Less Clients for MFI?

Has anyone else noticed a lot less on the MFI job board? All that shows up here no matter how far I search and what different zip codes around me I put in, all I get are a few gas audits and FFs.

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I've only been active on their website for the past two months or so, so I don't have much to compare to, but there are a lot of shops showing on the board for me. FF, mobile and electronic retail, casual dining and banking.

There's one FF place missing that I can see, but otherwise it looks normal.

Looks normal this month, I had a slow July, but a good Aug.

Live consciously....

I'm seeing a lot fewer clients.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
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> Looks normal this month, I had a slow July, but a
> good Aug.

Is this about your work, your work for MFI, or about what you are seeing on the MFI list, which was the ?.

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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton

In my area, MF seems to have picked up a new retail client. There are also the usual FF, gas stations, retail, storage, etc. If anything, I'm seeing more MF shops posted than ever before.

Here they just have the same old same old...Cellular, FF, Storage. Blah. They need more interesting clients. :-)

dee shops Wrote:
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> Here they just have the same old same
> old...Cellular, FF, Storage. Blah. They need
> more interesting clients. :-)

I agree ... same clients here. It is getting so boring. Oh well at least they are good to fill space.

Here besides the gas and FFs, they used to have a lot of office supply stores, cell phones, smaller restaurant chains, mall stores, etc. Now it is just the FF and gas.

Market Force is again on my poop list today. Yesterday I could self-assign shops; today the link is again gone. No email, no phone call, nothing. These people are clueless.

It depends on where you live. My area has many shops to offer. Of course I travel a lot due to the fact I am a Retail Merchandiser. I got lucky!! >>>lucky7s

MFI just took a big three letter vitamin chain from Service Sleuth.

And the pay/reimbursement is $4.00 less than when Service Sleuth had it. Bummer!!!

Arch Stanton Wrote:
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> MFI just took a big three letter vitamin chain
> from Service Sleuth.
>
> And the pay/reimbursement is $4.00 less than when
> Service Sleuth had it. Bummer!!!

In my area, MFI has had them for quite some time. SS still has one of the locations for my state.

I wonder what Market Force's pitch might be to steal a client. Perhaps, "We have so many shoppers that are fools who will work for peanuts that we can assure you excellent reports for $4 less?"

ShopUntilYouDrop Wrote:
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> I wonder what Market Force's pitch might be to
> steal a client. Perhaps, "We have so many shoppers
> that are fools who will work for peanuts that we
> can assure you excellent reports for $4 less?"

LOL. That was pretty funny.

Funny! I wonder how they get so many shoppers working for them at a low pay too.

Market Force, on their website, claims 300,000+ shoppers and more than 10 million jobs performed. I suppose it would be petty of me to ask if they have counted me multiple times as they overlapped databases from the companies they have bought over the years. I suppose it would also be petty to ask how many of those 300,000+ shoppers are still active and have performed shops in at least 3 of the last 4 fiscal quarters.

But I realize that when somebody wants to try Mystery Shopping, I am likely to refer them to CORI and MFI knowing full well that with the clients these companies have there WILL be jobs in every part of the country that they can try and see if they are comfortable before they take on the task of signing up with lots of companies that may have nothing in their area--ever.

I find both MFI and CORI provide adequate instructions that are generally not contradictory and both of them have accessible help. That is a whole lot more than I can say for a lot of companies. And in the greater scheme of things, I find both of these companies "gateways", not "destinations".

But I also find that there are clients at MFI I am happy to do at the posted price and happier to do with a bonus.

"IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT I SEE." My MFI is full of banks or mortage shops and FF shops at airports.

I would like some of the list that some of you others have, for real.

If also includes a few shops that they seemed to have acquired from Canada and Vermont. Which may posed the Gapbuster question that has been appearing on their FF form.

It really is very simple to see other areas using the Advanced Search feature. A friend told me that a certain restaurant with locations in my area was being shopped, yet I could see none in my area. I wondered if for some reason I was being denied seeing the restaurant, so I just typed in a town near her and stretched out the miles to 200. There was the restaurant in all its shining glory. So I am being allowed to see them but they just aren't shopping the ones in my area. I typically will dip into other areas of the country with Advanced Search just to drool over what shops are available in other areas.

Flash Wrote:
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> It really is very simple to see other areas using
> the Advanced Search feature. A friend told me
> that a certain restaurant with locations in my
> area was being shopped, yet I could see none in my
> area. I wondered if for some reason I was being
> denied seeing the restaurant, so I just typed in a
> town near her and stretched out the miles to 200.
> There was the restaurant in all its shining glory.
> So I am being allowed to see them but they just
> aren't shopping the ones in my area. I typically
> will dip into other areas of the country with
> Advanced Search just to drool over what shops are
> available in other areas.

I do that often with other MSPs too, especially ones that have nothing in my area just to see what they have on their board. But then I get jealous when I see places I love to go being shopped elsehwere just not here.

Talk about jealous. You all on the mainland have WAY more shops available than those of us here, AND for the REALLY GOOD ONES, we compete with those who are vacationing here. Yea, like I am going to do Podunk Village in Podunk State in my lifetime to make up for those who take our shops here.

dee shops Wrote:
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> Talk about jealous. You all on the mainland have
> WAY more shops available than those of us here,
> AND for the REALLY GOOD ONES, we compete with
> those who are vacationing here. Yea, like I am
> going to do Podunk Village in Podunk State in my
> lifetime to make up for those who take our shops
> here.

I never thought about that. I bet in your state you do get a lot of tourists who decide to do a little MSing while on vacation. I guess that is a benefit of living amongst the corn here.

Truly it is. There are those I love here on the forum who get shops that us locals might get. I don't really begrudge them that, unless it was my turn again in the rotation. ;-)

Arch Stanton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MFI just took a big three letter vitamin chain
> from Service Sleuth.
>
> And the pay/reimbursement is $4.00 less than when
> Service Sleuth had it. Bummer!!!

But the reason I shop for Market Force and not Service Sleuth is that Market Force will bonus a shop to get it done. Service Sleuth does not; Kern just spams their shops ad infinitum.

Talking about stealing clients, I noticed that another MSC is shopping the cell phone shops MFI was doing a couple of months ago. I guess what goes around comes around.

The cell phone companies are so shopped to ad infinitum that it is a wonder they have time to do anything else. I have shopped the same location twice within a month for several different companies doing theme and variation of the same shop. No wonder cell service costs what it does.

But I did hear the other day that AARP is offering 250 min per month cell service to members for $20 per month. I haven't investigated it further, but understand there are free phones or fancier phones with discount available, which means it is probably a 2 year contract. Interesting to know what these companies CAN afford to do it for.

So many times it depends on what you are looking for: they offer a discount but you get less service. If you don't need anything fancy, that's great and you can get away with the discounted plan. There is a trade off in everything in life (sigh)

Understood, but my current minimalist plan costs a heck of a lot more than that. I can do very well with out texting, sending videos and even with having a mini version of my laptop. I have a phone to use as a PHONE. Amazing notion that! :^)

patnewman Wrote:
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> Talking about stealing clients, I noticed that
> another MSC is shopping the cell phone shops MFI
> was doing a couple of months ago. I guess what
> goes around comes around.

I'm not sure which MSP you mean, but many of the cell phone providers in my area are shopped by MF and another MSP. Usually within the same week.

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