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The Restaurant Bind
This month we have a story from a "Guest Coach"--Ellen In Ohio, who was kind enough to share her story from a recent restaurant shop with all of us. Enjoy!
I had signed up to do a restaurant shop at a national restaurant chain (not fast food). I don't really like to do restaurant shops because they don't usually pay a fee, only reimbursement. But when the scheduler called me, he sounded so desperate, so I thought I'd schedule a fun lunch out for a friend who works near the location and myself. I got the assignment and planned to meet my friend at the restaurant. The shop guidelines stated that you have to have two adults in your party, and must order 2 entrees.
I got to the restaurant and my friend wasn't there yet, so I got a table and waited for her. She called me on my cell phone and told me that she had a HUGE proposal due that afternoon and that she was frantically trying to get it finished. She was definitely going to be late and maybe not even make it at all.
So, my problem was what to do about the shop? I couldn't just grab someone who was aimlessly walking around the restaurant and ask them to join me for lunch!
Thinking quickly, I told the server that my friend was running late. I asked him if I could go ahead and order for both of us, and asked him to hold her salad entree in the kitchen until she arrived. Unfortunately, since my friend never showed up, I asked him if he'd make her salad "to go". I took the salad to her at her office and helped her get her proposal together while she ate the salad. Then, I got her comments on the food quality so I could use them in my report.
My next dilemma was how to handle the report.
Editor's Note: Ellen wrote to me to ask me my thoughts on what she should do about the report. She was leaning towards coming clean with the scheduler about what happened. Here's what I told her:
You have two choices as I see it. Honesty, which is almost always the best policy. Technically you did follow guidelines as you had two people involved and two entrees ordered, so it should work unless the mystery shopping company is quite hard-nosed. I think you did everything possible under the circumstances and did a great job of thinking on your feet. Two, you could tell a white lie and act like the person was there the whole time and fill in all the information you gathered between the restaurant and her later comments on the shop report as if she actually ate lunch at the restaurant with you. I would recommend number one.
Here's what Ellen wrote back and told me she actually did:
I did decide to call the scheduler to see how he wanted me to handle the shop report. He called back and we talked it over before I filled out the report.
The scheduler told me it was too bad that I ate alone, but that he liked the way I handled the situation. He also said it was good that I ordered a hot item for my meal, and a cold salad plate for my friend's meal, because the client actually wanted data on both hot and cold dishes evaluated. I was advised to fill out the report completely, and add the information about my friend not showing up in the narrative in sections of the report when it was appropriate.
My scheduler thanked me for being honest and told me that he appreciated the feedback BEFORE I submitted the report. He also praised me for always getting my reports in the same day when I do shops for him (this was my third), because it really helps him get his job done on time.
Then, I was pleasantly surprised because my scheduler offered me two more non-restaurant shops to do this month! I had been trying very hard to get non-restaurant shops from this scheduler, and had not succeeded until then. He added that because of the way I handled the restaurant situation, he would feel good about giving me the other shops to complete.
So, it seems that perhaps this sticky situation turned into a little goldmine for me! I never thought it would turn out this way!
Thanks Melanie for your encouragement!
Editor's Note: See what I mean about developing relationships with schedulers? So many shoppers just don't get this concept. They worry more about how many hundreds of web sites they can sign up to be a mystery shopper and fail to see that the real key to getting lots of quality, repeat mystery shopping work--which is how you eventually make the "big bucks" in the field--is to focus on working with a few good schedulers as you make connections, and do a great job for them, so you get another job!
Ellen clearly demonstrated her professionalism and her ability to think on her feet, and she was rewarded with the shops she really desired. She will also be that scheduler's "go to" person in her area now. That's the ultimate in mystery shopping success! Way to go Ellen!
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The next Coach's Diary column will be published on November 3rd. The next issue of Perfect Work-At-Home Job Update will be released on October 23rd. Your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome by e-mailing me at mysteryshopcoach@aol.com. New subscriptions are welcome by e-mailing me at mscoach@aweber.com.
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