I have gotten into the practice of making my own forms for shops that I do on a regular basis including gas station audits (if the forms are not sent to me by the MSC) and fast food audits.

I feel it is so much easier to cram the relevant data onto one piece of paper (printed front and back, if needed) than to sift through several pages of printed forms with all of the possible answers displayed. They may look nice when you're doing the report online but they can be very cumbersome and costly if you have to print them out to take with you on the shop (to be filled out discreetly, of course).

I used Word to make my forms and I scrunch the type into the smallest font I can read. You can always use bold, underline, braces or parentheses to emphasize certain areas, as needed.

For example, I do one type of shop at a mailing facility for a MSC where I can put four different shops on one double-sided sheet of paper folding it in half for each of the four shops that I need to shop that day.

If you do a lot of shops, you can even organize Word to print all of the shop-specific information on the form when you print it, especially if you have the capability like I have with one MSC, to schedule 40-50 shops over a four-week period.

I always make my own form putting down only the items that I will not remember to check on or that I might need description or quotes or timings. The rest, after shopping so many shops with similar questions for all shops of one type, I automatically look for these things even when I am not mystery shopping and can remember what happened. But then I do not do your volume! I cannot imagine how you can keep them straight. Hats off to you and all those who do volume shops. Even two in one day drive me crazy!

90 percent of the shops I do these days fall into three areas:

gas station mystery shops/audits for two chains
post office shops
grocery shops for one particular chain

All four types are vastly different from each other. Yesterday, I did a 650 mile roundtrip that encompassed 22 shops for three different clients.

The gross income for that day's shops was $291. My expenses for the shops was $61.60, all of which will be reimbursed. Of course, I was on the road for 20 hours and I spent about 5 hours pre-planning the trip and another 5 hours afterward resizing my photos and inputting my reports.

And the really nice thing about this trip? I will get paid for all of the shops within 30 days because the MSC's involved have outstanding customer support and great track records.

$291 for 20 hours plus 5 hours of photo work? not worth it.
Especially with gas.


I see so many people talk about resizing photos. Why do you need to resize your photos? I've been shopping for 10 years, have completed thousands of shops, and have never resized a single photo nor was I ever asked too.

If a msc has a resolution requirement, I just set my camera to take pics at their preferred size. Every single digital camera has this ability.

How much did you spend in gas? Was any of the gas reimbursed?

techman01 Wrote:
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> $291 for 20 hours plus 5 hours of photo work? not
> worth it.
> Especially with gas.
>
>
> I see so many people talk about resizing photos.
> Why do you need to resize your photos? I've been
> shopping for 10 years, have completed thousands of
> shops, and have never resized a single photo nor
> was I ever asked too.
>
> If a msc has a resolution requirement, I just set
> my camera to take pics at their preferred size.
> Every single digital camera has this ability.

I copy and paste the online form into Word, get rid of all the fluff I don't need, make the margins as small as I can, then print them up using two pages per paper. I often don't print on the back but only because I still have a large stack of cover sheets and such from when I was in college a few years back. I'd print off stuff at college and they came with a cover sheet. Instead of recycling the papers there, I took them home and would print my reports on the clean side. If I need extra room for notes, the other side is 75% white space. Saved me from having to buy new paper for my MS notes. If I run out, I've got a whole resource of free paper not too far from where I live. All I have to pay for is the ink.

I don't make any form. And I don't do gas or groceries or anything that would require me to scan prices. I did it once, never again!

I just use my daytimer and a small notebook. Usually the audits I do are for high-ends or something similar that require similar data. I note down the time, the number of sales people, number of customers, the name of the sales people, colour of hair or glasses, at the back of the receipt or my notebook. Anything special I also note, then I close my eyes when I do the report. Somehow, I can almost recreate what happened in my mind. I don't think I could do it before my mystery shop experience. I find my memory had greatly improved with mystery shopping. At times I overlook the colour of the hair and I close my eyes. Luckily, I have always remembered that way. The only time I would need a form is in theatre audit, if there are more than one and of course, since I would need the signature of the manager.

Probably, if it is a new shop and I am unfamiliar with it, I would make a short form. However, I find a thorough study of the guidelines usually helps me with just a short notation. Forms distract me when doing the shops. But of course, I don't ever do more than 4 to 6 shops as I have another job.

