provide a explanation for termination or evaluation value such as a number to rate their shoppers. An interesting footnote was I could continue doing retail store merchandising but not mystery shopping. The 5 companies that I work for treat me with respect and provide an evaluation tool so that I know what to do and know how to improve my approach to mystery shopping. I had no problem with their payment plan which is very fair and received in a timely manner. As far as being reactivated the corporate formula, corporate computer, and a male Helpless desk employee are reasons why I will not hold my breathe. Thank You Rick
If they told us what the criteria were, it would be too easy for people to find ways to game the system. But it seems clear from many people's anecdotes on this topic that there are criteria that do come in to play, and have nothing to do with the shopper's integrity.

If those criteria are simply mathematical (X number of shops, Y number of negative shops, Z number of shops that conflict with other shoppers' reports on the same store) then we need to consider it a roll of the dice and not take it personally. It's certainly annoying; I got into a four-email exchange with what I thought was a human being over my apparent deactivation from one of MF's clients before I realized I was talking to a keyword bot. I stuck a few random spaces into the keywords it seemed to be responding to and haven't heard from it since.

It kept insisting I was not deactivated from anything. I knew better. I haven't seen those shops in months, but a friend sees them.

They just plain don't want to tell us. For instance, if we knew it was a function of our reports being, say, more negative than others, and we knew that, well, what would we do? Stop delivering up negative reports, right? It's human nature, and I suspect this is why they won't tell us.
It may have something to do with what they would consider a deviation from the norm. For example, if their average shopper reports negative results on 11% of XYZ shops and a certain shopper reports 39% negative results on XYZ shops, that might ring a bell. Likewise, if a certain shopper reports 99% positive on QRS shops that might ring a bell if the average is 84%. This is just a guess. I've been doing one of their shops for a few years now, and the locations as a rule have no housekeeping or maintenance infractions. I hit one a few months ago that I considered a massive fail on housekeeping. I reported all infractions, it sailed right through, didn't hear a peep from them. I don't think we'll ever know.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.
I have consistently found their telephone system to be
bush league. Pretty sure the CEOS have never tried to use it from a shopper's perspective. It always amazes me that the companies whose bread and butter comes from mystery shopping fail to use these techniques to check themselves.
I submitted a list of ten follow-up questions about an hour ago. Hopefully, Karl will agree to answer them. I'll keep you updated...

(heart)

PS
Thank you for all of your comments on this thread and for those of you who PM'd me. I appreciate it!

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
These are evaluation tools which gives the shopper a visual evaluation and not a secret formula. This mystery shopping giant uses these formulas to deactivate a shopper. If a shopper goes from a 5 out of 5 to being deactivated we have a "problem Houston". If you are terminated then you can isolate the reason why. This is the optimal question : why?
Considering how many MSC there are to chose from...
And all the gripes about low payment fees from this MSC why are people making an issue about this???
YOU are an IC

Shoppers DO NOT have a GUARANTEED right for shops from ANY MSC,
THE MSC has the right to pick and choose who they want to do their shops.

MF owes NO ONE an explanation for anything- ITS THEIR BUSINESS!
If you don't like they way they do business, DONT SHOP FOR THEM!
They don't owe you or anyone an explanation
THE SAME WAY
you don't owe ANY msc an explanation why you choose not to do their shops when they call.

YOU are an IC
You get to pick and choose the same way they do

For those griping about being deactivated
Well, your an IC and NOT an employee!
And THAT gives them the right to choose AT WILL, WITHOUT AN EXPLANATION who will do shops for them,

YOU DONT GET TO GRIPE
ITS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS
that what an IC is!!!
Do work for another MSC and MOVE ON!!


If you don't like being treated that way
GET A JOB that pay hourly/salary
Jackaroe, a full-time employer can be worse! And doesn't have to tell you their business!
jackaroe, if your mother sent you to bed without supper wouldn't you want to know why?

The people who "gripe" about MF deactivating them are seeking information in case they did something wrong so they don't make the same mistake again. Wouldn't you want to know, if it happened to you?

Sure, MF has the right not to tell us, and I actually understand why they do this (not tell us) without having to hear it from them. Sure, we have a desire to know what we did to get deactivated. That's human nature. But if people knew what criteria they used, they might know what to falsify, or what strategy to use to avoid coming to their attention.

For example, let's PRETEND that they have a criterion that shoppers who don't produce at least 10% negative reports over a certain time period will be presumed to be not paying attention, too kindhearted to be truthful, or didn't bother doing the shop and will therefore be deactivated. If shoppers knew that, they could simply make a point to throw in a few negative comments so they wouldn't be deactivated. So in this case, letting us know reason (remember, this is a completely made up reason; I have no idea if this is one of the reasons they might deactivate someone, I'm just using it as an example) will result in deliberately falsifying reports to avoid deactivation.

Because they're a popular "starter" MSC, they always have a supply of new shoppers so they probably just apply whatever criteria they are using and don't tell us what it is because ... well, look where we are. We're in a forum where experienced shoppers advise less experienced shoppers. If they told one person why there were deactivated, that criteria would no longer be of any use to them.

Anyway, that's my take on why they refuse to tell us "why."

Time to build a bigger bridge.
After following up, the final response I received from a Market Force spokesperson was:

"I’m afraid that I don’t want to commit Karl to answering the second round of questions because he has a full schedule. In fact, he scarcely gives interviews because he puts the brunt of his time and focus on the business. I hope the detailed answers that he provided the first time around will suffice."

(heart)

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
Isn't at least part of their business mystery shopping? And aren't shoppers vital to that segment? Really, how much time out of his busy day would it take to have his assistant prepare a response or two?

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
I just started shopping for Market Force and I find the process of applying for shops a bit much. Even more is the process of getting shop information and submitting receipts and the shop report. They don't pay that well and all the hoops to jump through is a bit much for what I get. Not sure I will continue to shop for them.
I would guess it has less to do with lack of time and more to do with not wanting to tell us anything else.

Time to build a bigger bridge.
LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Isn't at least part of their business mystery
> shopping? And aren't shoppers vital to that
> segment? Really, how much time out of his busy day
> would it take to have his assistant prepare a
> response or two?


After my initial response, later I was thinking much the same as Lisa said here. Aren't shoppers a large part of "the business"? Although maybe not, with MF, since they don't seem to think a lot about shopper retention ~ i.e, there's always gonna be another "breather" out there. Heh.

Practitioner of the Nerdly Arts.
The interview with Market Force left alot to be desired. I would love to hear the real reason so many professional Mystery Shoppers who have no difficulty doing business with dozens of other companies are deactivated and never are able to find out why.



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