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Mystery Shopping Company cycles

April 06, 2012 07:42PM
Hello!
Is it true that mystery shopping companies offer the majority of their shops during the 1st and 4th quarters of the year? A scheduler once explained that to me, but since I have only been doing this actively for just over 6 months, I have not yet experienced this shopping "drought" of the late spring and summer months. I would love to hear anyone's thoughts and experience with this.
Thank you!
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April 06, 2012 07:57PM
Perhaps they offer more but I certainly note that the types of shops and local factors are much greater influencers of local availability than anything else.

For example, Medicare shops are offered almost exclusively 4th quarter. Tax shops are offered almost exclusively 1st quarter. Most of the rest of the shops I see are pretty steadily offered throughout the year on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.

Local influencers here that are seasonal are that many teachers mystery shop primarily during the summer and tourists, especially the RVers who may be here 3-6 months, do a lot of shops during tourist season.
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April 06, 2012 11:59PM
Thank you so much for the information. The system makes much more sense to me now! Luckily, I am not in a high tourist area so hopefully I will not have a long dry spell of no shops. I have become 100% obsessed with mystery shopping and likely spend more hours devoted to this than I ever did at a "real" job. The only difference is, I finally get what it means when people say "if you do what you like, then it is not really "work". Mystery shopping is definitely work, but I enjoy it so much that I was concerned about going 3-5 months with minimal shops.
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April 07, 2012 12:50PM
Clients that change MS providers tend to do so in the first month of the client's new fiscal year. When that happens, it may take 30 to 60 days for the new provider and the client to agree upon and launch a new MS campaign. Since clients' fiscal years tend to start in January, July, or October, those months might see a drop in available shops if/when a huge client changes MS providers.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
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