As is the case with the majority of the country, our company is working to rebuild in the wake of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. While we are in the process of bringing back past clients who have had to take a pause, along with continuing to add new business to our portfolio, the reality is that there are a lot fewer mystery shops available for shoppers at this time, across the board.
A lot of companies, especially in the hospitality and retail space, have been forced to make extensive changes to their safety and wellness protocols, their cleanliness standards, their steps of service, and even their physical spaces. We are confident in our rebuild process, and we continue to practice patience and understanding as our clients navigate their new normal, and how that affects how they are configuring these changes into their mystery shop program. There is still a great need for mystery shopping, especially now, to ensure that the important changes they are making are being implemented across all of their locations.
During this period where we do have fewer shops available for shoppers, we receive a lot of questions from shoppers about what they can be doing now, to better prepare themselves for when they are able to resume shopping on a more regular basis.
Confirm your shopper profile is up-to-date and complete –
*Is your PayPal email set up and accurate? Have you filled out all of the demographic questions? Is your physical address current, so that you are set up to receive notifications for shops in your area? Have you reviewed and accepted all the provider contracts available in the system? Verifying all of these areas of your account will better set you up to receive the types of shops you want to receive, in the geographical area(s) and within the industries that are most relevant to you.
Check your shopper settings –
*Are you set up to receive emails through the iSS platform? Have you opted into texting? Have you set your distance notification? Making sure all channels of interaction from schedulers are accurately set up, is extremely important for clear and precise communication about available assignments.
Enhance your shopper rating –
*iSecretShop, the software platform where we house and conduct all of our mystery shops, has a variety of prep courses that they offer to help shoppers become more knowledgeable about mystery shopping, and enhance their shopper rating. The MSPA website also offers certifications that allow shoppers to dive deeper into specific industries and learn more about what it takes to become a certified shopper for a specific industry (hotel and resort, automotive, apartment, phone and web, etc.).
We continue to remain positive and excited about what the future holds and regaining the majority of business that has been put on hold in this past year. We have taken this time to focus on projects and objectives that have fallen down the priority list, and now is as good a time as any, for shoppers to do the same. Ensuring your account is completely and accurately set up and taking the time to learn more about what makes a great mystery shopper in general, are factors that are going to enhance your mystery shopper status within our system and better set you up for future assignments.