"Easiest" and "Hardest" Companies

Easiest
Market Force
Secret Shopper

Hardest
ACL (nothing compared to Coyle though)
Coyle

What do you think? Which are yours?

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Easiest:
Ipsos
SQM

Most difficult:
Coyle
Data Quest

"Let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why?” ~Walter Williams

If you find ACL reports difficult, you probably have not done enough other shops with narratives. I find theirs very easy.

Easy:
Informa
ACL
Kinesis
Servimer
Clear Evaluations

Hard
Coyle
Date Quest

I do no work for MF and almost none for Intellishop.

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.

easy
CRI or Stericycle
IPSOS
Bare

Hard
Coyle
ACL

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

Easy......Mercantile, New Wave, Iposos, Trend Source, Informa, Service Sense.
Difficult..Cirrus, Coyle

Live consciously....

Easiest:
iSecretShop
Servimer

Hardest:
Sentry (especially the Brazilian steakhouse shop!!)

Easy Peasy: Albatross, HS Brands, Trendsource
So Hard I May Die: Amusement Advantage, MCG

I don't really find any of the reports hard....EXCEPT I do have to agree with @Monk-N-Nut on Amusement Advantage. Some of their reports take sooooo long and are sooooo repetitive that it takes the fun out of going to the place of amusement.

Hardest: Coyle

Easiest: ACL (because I "learned" from Coyle)

@Jill_L wrote:

I don't really find any of the reports hard....EXCEPT I do have to agree with @Monk-N-Nut on Amusement Advantage. Some of their reports take sooooo long and are sooooo repetitive that it takes the fun out of going to the place of amusement.

Funny story, a scheduler was sending out 'desperate' emails for a local bowling place. I was out of rotation but said a family member could do it but I would need to go with as they have never completed ANY mystery shops before. I offered to go with (make sure all photos were taken/ guidelines followed). I was told NOPE! That this shop was so easy it would be fine for someone to do as their first ever shop.

The bowling one is easy. G-d help you with the aquarium.

I haven't done bowling shops for them yet.

I have done other sorts of amusements....zoos, aquariums, fun centers, etc.

I don't know if a new shopper should be introduced to the business with a AA shop....

Easy - Market Force, SCM, A Closer Look, Bare, Trend Source, Mercantile, Service Sense, I Secret Shop, DJC
Hard - Coyle, Sentry

@Monk-N-Nut wrote:

So Hard I May Die: Amusement Advantage

Do you think they're actually difficult, or is it that they go on and on and on and you think you're never going to finish?

Most tedious = Coyle
Least tedious = all other MSC's

Easiest: SeeLevel, North Fork, Ann Michaels and ath.

Hardest: Intellishop (you are fraudulent before proven otherwise), ACL and the hardest company to please or even satisfy is Bestmark.

@ iShop123 - They go on for 3-4 hours and are blindingly repetitive. Of course, I prolong the agony by whining, procrastinating, and carrying on like a hangry preschooler.

ARC phone shops are the worst!!! They don’t let you listen to the recording but you have to answer every question EXACTLY the way it went with zero deviation from phone call.

Market Force is the easiest. Love their shops! They are great to work with too. They answer questions and pay well and fast.

Easiest; Marketforce, Second to None
Worst;
A Closer Look

Easiest: agree Marketforce
Hardest: Maritz no rhyme or reason to their software

Color me shocked, most of my shops are with A Closer Look, I think Coyle is hard, everyone else is easy. (I have never done an Amusement shop for AA). I have a new high end theater shops with service scouts (I did not name the theater or even the type, so I think I am OK), and it sounds very tedious, which is what I consider hard.

Orlando - lightly shopping NC

Coyle is on another level of complexity. I like the challenge and I like writing the reports, but we recently did a $180 shop for ACL that took maybe 1.5 hours to write up, and a similar Coyle shop will take me 4 hours, maybe more.

@Jill_L wrote:

I haven't done bowling shops for them yet.

I have done other sorts of amusements....zoos, aquariums, fun centers, etc.

I don't know if a new shopper should be introduced to the business with a AA shop....

I find their reports to be extremely easy although they are long...but again easy to do. The hard part when I went to the Aquarium was finding the locations to report on. I would not recommend these to a first timer either just because they are so long a first timer would start to wonder why they were mystery shopping not realizing all reports are not like that.

Easy is pretty much any shop I can complete using an app. Hardest and most tedious was Coyle. I said no more even though my grade was good.

Hardest: Coyle, AA, Service Scouts
Easiest: Everyone else!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2018 02:54PM by foodluvr.

@luckygirl0100 wrote:

@Jill_L wrote:

I don't really find any of the reports hard....EXCEPT I do have to agree with @Monk-N-Nut on Amusement Advantage. Some of their reports take sooooo long and are sooooo repetitive that it takes the fun out of going to the place of amusement.

Funny story, a scheduler was sending out 'desperate' emails for a local bowling place. I was out of rotation but said a family member could do it but I would need to go with as they have never completed ANY mystery shops before. I offered to go with (make sure all photos were taken/ guidelines followed). I was told NOPE! That this shop was so easy it would be fine for someone to do as their first ever shop.

I completed one shop with Amusement Advantage. I swore that I would never do another one. That was the longest report that I have ever seen.

****************

Motivation increases when we assume large responsibilities with a short deadline.

Any newbies lurking..people always say intellishop is awful. They did have a system mess up with people's pay recently. They fixed that issue at least with me, and I personally really like them. Make sure you try them out before creating your opinion.

I haven't really had super tough shops yet but I agree with everyone else thus far on the easiest mscs
..

Shopping Idaho and Oregon/Idaho border region.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2018 02:56AM by dawnhu.

@pammie8223 wrote:

@luckygirl0100 wrote:

@Jill_L wrote:

I don't really find any of the reports hard....EXCEPT I do have to agree with @Monk-N-Nut on Amusement Advantage. Some of their reports take sooooo long and are sooooo repetitive that it takes the fun out of going to the place of amusement.

Funny story, a scheduler was sending out 'desperate' emails for a local bowling place. I was out of rotation but said a family member could do it but I would need to go with as they have never completed ANY mystery shops before. I offered to go with (make sure all photos were taken/ guidelines followed). I was told NOPE! That this shop was so easy it would be fine for someone to do as their first ever shop.

I completed one shop with Amusement Advantage. I swore that I would never do another one. That was the longest report that I have ever seen.

I've done numerous and they don't bother me but I'd definitely never set up anyone to do it as their first shop ever. There are just way too many things to remember and the reports are redundant. I just found it funny the scheduler thought they were so easy, I wonder if she has actually completed any.....

The hardest ones I've done have been for TrueGuest (although I enjoy working with that company). I have not found A Closer Look to be hard at all, nor BestMark. Easiest: JMRidgway. I agree that Amusement Advantage is time consuming and difficult, but sometimes I enjoy those as well.

I find the reports easy, just long. I take lots of notes at the zoo. I think newbies could start with MF to get their feet wet.

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