Tips For Scheduling Shops

Written by: Kristin Garvey, Independent Account Manager for Ann Michaels & Associates

How many shops should you schedule for yourself?  The answer will depend on your time management skills, your travel time, and of course, your availability.  One thing that many shoppers forget about when scheduling shops is the reporting.  When they get home from performing four shops at the mall – isn’t it GREAT when you can find four shops all in the same mall – they realize that they also need to write four reports by the following day.  Oops.

Shoppers need to remember to allow themselves enough time not only to perform the shop but also to write the reports.  When I say allowing enough time, I mean enough time to write a quality report.  Not just spitting it out to get it done.  Some reports only take a few minutes.  Some can take a half an hour or more depending on the narrative required.  It’s a good idea to allot for more time than you actually need so you don’t wind up in a hectic rush to get the report in on time.

Speaking of timing, don’t you hate it when Sassie times out on you when you are in the middle of the report?  An easy way to avoid the time out race is to write your report in a Word document, or the like.  That way, you can take as much time as you need to write the essay portions of your report.  You can read and re-read  to make sure that all of the information is there.  You can also easily run a spell check using Word too.

So, when you are choosing which shops to accept each month, make sure you not only allow for travel time and your general availability.  Make sure you allow yourself enough time to submit each report by the due date and time so you are not frantically throwing together nuggets of information at 9:59 am when your report is due by 10:00 am.  Doing so will make things easier on you and make your Mystery Shopping experience more enjoyable.