And oh, when I do multiple shops, I take the public transportation. With it, I can even go outside of Toronto, and add $3.25 for two hours ticket. The last two months, it was even free to travel to the nearby cities. I have a monthly pass, so its cheaper and less hassle. I tried the car a few times and because of traffic or construction or parking, I never completed my work. Of course, the subway could break down but there is always the bus or streetcar or my legs. Takes longer but I find it more reliable.

Even in going to shops at the airport, I use my pass and my scheduler was surprised that I never claim anything for parking. I think each of us has to find our comfort zone. We have to adjust to whatever works for us and what is cost-effective and productive and what we like to do. It's to each his own. And this message board provides numerous useful alternatives. It has been very helpful to me.

techman01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> $291 for 20 hours plus 5 hours of photo work? not
> worth it.
> Especially with gas.
>
>
> I see so many people talk about resizing photos.
> Why do you need to resize your photos? I've been
> shopping for 10 years, have completed thousands of
> shops, and have never resized a single photo nor
> was I ever asked too.
>
> If a msc has a resolution requirement, I just set
> my camera to take pics at their preferred size.
> Every single digital camera has this ability.


Not too terrible of a deal, if you've got a very fuel efficient vehicle. If you could average 35 MPG, you'd only burn about $75 in fuel. At 20 MPG, you'd burn $130 in fuel.

If I were calculating the profit for this job, I'd tack on another $5 for maintenance costs and $3 for vehicle wear and tear. Fortunately, in the eyes of the IRS, you already lost money doing this job; 650 miles @ $0.55/mile tax deduction = -$357. That makes your total taxable income for this job -$66, so at worst, there's zero increase in your tax liability.

All in all, assuming the 35 MPG and a zero net tax effect, net profit was $208. That's $8.32/hour net, which is above minimum wage (remember, minimum wage figures are given as gross/pre-tax, this is net/after-tax).

I generally hand-write a list of the needed observations on scrap paper. Then either during the shop or immediately after, I'll use my phone's voice recorder to make notes. When I was a noob shopper, I used to print out the forms, but never again. The typical MSC form is a waste of printer paper and ink, and they tend to make simple shops seem complicated.

Thanks for the comments, people. The sharing of ideas is what makes this worthwhile and fun.

With gas station audits, you need to have a form to keep track of all of the little details that the shops require and the specific POP's that the customer is looking for at each station. And each customer has different criteria and different ways of looking at the same criteria so you have to keep them straight.

On the photo resizing, I always use a higher resolution than is required by the customer and then I resize and crop the photo as necessary so that it shows the intended target. The main reason I resize the photos is to limit the size of the photos on my computer. When you take as many photos as I do in a given shop (I snapped 450 photos on my most recent trip), you're talking about a lot of room on the computer. And I have to keep them on the computer for at least six months in case the client has an issue with it later on.

As to the cost effectiveness of the shop, I probably lost money in the long run but I don't care because it got me out of the house and enabled me to see parts of my state that I wouldn't have normally visited on my own. And there is a peaceful solitude that can be attained when on a long-distance drive so it's kind of zen-like in that respect.

I know at the end of the year, I will claim the mileage on my tax return and I will end up claiming more expenses than I actually made in wages and that will detract from my overall gross income and lessen my income taxes, making my refund that much bigger. In 2006 I was making over $100K on my previous job in addition to my USN retirement when I up and quit. Sure, it was a mistake but it enabled me to avoid the constant daily rat race, the hours sitting in traffic and dealing with the daily office politics and to enjoy living in retirement perhaps 10 years before my peers would reach theirs.

tanmanlovespool Wrote:
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> As to the cost effectiveness of the shop, I
> probably lost money in the long run but I don't
> care because it got me out of the house and
> enabled me to see parts of my state that I
> wouldn't have normally visited on my own. And
> there is a peaceful solitude that can be attained
> when on a long-distance drive so it's kind of
> zen-like in that respect.
>
> I know at the end of the year, I will claim the
> mileage on my tax return and I will end up
> claiming more expenses than I actually made in
> wages and that will detract from my overall gross
> income and lessen my income taxes, making my
> refund that much bigger. In 2006 I was making over
> $100K on my previous job in addition to my USN
> retirement when I up and quit. Sure, it was a
> mistake but it enabled me to avoid the constant
> daily rat race, the hours sitting in traffic and
> dealing with the daily office politics and to
> enjoy living in retirement perhaps 10 years before
> my peers would reach theirs.

Can't blame you on either count!

I make my own forms...like many here I just can't bare the thought of printing all those useless pages of info. I also print 2 pages per sheet side. That helps alot.

I like my short cuts that cover everything less confusing and saves on time.