Shop Logs
Newsletter
The Shop Logs Blog @
http://www.shoplogs.com/wordpress
| November, 2005 |
| Volume 1, Issue 9 |
Cathy Stucker's Blog
Who Won the Free Mystery Shopping Books?
Debi Sullivan of TX won Mystery Shopping Getting Paid to Shop,
by James Poynter
Stephanie Simao of CA won The Mystery Shopper's Manual, by Cathy Stucker
Avril Matthews of CT won Mystery
Shopping Made Simple, by Dr. Ilisha Newhouse
Special Interest
Articles:
Winners of the FREE Mystery Shopping Reviewed Books
Hits from the Blog -
Would you be interested in what Cathy Stucker is Blogging?
Moving in the MS World-
What you need to know before you pack the dishes or switch ISPs
We
Shopped 'em –
Blog entries from those that have
been shopped
|
MSPA Gold
Instructor Blogs Cathy Stucker is one of the primary people from which to learn about the Mystery Shopping industry. She is sporting a blog linked from her Idea Lady page. Cathy is gaining momentum in posts publishing material similar to what you might find in her book, The Mystery Shopper's Manual (6th edition), or in person at the MSPA Gold workshops. Articles have the same flavor as those published in her book. In fact, some are almost direct quotes from her book, such as: "The good news is that questions such as these are not asked in order to exclude you, they are asked in order to include you. Some assignments require shoppers to be over or under a certain age to match the demographics of the client's customers. They may need three couples each of a different race or ethnicity to test compliance with non-discrimination laws" from the September 2005 blog entry (and page 67/8 of the Manual) about completing applications. She gives similar if not identical advice in her other entries so far. |
She addresses the topic of MSPA certification and gives a balanced report on the advantages of the certification when all things are equal. She does endorse the Silver certification for anyone wondering about the benefits of MSPA certification. Since the Silver is taken on line, she does not give instruction for that course personally. She gives equal credence to the notion that those already established with MS companies may not receive added incentive to Gold Certify, but those attempting to break in to the market may find it valuable. Cathy also presents a free article section on her Idea Lady website that offer similar topic as her book and blog entries. The video mystery shopping article, that also appears in her most recent blog entry, can be reprinted and used as long as you provide her with credit and let her know about the publication. |
You can await
further updates to the blog by checking her page or by signing up
for updates via RSS. This is especially easy if you are a
Yahoo or MSN/Hotmail user. In either case by simply pressing
the appropriate button ( If you are still wondering how you turned the computer on today maybe signing up for Cathy's free email course if for you. Sign up for her free email course which offers similar installments via email instead of RSS/blog format. Cathy does recommend some good mystery shopping accessories via a link to Amazon. These affiliate links include a digital voice recorder and some essential reading for the linguistically challenged. Currently there are no comments on Stucker's Mystery Shopping blog. Be the first to leave a comment and get some personal feedback from the MS Mistress herself! Be sure to post on The Shop Logs what you post and what her response is.
|
)
and singing in to the program you subscribe to you are in line for
future feeds from Stucker. (When doing so don't forget to sign
up for updates from The Shop Logs blog!)Going to be Moving?
We Shopped ‘em!
Changing your email is one thing, but your shopping area *sigh*
Blog entries from the shopped…
If you are changing Internet service providers or moving across the country you have some hoops to jump through in your independent contracting career.
Internet service provider changes often means
a change of email addresses.
Contact the MSPA is your Silver or Gold certification is under your
current email address; do this before the current email expires, just in
case. Use a service like
Return Path, that
forwards your emails.
When selecting a new email address, do not select
strange email handles. If your email address could be construed in a
negative light the effect could be detrimental to your IC career.
Consider going to a free service like Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail for IC
services so you do not have to change email addresses in the future..
A physical move means a change of mailing address and possibly shopping area.
Changing a physical address can be handled with change of address forms as the offers roll in, as long as you are not changing your shopping area. A move across the state or country means you need the offers rolling in to be accurate and therefore must change your physical address and availability as close to your moving date as possible.
Find out city names, area and zip codes for the area to which you will be moving. Since you want to spend as little time on this data entry as possible, make the changes as close to your move date as possible. This will not only have the least disruption to your offers, but you will only have to log into each company once and change your contact information.
Start by visiting
the USPS find your zip+4
page using a street address. Once you know your future zip+4,
use the USPS feature to find all cities in that area code. Use the
zip code information to look up the area codes, nearby zips, etc. using a
tool like Zip Code Database.
For more information visit
Fact Bites on Zip Code.
What if a company does not allow me to change my email or address via the Internet? You have the option of contacting them through the channels the company prefers, but this may be a good time to reevaluate how IC-friendly the company is, how much work you have or will do for them and if you want to continue the relationship. Moving time can be when you clean more than just the old house.
April 2,
2002
“Today we had a little party at work. We were "mystery
shopped" last Saturday ... That's when someone comes in and
pretends to be a regular customer, and they grade you on service, quality,
friendliness, etc. On Saturday, we were "shopped" and got a perfect score!
As part of an incentive program, the ones who were working that day got
$50... I was one of those ppl! So I now have a cute little envelope wiff
money in it! Woohoo...I'm going to go to the bank tomorrow and deposit it
into my Philly account. (I
opened a secondary checking account to keep my moving money separate from
my regular spending money.) Go me! Go me!” FULL TEXT
December
8, 2002
“I just got home.
It's 1:00 in the morning. The store didn't close until midnight. So I'm
glad I didn't RSVP to the Christmas Party. I didn't sell as much as I
would have liked today. Called the Grocery Store about the Gig, but the
Gig Chick was out today. I found out after being at the store for 2 hours
that we're supposed to get mystery shopped this weekend, so I panicked at
the store and bought a pair of khakis for 20 bucks. Luckily, I had been
stupid, and wore my dress shoes with my jeans. I guess there's a higher
power involved.” FULL TEXT
Congratulations
Winners:
Debi Sullivan of TX,
Stephanie Simao of CA and
Avril Matthews of CT you will be
receiving your books complements of The Shop Logs by the end of November!
Please feel free to add any comments/reviews of these texts to The Shop Logs Blog!