New guide lines for Strategic Reflections..way to harsh.

I just got these new guide lines from Strategic Reflections.

"***Strategic Reflections will be implementing a NEW POLICY effective April 1, 2016. If your shop report is not submitted by midnight on your assigned due date, your shop will be automatically removed the next morning and your account will be suspended for a minimum of 30 days. We will NO LONGER be making the overdue courtesy calls.***""

I can understand not paying you, but to suspend your account for 30 days???? If they did that to me, for missing one assignment, it would be the last time I use them.

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More Discussions About Strategic Reflections (All Companies)

I don't understand the midnight deadlines from ANY of the MSCs -- do they have editors that work the graveyard shift? If they don't, then why isn't it an 8 am deadline?

Now scheduling travel shops for the day after Christmas through mid-January.

There is one company that has a deadline of 10 a.m. CST the following day. I think that works out quite well. Better yet, 24 hours.

They are often not the easiest MSC to get along with. I like a few of their clients, I don't take a lot of their shops though.

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

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2016 10:46PM by bgriffin.

They have a sandwich shop in my area I have been wanting to try, but it only reimburses for one and I want to take my hubby if I go. The pay is pretty meager and the reimbursment and payment combined will not pay for two meals.

I think they want them by midnight, so the editors will have them first thing in the morning.

The midnight deadlines are very annoying, esp. when you have been gone all day and are really exhausted. 10:00 a.m. or 24 hours are best yes.

@johnb974 wrote:

I think they want them by midnight, so the editors will have them first thing in the morning.

And what would be wrong with a deadline of, say, 4:00 a.m.?

Midnight is foolish, especially when it is midnight eastern time. (Strategic reflections is in Cincinnati). This dead line means that evaluations on the west coast must be entered by 9:00 p.m. For those shopping in Hawaii, evaluations need to be entered by 6:00 p.m.

Another case of an MSC not thinking.

@Bubbabubba wrote:

It seems to me that they need to be more discriminate about who they hire, rather than treat the professional "type" like children.

Here, here! I know that I would never condone anyone unprofessional enough to use language, as S.R. has done, to make a policy announcement among my employees. That person would be standing in line at the unemployment office.

I just did 2 shops for them and so happy with them. The reports and shops were very easy. I hope they don't start calling. I asked them not to. I asked questions about the shops I did too and I got an immediate reply.

You hope schedulers don't start calling? That's a first! LOL!

@johnb974 wrote:

I just got these new guide lines from Strategic Reflections.

"***Strategic Reflections will be implementing a NEW POLICY effective April 1, 2016. If your shop report is not submitted by midnight on your assigned due date, your shop will be automatically removed the next morning and your account will be suspended for a minimum of 30 days. We will NO LONGER be making the overdue courtesy calls.***""

I can understand not paying you, but to suspend your account for 30 days???? If they did that to me, for missing one assignment, it would be the last time I use them.

Harsh or not it's how they want it. You don't have to work for them. I personally find SR and MF reports so easy that I do them as soon as I get home and get them out of the way. MF only gives us 8 hours.

Their guidelines sound pretty much like the guidelines of most of the companies I shop for. It would be nice to have 3 days to do reports after an assignment, but I wouldn't wait to submit the report anyway.

Strategic Reflections doesn't have much in my area and they pay pretty low, but I like a couple of their clients and their reports are easy. I'm willing to be paid a little less if a report takes me only 10 or 15 minutes. Too many reports take forever.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

You hope schedulers don't start calling? That's a first! LOL!

No, it is not a first. There are quite a few of us who find certain schedulers' over use of the telephone and even disdain for e-mail quite frustrating.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

Harsh or not it's how they want it. You don't have to work for them. I personally find SR and MF reports so easy that I do them as soon as I get home and get them out of the way. MF only gives us 8 hours.

The greater point is not what the policy is but rather the harsh, even juvenile, tone of S.R.'s language.

