Hello friends,

I have been MSing for about 6 months, but have never done a bank shop before. I just applied for a Bank of America mortgage loan officer shop and a Chase shop. I'm not quite sure what to expect. Any tips?

Thank you

That will entirely depend on the shop guidelines once they assign the shop. Several MSCs shop each of those, depending on the region and the client.

I find with the BOA mortgage shops I try and keep my story as true as possible. I use my own situation to draw from so I don't end up with the 'deer in the headlights' look when they ask me to elaborate on a statement.

"most" of the Chase shops are dead easy and are primarily about what documents they give you. But there are other Chase shops that are more complex.

With the B of A shops, spell out the bank name in your report, don't abbreviate as we did here. Don't use contractions (like "don't" or "didn't), spell them out, do not, did not. And they're fussy about Capitalizing words like Teller and Banker (even though they may not do it themselves in the instructions). This was the standard for one MSC I did some investment shops for. Since the rules usually come from the client (B of A) rather than the MSC, try to keep these points in mind unless your instructions say something else.

Remember that business cards are king with bank shops. If they don't offer, you must ask. If you ask and they won't give, get a card from someone else (tellers often have them on the counter, tell them you need the bank's phone number so you can call back with some information later) and put the banker's name on it and explain that he wouldn't or didn't give you one when asked. Many companies will not pay if you can't get a business card by hook or by crook. Don't be afraid to leave and come back in a minute later to ask for one. If you see them on the banker's desk, just pick one up either openly or surreptitiously and pocket it after confirming the name is correct.

Thank you all, I so appreciate your tips. I'm a bit nervous but I figure I have to start somewhere.

You'll be fine. Review the instructions *and* the report questions just before you drive into the parking lot (stop at a nearby business; don't review them in the parking lot of the place you're shopping). Write down the time before you go in. Write down the time when you come out. Drive nearby and fill out the report. If you forgot something... go back over on some pretext, "Did I leave my cell phone in here?" or "I think an envelope may have fallen out of my pocket when i was in here" (if your clothes have a pocket that could have had an envelope in it) and make the observation you missed, if any. When you of course don't find what you're looking for, if anyone was trying to help you look for it, "I'll go check my car again" and leave.

One shop went really well; the banker hit every mark and provided all documents without my asking.
The other was so so. I have a feeling the rep could smell my shopper scent. Lol. I may or may not have done it correctly but it was a good learning experience and took 3 minutes so if it's rejected I can live with it.
Thanks to all!

I am conducting my very first Chase Bank shop this morning and this is kind of scary. I downloaded the guideline section and the list of documents is very long. Is that a list of excepted docs. or do we need all?? Or are those sections in the information we are given? Told you I was confused...help, anyone?

Ignore the list. You get whatever documents they give you. Then you come home and check what you got against the list. As long as any one of those is in your hands, the answer to the first question is Yes. If the answer is No, just say No. It's not your fault if they don't do their job; that's why we mystery shop them.

So don't stress about that at all. It's not something you need to worry about during the shop, it's just something you determine after you get home and compare what you got to what you should have gotten.

This is the easiest shop in the world. Just make sure they give you a business card and if they don't offer the documents themselves, you just say, "Do you have a brochure (or can I take this one if they're using one as a visual aid and don't offer it to you) I can take home to show my husband/roommate/bookkeeper/whoever so I can explain it to them and see what they think?" Usually just a "can I take this with me?" is all you need to say and they'll immediately jump up and give you everything they're supposed to because they get shopped all the time and know the routine.

And don't worry if you think they know you're a shopper. Never admit it, but don't worry if you think they know. This is all about the documents, not about customer service. Make sure you get the name.

You're responsible for this:

time in
time out
name of banker
business card
make sure you get some documents; don't worry about what they give you

Be sure to put the shop number in your handwriting on everything before you take a picture of it.

And I wish I'd gotten here a couple hours ago; you've probably already done the shop and already discovered how easy it was.

You've probably learned by now that all the documents they want are in the pocket in the back of the folder the banker gives you. I was expecting each one to be given out separately but they are all together and tidy. They may be required to be photographed separately.

I too was nervous to do banks but I started with teller shops and now I do complicated ones for many different banks and credit unions.

The one thing that is the most important doing Chase shops is not to get caught as a secret shopper. I had a banker in Scottsdale AZ that caught me and now I can not do these shops any more. There are people in every bank that remember faces know matter what you wear. In retrospected I think if I had used my account inside of not using it I could have gotten around him. I had not shopped this location in 6 months and I got caught. Good luck, before I got caught I was doing as many as 20 Chase shops a day in the Phoenix area and was branching out of town within AZ. I miss theses shops for it was quick money and easy reports that I could do in 15 minutes each location and never had more than 1/2 hour invested in the shop.