» 2008 » June
-
Finding Employment In A Jobless EconomyBy admin on June 6, 2008 | No Comments
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
There are millions of jobs out there in our great nation, alas most of them are taken. Those that are not may have twice or three times the common number of applicant vying for the position. That makes it harder for someone with average or little credentials to get a job higher up the ladder.
Unfortunately, the national unemployment rate is increasing. Analysts attribute the climbing unemployment rate to the poor financial and credit markets. Businesses feel the strain of high transportation costs and low consumer purchasing and decide to lay off workers. However, one of the many opportunities out there is mystery shopping employment . There are many different facets of this type of work and one usually can fit any of those people interested. You can conduct customer surveys, get involved in quality service measurement, focus groups or the most favorite opportunity is visiting companies and shopping them in person.
When searching for mystery shopping employment , you have to be serious about it. You have to mentally understand that you are being hired to drastically affect the way a company does business. A company is paying a lot of money for you to give them an honest look on how their business runs.
One of the many ways you can have employment is through quality service measurement. It can be difficult to measure how well a company actually performs and improves on their customer satisfaction. Some companies spend time trying to obtain customer information. That can come from different forms. When you have that data, you can try to figure out what you need to do in the future to help your company. This type of mystery shopping employment is one of the best ways you can help a company.
We all know that if you have terrible customer satisfaction, you will tell most of the people that you know. It is said that the average person will tell seven to ten people. They will tell their friends and family about what they perceive as the series of events leading them to not wanting to visit that company again. Now on the flip side, when a customer has an outstanding shopping experience, on average they only tell 2 to 5 people. A little bit of a gap there. In this type of service, the company might ask you to conduct surveys to find out what the company can do to better serve the customer if they are given another chance.
Depending on the area in which you live, you might have many mystery shopping employment opportunities. Some people, in fact many people believe that you can get huge pay outs every time you complete your assignment. Unfortunately the average pay out is ten to fifteen dollars. Wow, that was not what you were expecting right? That is why it is hard to make this employment a career. Usually you see people just trying to pick up some extra money.
When searching for mystery shopping employment , you have to be cautious because there are also scams out there that try to use the normal persons desire to make extra money to benefit only their company not the company they are working for. You will see more links on the internet leading you to the scams people are trying to pull instead of actual information on employment. Unfortunately, that is the world in which we live. There are many opportunities for you out there, just pick the one that is the best benefit for you.
-
How Researchers Improve Customer ServiceBy admin on June 5, 2008 | No Comments
Researchers are the secret or anonymous shoppers hired by companies. These shoppers evaluate the employee behavior, productivity and customer service skills received at a particular store, service company or hotel.
When an employee is aware of being evaluated they might act differently than in a normal situation. The employees sense of pride, job security, and the desire to please play an important role in the way a worker responds when they know they are being monitored. Employees actions are often to be found more favorable when they know they are being observed.
A professional shopper or researcher is hired to secretly evaluate products, services, employee performance and customer satisfaction. The researcher enters the establishment as a typical customer. The employees are not warned they will be monitored. The shopper reports the attitude, behavior and skills they observe from customer service employees. The shopper observes, critiques and reports the effectiveness or poor quality they received.
Normally a researcher interacts with the employees to rate their performance according to a set of predetermined factors. The employee has no knowledge they are being evaluated. Hiring these anonymous shoppers is an increasingly favorable way of evaluating employees. The shopper observes how quickly an employee responds to the customer complaint, if they provide helpful solutions and offer suggestions, the cleanliness of the store, the reactions of other customers. The shopper is observant and takes detailed notes of the surroundings and staff members. They then send a full report to the client. These reports are objective coming from someone other than management or administration. The observations of the shoppers allow the business owner to get a view of their employees actions and behaviors in a real time situation.
The secret researcher can be hired to help companies recognize quality services and employees. It is important for a company to know who is providing excellent service to their customers.
Companies hire a secret researcher to evaluate guest service in many types of businesses. Retail shops and restaurants can improve the quality and response time of their service. Hotels retain the services of shoppers to measure the guest satisfaction and customer experience to increase occupancy rates and guest loyalty. Each shopper program is custom tailored to each service, shop or company.
