In my eBook, Make Money Mystery Shopping, I give some examples of what can happen during a “shop.” Most shops go very smoothly. You accept the assignment, read the guidelines, complete the shop and send in the report. Everyone is happy and you get paid. Sometimes, very rarely, the client is super happy but the MSC has issues with your report. This happened to me when I conducted a hotel shop in San Francisco for a major hospitality MSC.
This MSC was offering a mystery shop at an upscale hotel in downtown SF. It included a two night stay, drinks at the bar and dinner in the restaurant. My sister lived about 60 minutes away and I was living in Connecticut. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to visit my sister, stay at a nice place and make a little money on the side. The MSC offered compensation for the flight (although only a portion), reimbursement for expenses and a small fee for the report. I knew this MSC was a stickler for details so I made sure I knew the guidelines inside and out.
I used a tiny recorder to capture all the interactions between me and the employees I was to evaluate. I took lots of pictures, easy to do when you are visiting a destination like San Francisco. I notated the start and end time of every interaction, which can be quite annoying when you are trying to have dinner and you have to capture the exact time the bus boy cleared your appetizer plates.
The report took me more than four hours to complete. I added lots of details so the client would understand my experience. I was very thorough and captured the names of all the employees as well as their descriptions. The client sent a message back to the MSC saying it was one of the most comprehensive reports they had ever received. I was thrilled. Until I got my grade from the MSC.
They score from 1-20. Anything under a 15 and you will likely not be asked to complete another shop with them. I scored a 16. How could that be? I had “wowed” the client with everything they wanted to know.
“Minus one point for using contractions. Use ‘I would’ instead of ‘I’d.’”
“Minus one point for not declining the receipt at the bar when the guidelines said to decline a receipt.”
“Minus one point for asking housekeeping to replace the light bulb instead of asking maintenance do it.”
“Minus one point for using two spaces after a period instead of one.”
Seriously!! Hello?? Where are the extra points for completing all 30 evaluations in the 36 hours I was there? Where were the kudos for including way more detail than the client expected? I immediately called my scheduler.
“Well, this is your first report for us and the editor wanted to make sure you understood our expectations.”
“I nearly failed the shop!” I complained.
“No, we rarely give above an 18 for first time shops. There’s always something that can be improved.”
“I bent over backwards to make sure the client was happy and I get a ‘D’ on my report? What are you guys looking for?” I was nearly in tears.
“You did fine. Don’t worry about it.” The scheduler was almost apologetic. But I was livid. I was quite satisfied that the client was happy but the nit-picky reductions sent me into a shame spiral. After doing one more assignment for the company and only getting a 17, I resigned and haven’t completed another shop for them since. The sheer vigilance of recording the minute and second of each interaction was not worth the reimbursement. Some shops are just not worth it.