An eight hour deadline would, in many cases, be preferable and longer that S.R.'s midnight deadline. Do the shop at 7:00 PM eastern, S.R. only gives FIVE hours to complete it. Do the shop at 7:00 PM pacific, S.R only gives only TWO hours to complete it.

But deadlines aside, S.R. should not communicate to its vendors (shoppers) without a modicum of respect. In treating us as children they are showing that they are, in fact, the children themselves.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2016 02:26PM by Rousseau.

I always do my report as soon as I get home, just so it's fresh in my mind. Midnight does seem a little odd. I've seen some companies request the report within 6 hours. That too seems harsh. I'm guessing SR probably had issues with late reports, which is why they're implementing the new policy.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

You hope schedulers don't start calling? That's a first! LOL!

I too don't like when SR calls me. It's an automated system stating "We have available assignments in your area, please log in to your account." It's worthless, and annoying.

Yes

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

Little known secret: I have had several schedulers 'fess up that, "we know the deadline is midnight- but if you get it done before we show up to work- we really don't care." Don't take this for a granted on all shops- but it has been my experience that if get them done by 5AM or so- I never hear a peep that my shop is late. (They may mark it as late - I don't know.) I have been getting good shops and bonuses so it works.

@johnb974 wrote:

I just got these new guide lines from Strategic Reflections.

"***Strategic Reflections will be implementing a NEW POLICY effective April 1, 2016. If your shop report is not submitted by midnight on your assigned due date, your shop will be automatically removed the next morning and your account will be suspended for a minimum of 30 days. We will NO LONGER be making the overdue courtesy calls.***""

I can understand not paying you, but to suspend your account for 30 days???? If they did that to me, for missing one assignment, it would be the last time I use them.

My favorite part of the announcement was this gem:
We are NO LONGER be making the overdue courtesy calls. We spend too much time in the mornings contacting shoppers in overdue status and still end up having to pull the shops and rescheduling them to other shoppers.

For SR, the ones I do for them are so easy, I don't even wait to get home. I just upload it on MobiAudit as soon as I get out to my car in the parking lot. The only exception is if it is a really bad neighborhood so I don't want to get caught "loitering" or if I am in a really big hurry to get somewhere. In that case, I have been known to do the upload if I get stuck at a long stop light.

I do agree though that for longer reports, the midnight deadline is a little harsh (and I am on Eastern time zone so the west coast is even worse!). If you play the game with the waiting until the editors arrive to work though, it can come back to bite. Some companies do employ offshore editors and some editors just like to work at night (I work third shift and will get questions from editors or review reports while I am working -- They are surprised when I reply to their email at 2 AM!). Also, some do maintenance on the website during the middle of the night so you could be thinking of getting it in by 1 AM and get caught by the site going down.

Shopping across Indiana but mostly around Indianapolis.

I have absolutely no problem with this company. I do a lot of work for them. I have a good relationship with the scheduler and I am paid on time. I saw the letter and it did not apply..... because I turn my reports in asap (as I do with all my companies).

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

I have absolutely no problem with this company. I do a lot of work for them. I have a good relationship with the scheduler and I am paid on time. I saw the letter and it did not apply..... because I turn my reports in asap (as I do with all my companies).

Exactly what I think. If the shoe fits, wear it. When I read their guidelines, I paid no attention because I knew they were not talking to me. It looks like they have had problems with late submissions and they are taking a harder stance. I would only be insulted and believe the guidelines were too harsh if I were doing what they are putting an end to.

Speaking of new guidelines that are way too harsh, or at least way too harshly worded, I don't think these from SS are any worse than MarketForce's from last month:

@ wrote:

Overlapping Times

It has never been more important for you to review your shop data prior to submitting your report. If you enter reports for two shops that show ‘overlapping times’, we have been having to invalidate both shops. And those shops are being put back out for reassignment immediately.

