By Travis Campbell, Customer Impact Scheduler
If you’re a veteran shopper with Customer Impact, you’ve likely made several calls to our office. Those calls could have been to clarify a question you had, to see about rescheduling a shop you’ve been assigned, or even to cancel a shop due to circumstances outside of your control. But the call you’ve probably made the most is what we call a ‘review call.’
In the shop posting, you’ve probably come across this sentence:
“First time shopping (client name)? After you have completed the above steps, you must call our office (1-800-677-2260 ext 2) during business hours to review the shop guidelines. Our hours are Mon-Fri, 8:30am-5pm CST.”
This sentence appears in each job posting that Customer Impact puts out. You may have wondered to yourself, “I’ve done dozens of shops before, I know the drill, why do I need to call in?” What you may not realize is the benefit of making that call.
Image by geralt@ Pixabay
At the most basic level, the review calls exist so that we can talk to our shoppers. This is a working relationship, and like all relationships, it won’t function well unless there is communication. Another practical reason for these calls is to ensure that your shop won’t get excluded, and that we will be able to pay and reimburse you. If you’re performing a fast food shop, an exclusion may only cost you $6 or $7, but in the case of fine dining, an exclusion could be much more costly, upwards of $200.
When you call in to review the guidelines, we pull them up with you and go through the most important parts of the shop. Some restaurants don’t allow steak, some won’t accept the shop unless there was steak. The same can be said with alcohol. Each client is different, and the review call is an opportunity to go through each of the unique parts of a shop and confirm your understanding.
This is also a great time for us to answer any questions that you may have. Concerned about what meal period your shop is supposed to take place in? We can let you know. Wondering if it’s okay that you use a coupon or a rewards program? We can work on getting you the answer.
As stated before, the most important part of this working relationship is communication, so please never hesitate to get in touch with us! We’re available by phone during our business hours, and almost always available via email. We hope to hear from you soon on one of our review calls!
