Market Force Losing Its Big Client Disclosed 11 months ago

I wouldn't equate traditional mystery shopping with being out of touch or out of date. As in the example provided by SoCalMama, what exactly is fast? Vague questions get vague answers. "Real" shoppers answer based on emotions, mystery shoppers are supposed to be, and usually are, impartial. "Real" shoppers are not going to check things not related to their particular goal on a given day. "Real" shoppers could have biases based on gender, race or religion and the client has no way of knowing. The biases are more likely to be detected by a mystery shopping company as a mystery shopper completes more assignments. There is actually a place for all forms of data collections because they each provide useful information.

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.

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More Discussions About Market Force (All Companies)

I think it's a great idea for clients to go to customer based apps that actually record employees. Maybe it really will be cheaper for clients to go to court over illegal recordings. But then again, maybe not.

You have no way of knowing that, Justa. Like Lisa said, the "real" shoppers are not going to likely be impartial. It doesn't matter how great the app is. And why would the customers want to bother with capturing timings?

The most timing obsessed client has just discontinued its MS program. It has not gone to customer apps.

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.

Unlike you, I don't have a hard on against Market Force. To me they serve a purpose. My comments are strictly about the likely mistakes they made with this particular client. If the client chooses to try a mystery shopping program, it doesn't matter to me who gets the contract, including MF. I would just hope they would learn from their mistakes in creating a program that provides more and better information.

I think crowd sourcing is replacing many employees in companies but not as much as if appears. Cheap labor gets cheap results. I do a lot of phone shops, and some are recorded, but I still have to write a narrative. I have always thought that a company does not have the time to go through every phone call, so the narratives are still necessary. Which means someone has to write them, and edit them, and read them. Plus, someone needs to record shops in person also. A good company will still hire mystery shoppers.

Plus the client company needs to deal with employee fraud. We were in Chili's for a non-shop dinner. They now have the little electronic thingies on the table that you can call your server, play games, pay your bill with a credit card, get a receipt and leave a survey. We paid our bill and collected the receipt. As we were departing the server was busily answering the survey 'for us'. How many receipts left on the table do the servers phone in and provide 'great service' reports? Or how many of them complete the surveys negatively on a co-worker they don't much care for?

And with video shopping becoming more popular. I just signed up for the IMSC conference in Indiana. They're offering free video training . I'm so excited!

@JASFLALMT I think that will be great! I have considered getting into video shopping but there is still not enough work close to me.

I'm probably not signed up with companies who do a lot of video other than Ellis and they don't pay much more for video shops like others do. I would imagine I will discover which companies offer it at the conference.

isn't justapoorshopper a troll?

@jay225 wrote:

isn't justapoorshopper a troll?

It could be. Certainly doesn't seem nasty and aggressive enough to be a troll, however. The question about alternative ways for businesses to find out how they are doing shows up with some frequency. The sky was going to fall when businesses started putting surveys on their receipts and it was amusing to find that actually the receipt surveys were in some cases part of the overall package with the MSP doing mystery shops. Sort of reminds me of Sondheim's "Good times and bum times, I've seen them all, and, my dear, I'm still here. Plush velvet sometimes, sometimes just pretzels and beer, but I'm here."

@bgriffin wrote:

Oh our troll is back!

You're the 2nd person in 2 threads to say this op is a troll. since the op doesn't sound familiar to me maybe it was before my time. can u tell the rest of us what the other troll names are so we can find them in forum? Thx.

@jay225 wrote:

isn't justapoorshopper a troll?

In order to hold on to their clients, MF is always on the side of the client when the client challenges a shopper's report. MF has never been a good mystery shopping company.

Yes, yes, MF has done lots of things to shoppers to make us want to MF them, LOL. I still take their shops and am lucky I haven't been deactivated after all these years. One day the other shoe will likely drop.

I have done many shops for MF and many shops at that client. I do feel the questions do not accurately represent what a customer wants to share about the experience. Often times I wonder what the client actually want with the questions they ask. But as a MS I follow the clients request and perform my shop as required and let them figure it out from there.
Hopefully MF will find new clients to fill the void and I am sure that the client will continue with mystery shopping but change companies and hopefully change focus. Perhaps this will all work out for the better. I am sure our community will find the new company they will be using and we will have a new opportunity.
Happy New Year Everyone.

Regardless of your feelings about MF, I have always said the issue with this specific FF shop was it was NOT realistic (as others have already mentioned). The things we were required to measure were in some instances not real life. When I order a few different items from a FF joint, and it would be better as a Meal or Package because it would be cheaper, when the person rings it up that way this creates happy consumers which is better for the company, but with this FF shop, it is frowned upon. Years ago, if you ordered items that were cheaper as a meal, this FF company would just give it to you and actually I believe the registers automatically made the changes, not any more. What consumer honestly says no to a discount for more or the same food? It is not a real situation.