In the past we used to allow Shoppers to let us know if there was a reporting mistake and then we would return the shop to them so they could fix it up. We do not do that anymore. It was costing us too much in time and manpower to correct mistakes that need to be caught by you before you submit your report. We process about 70,000 reports a month which means it is even more important that Shoppers check their own work. If a Shopper can’t take 1 or 2 minutes to check their work, we are not going to take 20 to 30 minutes trying to un-do a Shopper’s mistakes. We are constantly mindful of keeping our costs low so that we can keep our shopper fees as high as possible and we hope you will agree that those Shoppers who make the mistakes should bear the responsibility.

Actually, I thought that this message originally had additional, stronger wording in it that wasn't in this final wording. But, in any event, although I agree with the sentiment, I thought the message could have been delivered in a somewhat more professional way.

Of course, I did have a chuckle over their reasoning of keeping shoppers' fees as high as possible....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I was completing a report that was due by midnight and fell asleep with my laptop on my lap before I finished it. I woke up at 2 a.m.-ish and finished and submitted the report after 3 a.m. The MSC sent me 2 emails during that 3 hour window informing me the reports were late. Really? I'm sure no editor was waiting on tenterhooks to review that report at that hour.

MSCs that require quick turnaround should make sure their reports aren't so deadly dull that we fall asleep in the middle of completing them.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

MSCs that require quick turnaround should make sure their reports aren't so deadly dull that we fall asleep in the middle of completing them.

And that they're not so loaded with ambiguity and so frustrating that we pound our keyboards until they break, and can't finish the report. Or throw something through our computer screens.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2016 02:12PM by BirdyC.

And that they don't require an alcoholic drink for a 7 pm dinner that gets you home at 10pm ready for a nap,

Now scheduling travel shops for the day after Christmas through mid-January.

@BirdyC wrote:

@ChrisCooper wrote:

MSCs that require quick turnaround should make sure their reports aren't so deadly dull that we fall asleep in the middle of completing them.

And that they're not so loaded with ambiguity and so frustrating that we pound our keyboards until they break, and can't finish the report. Or throw something through our computer screens.

My one beef with a certain company is ....one question per page, submit, one question per page, submit,....one question per page, submit .....and when there was an outage, it took FOREVER to get that report in.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

There is one company that has a deadline of 10 a.m. CST the following day. I think that works out quite well. Better yet, 24 hours.

I stopped working for that company because I was 5 min late and they docked me 3.00. That company is in MN and I'm in CA so I'd have to complete the shop by 7am. The shops I took for them were dinner shops where I got home late and was too tired to write it up.

@Rousseau wrote:

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

You hope schedulers don't start calling? That's a first! LOL!

No, it is not a first. There are quite a few of us who find certain schedulers' over use of the telephone and even disdain for e-mail quite frustrating.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

Harsh or not it's how they want it. You don't have to work for them. I personally find SR and MF reports so easy that I do them as soon as I get home and get them out of the way. MF only gives us 8 hours.

The greater point is not what the policy is but rather the harsh, even juvenile, tone of S.R.'s language.

An eight hour deadline would, in many cases, be preferable and longer that S.R.'s midnight deadline. Do the shop at 7:00 PM eastern, S.R. only gives FIVE hours to complete it. Do the shop at 7:00 PM pacific, S.R only gives only TWO hours to complete it.

But deadlines aside, S.R. should not communicate to its vendors (shoppers) without a modicum of respect. In treating us as children they are showing that they are, in fact, the children themselves.

Why are you taking it personally? I am 100% positive that nothing they said applies to me so I am not bothered by it. If other shoppers have to be reminded by a phone call in the morning, well, that's inexcusable. Everyone knows or should know the deadlines for each company and each shop. Don't take them if you can't meet the deadlines.

Most of the companies I work for know that my shops will be reported as soon as I can get them reported. They don't give me flack about it and I don't "negotiate" it in advance. They know I pack my schedule and they know I know how late their report can be without it being a problem. There is one shop that I did on Monday that I still haven't reported (but will today).

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

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New guide lines for Strategic Reflections..way to harsh.

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