The shopper results give you a look into a normal customer experience and satisfaction. Professionalism, customer follow up, sales techniques and other skills are examined during the shop. Having detailed feedback about positive and negative aspects of customer service allows companies to grow and retain loyal customers.
Customer service is the number one priority of businesses and should be to staff members who answer phones, deal with customers and suppliers in any way. Customers who are not satisfied with your service will often not complain to your staff. They simply quit using your services.
Typically a persons desire to please others motivates their actions. Knowing they are being monitored, anonymously or otherwise, staff members perform honestly and courteously. If they know they are being evaluated, they have a need to perform better. The rewards for these actions are job security, desire to please their superiors and peers and acceptance.
Hiring a secret researcher to monitor customer service allows many businesses to improve staff behavior, response times and profitability. Having great service is the crucial to success in any business.
-
Secret Shopping FAQsBy admin on June 4, 2008 | No Comments
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
If you are newly working for mystery shopping services , or if you would like to work for one, there are probably many questions that you have about this job industry. Working at this sort of job can be confusing at first, and certainly overwhelming, but it does not have to be if you have the right information about the things you need to know.
Many people who decide to work for mystery shopping services wonder when and what method they will be paid by. The answer to this is simply that mystery shopping services are different, and therefore have their own rules of conduct for this type of thing. Many times, you will get paid a base pay by the hour, sometimes including time spent in travel. In addition to this you might be reimbursed for items you are required to purchase on the job. You could possibly be issues a specific credit card or gift card in order to make purchases on the job. Mostly, if you end up using your own money to make a purchase on any given job, if you do not get reimbursed, you will merely get paid more by the hour. It is simply a matter of which company you work for. You should definitely make sure you know what the rule for this are before you sign with any mystery shopping services or go on any job for them.
Another thing people worry about or question initially is whether they will have time for this type of job. Those who have a full time job but also wish to do this on the side wonder if they will have a strict schedule or a set amount of required hours. The answer to this is no. Almost always, you will set your own schedule, going on jobs that are most likely in the area you live, at a time that is convenient to you. The amount of hours you work is entirely up to you as well. Most companies allow you to choose however many or few jobs you think you can handle in a given time span. The important thing to remember about this is that you should never chose more jobs than you think you can handle. If you ever have to skip a job, or worse, if you forget a job, you probably will not be asked to go on a job again, and obviously this is not something impressive for your resume.
One main question that people newly working for mystery shopping services have is if they can bring someone with them when they are on the job. This of course also depends on the specific company you are employed by, but many times this is a perfectly permissible thing to do, as long as the person or people you are accompanied by know the importance of your task and that they must not give away what you are trying to accomplish. Children sometimes are a bit more complicated, as they could tend to blurt something out unintentionally. The easiest thing to do in this case is to simply ask your supervisor what you should do. And remember for yourself that you will be on a serious job, not simply a leisurely day out with a friend, and you will have work to do and things to notice and take into account. You will not want someone there who will distract you from getting the job done properly.
-
Secret Shopping Pitfalls To AvoidBy admin on June 3, 2008 | No Comments
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
Mystery shopper assignments should be taken seriously. They bring important marketing data for the client. There are several mistakes to avoid if you are a shopper.
One mistake is turning in poor reports. To the company you are working for, your report are their eyes and ears. The report should be top quality. Do not use poor grammar and run on or incomplete sentences. Check the spelling on everything before sending it in. Do use good synonyms and descriptive words. Vary the beginning of each sentence, instead of he said or I found every time.
Check specific guidelines for each assignment. Know what you should focus on. A mystery shopper should use descriptions but do not be too emotional. Report the facts. Instead of My waitress was terrible you should say something more detailed like, The service was terrible because the waitress spilled my drink on me and did not apologize. The first sentence is emotional, without giving any detail while the second leaves out your emotions and reports what happened.
Give a detailed summary of the event but do not give step by step descriptions. This is boring and not what the client asked for. Try to summarize in one or two sentences. Read your report out loud to yourself before sending it in. If it does not sound good to you, there is a good chance the company will not like it either.