And of course they knew we were shopping them, for how many years have we been ordering the same exact items in the same exact way and saying no to saving money when offered.

After all is said and done, who is really at fault? The MSC or the FF Customer? That all depends on who decided what the criteria was and decided it never needed to be changed. How did they ever expect to get real life results when we were never able to act like real life customers?

MF lost anther large client, the (large grocery store chain) that went out of business in 2015. I am very happy MF lost this client. On the other hand, it was sad to see the supermarkets owned by the (large grocery store chain) go out of business.
edited by Moderator

@MSNinja wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

Oh our troll is back!
You're the 2nd person in 2 threads to say this op is a troll. since the op doesn't sound familiar to me maybe it was before my time. can u tell the rest of us what the other troll names are so we can find them in forum? Thx.

About a year and a half ago this guy (who at the time was mostly going by BillBryanInCarthage but also used AggieJim and one other I can't remember, along with numerous others) got booted from MarketForce. 95% of his mystery shopping was doing gas station audits for MF. When MF booted him he started making numerous negative threads about MF. At one point his big thing was that they weren't the largest MSC (who the F cares??). He went rounds about everyone would eventually get booted and it was not possible to make a living doing this without MF. He got incredibly abusive (if I recall he threatened to kill me or kick my ass or something one time). Most of his accounts got banned. Several times he created 4-5 accounts and had "discussions" about MF between then. Most of his abusive posts have been deleted but if you look at those usernames you might get a glimpse into his more rational (not rational, just more rational that the rest) side.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2016 09:58PM by bgriffin.

When I said they cave to franchisees, that was not to benefit the client because the client was corporate. Corporate can impose all sorts of things on their franchisees and can pull the franchise if they don't feel it is representing the corporate standards. While knowing nothing about the arrangements with this client and their franchisees, I do know in other business the corporation actually charges a fee to the franchisee to offset the cost of mystery shops and audits. More than likely challenges were from franchisees who had the potential benefits of looking better than they actually were and making the mystery shopping program look bad. A real win/win for a franchisee who was running a sloppy operation.

@shopmyst wrote:

In order to hold on to their clients, MF is always on the side of the client when the client challenges a shopper's report. MF has never been a good mystery shopping company.

FWIW, I was told the decision to end the MS program was strictly financial.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

@bgriffin wrote:

About a year and a half ago this guy (who at the time was mostly going by BillBryanInCarthage but also used AggieJim and one other I can't remember, along with numerous others) got booted from MarketForce. 95% of his mystery shopping was doing gas station audits for MF. When MF booted him he started making numerous negative threads about MF. At one point his big thing was that they weren't the largest MSC (who the F cares??). He went rounds about everyone would eventually get booted and it was not possible to make a living doing this without MF. He got incredibly abusive (if I recall he threatened to kill me or kick my ass or something one time). Most of his accounts got banned. Several times he created 4-5 accounts and had "discussions" about MF between then. Most of his abusive posts have been deleted but if you look at those usernames you might get a glimpse into his more rational (not rational, just more rational that the rest) side.

No those names dont sound familiar to me. Now i want to know what u did for him to threaten to kill u. Must be a good story.
If 95% of his msing w/MF was gas stations why is he complaining about this FF account?

My suspicion is that the FF company stopped working w/ the MSC strictly as a cost cutting measure. My thought process is this: The FF company is the "value leader" in a no growth portion of the industry, so profits can best be grown by cutting costs. Add to that the addition of the expanded "all day" menu with lower cost options and there is additional pressure on the bottom line.

When I heard that the contract was lost, I asked a scheduler on the phone who denied it. Through December I was making good money with them and will miss them, but I know that other opportunities will come. I wish all a great start to the new year!

The all day breakfast items cost more than many of the lunch offerings, they are not lower cost options.

My posts are solely based on my opinions and for my entertainment, contact a professional if you need real advice.

When you get in debt you become a slave. - Andrew Jackson

Perhaps it is not our responsibility to determine what should and should not be done and how. Perhaps I'm incorrect, but I feel we should follow the guidelines as stated and provide an accurate report. Our personal feelings should not be a part of it.

Just my opinion.

I am glad I dropped MF before they got dropped. Their employees were impossible to work with...rude...unreasonable...I got disgusted. I now feel validated

I think the FF company would be better served to add mystery shops during their off peak hours. Around here ... at least every few weeks someone posts on FB about how long they were in line at FF at 9 pm. I like MF. They've been fair to me and their pay is always on time. I got denied on one shop, but it was my fault because I ordered the wrong sandwich...I added cheese! Another time, I was told I was denied, but after some back and forth...they approved it.
I think being in any business is challenging. ..it's always a mix of managing clients and keeping employees happy.

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Market Force Losing Its Big Client Disclosed 11 months ago

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