There are so many ways one can search for mystery shops, but which one is best? Here are my top six ways to locate or be notified about mystery shops.
#6: A personal phone call or email directly from the scheduler. This can be a great way to find out about a last minute shop or a special project the scheduler might have. The personal touch that it provides is also often appreciated by the shopper. Unfortunately, since schedulers are not able to call ALL shoppers to offer shops, this probably isn’t the best way to find out about shops in general. If a scheduler ever DOES call you, asking if you’re available to complete a shop, please know that it must be extremely important! Always return their phone calls, even if you are not able to perform the shop. That is much appreciated.
#5: Facebook, Twitter or the use of another social media. This is again a great way to find out about any urgent shops or hard to schedule areas that the company might have available. The downside is that it is just not practical for all shops to be posted on social media. With that being said, I DO encourage all shoppers to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
Every month we post urgent shops on both sites, as well as helpful, interesting and fun topics every week!
#4 Emails from mystery shopping providers. These emails can be delivered to the shoppers email in box within minutes or HOURS of the shop being posted. This just depends on how many emails are being sent from the system. Unfortunately, these emails are often mistaken for spam and the shopper never sees it. Or worse, the shopper receives so many of these types of emails that they delete them completely, without ever reading them.
#3 Job Boards on each mystery shopping company’s website. The Job Boards on company websites list every shop that a company has available and/or has released for public viewing. While it is nice to be able to view such a list, the drawback is that unless you have JobSlinger (see #2 below), shoppers must log into each company’s website to see the shops. Another drawback when viewing a Job Board is that the shopper has no way of knowing if the shops listed there are older shops or ones that were recently posted.
#2 JobSlinger – JobSlinger is not a mystery shopping company; it is a Job Board that hundreds of SASSIE mystery shopping companies use every month to post/list mystery shops. JobSlinger is in partnership with Volition.com (www.volition.com), the Mystery Shoppers Providers Association (www.mysteryshop.org), DemoZilla and SASSIE. The site provides hundreds of mystery shop listings all in one place! You can opt to search the site for shops or have JobSlinger send you an email when a shop is posted in your area. Best of all, it’s FREE!
#1 In my opinion, the best and easiest way to find out about shops is using the ShopNotifier app. This app was developed by SurfMerchants, the geniuses behind Sassie. So far I haven’t found any drawbacks, and the app is FREE! The user receives a copy of ALL of their Sassie shop offers in one place, right there on the app. The notification of the shops is almost instantaneous, and definitely faster and more reliable than email. Best of all, you don’t have to worry about missing out on great shops by deleting those pesky emails from your inbox, and you can forget about checking your spam folder for Sassie emails completely!
Go to this link for more information on ShopNotifier!
Have you installed the ShopNotifier App on your smart phone? If you have, what has your experience been with ShopNotifier?
For more tips on Mystery Shopping, visits our website at www.customerimpactinfo.com
Written by Barbry Booth, Scheduling Manager Customer Impact.