10 Tips & Tricks

1.      Communicate with the scheduler.  Be realistic about your ability to complete shops, but if there is a problem (on rare occasions) communicate with your scheduler.  If you fail to complete your assignment without communicating with them, you will never be used again.

2.       Review the details of the assignment immediately.  This assures you meet all of the criteria and can fulfill the shop.  If you accept a shop that requires we use people over 50 and you are 25, this would be problematic.  Read first!

3.       Remain anonymous.  Twenty percent of people evaluated say they know they were shopped.  Don’t be obvious, think on your feet and act natural.  If you need to take notes during your visit, try to use the restroom to privately record information into a small notebook.  DO NOT take your forms on any part of your visit.

4.       Be neutral.  The object of an assignment is not to see how many hoops people can jump through, it is to assess the habits and skills of the associate/location, no more and no less.

5.       State the facts.  Although companies want to know what happened, they just want the facts.  For example, they want to know what someone was wearing as opposed to how you thought they looked. 

6.       Never compare visits or locations.  Judge each one on its own merit.  Some large organizations have many different location types.  Take grocery stores, they have small, medium and mega stores.  You cannot compare them to another type.  You don’t have enough information to do this properly.  Keep it simple and report on only that one visit. 

7.       Get proof.  If a shop requires a purchase and receipt make sure it is either included when faxing a report or attached when doing an online submission.  These are usually client requirements, and your shop would not be accepted without a receipt.  If you are given paperwork, keep it.  It is important that you be able to prove you were there.   

8.       Score properly.  Always pay attention to a company’s scoring guideline if a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 is used.  Don’t be afraid to score the highest score possible if all components in the question were met.  If you do not give the highest score, make sure you explain why you marked the question down.

9.       Detail is vital.  Make sure you are aware of your surroundings and other facts; detail is vital, so you want to pay attention.  If you have a hard time remembering details of a conversation, a digital voice recorder may be helpful.

10.   Complete the assignment on time.  Some companies will immediately cancel your assignment if you don’t submit your report within their time frame.