Another mistake a mystery shopper can make is to miss deadlines and give up reaching specific targets. Your job is to do a quality job on time. Often clients need research on a specific employee, especially in financial services jobs. If you as the shopper give up on reaching that employee and do not notify the company of your difficulty, you will not get paid. And you probably will not work for them again. The same is true of missing deadlines. The company hired you to do the job and expects it to be done at the scheduled time.
When given an assignment complete it by the dates scheduled and turn in paperwork promptly. If you have a problem completing the assignment contact your scheduler as soon as possible.
The mystery shopper makes a mistake when they fail to follow the guidelines for each shop. The shop form asks for specific information about a certain shop. These market research forms are designed to gather information to help the business reach their goals. You fail to follow the guidelines set up ruins that research study. You will not get paid for incorrect information.
Newbies and beginners are not the only ones who make these mistakes. Experienced shoppers become complacent doing regular shop assignments. They can easily use the wrong forms thinking they know the routine and missing the updates to the guides. Review all paperwork and shop assignment details every time, even when the assignment seems routine.
These obvious mistakes are easy to avoid. Being a mystery shopper is a serious job. You are responsible for gathering marketing data for business to help them improve. Be professional in all your assignments and take your work seriously. Learn to make good reports by following a few rules in grammar and spelling. Finish assignments when they are scheduled and use the correct guidelines for each shop. Remember that excellent work will get your noticed for more assignments.
-
Mystery Shopping Jobs – A New FrontierBy admin on June 2, 2008 | No Comments
A growing trend among marketing research is website mystery shopping. Can you remember the last time you requested information online by filling out a contact form? You probably searched the sitemap for a phone number first and then settled for filling out the form, right? Many times a company may not even list a phone number and only offer online correspondence with clients or customers.
While you still may be hesitant to fill out the online query forms, for fear of spam, this has become a standard method of online consumer service. And you may be relieved to know that online businesses are taking a proactive approach to diffusing the nasty taste spam and phishing scams have left in the mouths of online consumers.
This new form of serving customers has created the need for a new mystery shopping niche. If a business is going to rely on Internet communication, then they would be amiss not to check the quality of that service. A business owner or operator should start by checking the following regarding the handling of request forms:
• Timeliness of response
• Accuracy, or response from appropriate department
• Helpfulness
• FriendlinessAn online company should also take quality control measures to ensure products are delivered on time, accurately and in working condition.
A business with all or a large amount of revenue generating from online sales may hire a web consultant or mystery shopping service to determine the user-friendliness of navigating their website. Some of the questions an online business should ask are:
• Was the customer able to locate what they were looking for quickly
• Did the website display other like items for the customer to compare
• How easy was it to find the shipping info
• Did the customer receive what they ordered quickly
• Was the order shipped accurately
• Was the product delivered without damageBusiness owners will quickly realize the cost of asking for customer opinions is much less than hiring a website consultant, which is creating this new niche of mystery shopping jobs. So, if you find yourself shopping online very often you may consider registering with a few reputable mystery shopping providers who offer website quality control services to their clients.
If you are not interested in working part time for a mystery shopping service, but you still find yourself filling out those entry forms, registrations forms, service orders or query forms here are a few simple tips to follow to avoid filling out the forms that are phishing for information from you in order to flood you with spam, or worse.
For starters, you should feel safe inquiring to a help desk for a company with whom you already have an account. By the time you are asking for help on a product you already have, that company has most likely proven themselves trustworthy with your personal contact information.
If you are shopping for a new product, make certain the online source you choose to purchase from does not have unresolved complaints with business bureaus or negative consumer reports. Look for a product guarantee and also read the security statement before giving any payment information.
An easy, but often overlooked way to avoid receiving solicitation after you register or join a website is to pay attention to the registration process. Many times a company may have a small box to check if you do not want to receive promotional offers from them in the future. Even trickier, they may have a box that is automatically checked in order to receive promotional offers, in which case, the registrant would have to unselect that box.
Additionally, the site you are registering with may have a box to check or unselect consenting to allow them to share your information with their affiliates.
Companies rely on the that fact that the you are in a hurry or do not read the fine print. Taking a few moments to notice what you have agreed to can help you avoid the headache of filtering through spam in your inbox.
