Video Shop Reporting Workflow:
Making Route Shopping Work
A good video shop reporting workflow becomes especially important when you stop doing one assignment at a time and start putting several shops together. Experienced video mystery shoppers sometimes build an entire day—or several days—around assignments located along the same route.
This is commonly called route shopping.
Instead of driving across town for one assignment and returning home, you might accept several shops in the same city or along a route you're already traveling. When everything comes together, you can complete a surprising amount of work in a short period of time.
The key is organization.
Want more help getting started? My book, Take That Job And Mystery Shop It!, walks you through finding assignments, completing shops, writing reports, and avoiding many of the mistakes new shoppers make.
Building a Video Shop Reporting Workflow Around a Route
Route shopping makes the most sense when the numbers work in your favor.
Suppose you find one video apartment shop 75 miles from home. The assignment may pay well, but after considering gasoline and travel time, you may decide it isn't worth the trip.
Now suppose you can find four or five additional assignments in the same area. Suddenly, that drive looks much better.
Those assignments don't necessarily have to come from the same mystery shopping company. Full-time and experienced shoppers may work with several companies and combine their assignments into one trip.
The important thing is making sure you can meet every company's requirements.
One video shopper told me about a day when she completed 10 apartment shops. She was paid for every assignment and also received travel money and a bonus.
That's a productive day.
However, she didn't simply log on to a mystery shopping website one morning and stumble across 10 perfectly arranged apartment assignments. She had established herself as a dependable shopper with several mystery shopping companies. Schedulers knew her work and called her when they needed assignments completed.
Reliability can eventually lead to opportunities that aren't as easy for a beginner to put together.
Map the Route Before You Leave
A productive route begins before you start driving.
Experienced route shoppers look at where every assignment is located and arrange the stops logically. Driving 20 miles east, 30 miles west, and then 25 miles east again wastes time and fuel.
But geography isn't the only consideration.
You also have to look at the required shopping windows. An apartment leasing office may close at 5:00 p.m. Another assignment may have to be performed between specific hours. Some locations may require you to contact someone before arriving.
That's why people who do this full-time can become very good at mapping out their days.
You also need some breathing room in the schedule. An apartment shop that you expect to take 30 minutes could take an hour. Traffic can slow you down. A leasing agent may be busy when you arrive. Something unexpected can happen during an assignment.
Packing every minute of the day leaves no room for problems.
Reporting Doesn't Wait Until You Get Home
The video shop reporting workflow becomes more complicated when your route lasts several days.
With a written mystery shop near home, you may finish the assignment, drive home, and complete the report from your computer.
That may not be possible when you're hundreds of miles away.
If you're staying overnight, your hotel room becomes your temporary office. You'll need to organize the day's assignments, complete required reports, and upload video according to each mystery shopping company's instructions and deadlines.
Video files can be large, so a reliable internet connection becomes important. Waiting until late at night to discover that an upload is taking much longer than expected can create a problem.
You also don't want to confuse assignments after a long day.
Ten apartment shops can mean 10 leasing agents, 10 conversations, 10 sets of observations, and 10 video files. Keeping each assignment properly identified is critical.
Develop a Routine After Every Shop
A good video shop reporting workflow should make it difficult to mix things up.
After completing an assignment, confirm that you have what you need before moving to the next location. Record any permitted notes while the experience is fresh. Keep track of the person you met, the location, and anything unusual that happened.
Then move on.
At the end of the day, you'll have a much easier time completing your work because you aren't trying to reconstruct eight or ten different conversations from memory.
Video reduces some of the narrative burden because the client can see and hear much of the interaction. That doesn't mean the shopper can ignore the reporting requirements. There may still be forms, questions, documentation, file naming, and upload procedures to complete.
Traveling Can Open More Opportunities
Your local area may not always have enough video assignments to keep you busy.
Expanding the distance you're willing to travel can change that. You may discover clusters of assignments in another city or shops that mystery shopping companies are having difficulty filling.
That's also where bonuses and travel money sometimes enter the picture. A scheduler who needs several distant locations completed may have more incentive to work with a dependable shopper who can handle the entire route.
Of course, additional pay doesn't automatically make a route profitable. Consider mileage, gasoline, meals, lodging, travel time, deadlines, and how many assignments you can realistically finish.
Route shopping isn't about driving farther just to collect more assignments.
It's about making the miles count.
For someone who wants to take video mystery shopping beyond an occasional side job, developing an efficient video shop reporting workflow can make a tremendous difference. Plan the route, leave room for delays, keep every assignment organized, and finish the reporting requirements on time.
Once you find that groove, one assignment across town can turn into a full day of profitable shops.
About the Author
I'm Mystery Don, and I've completed mystery shopping assignments for restaurants, hotels, apartment communities, automobile dealerships, and new home builders.
I created this website to help people avoid the mistakes I've seen—and to show new shoppers how legitimate mystery shopping really works.
My book Take That Job And Mystery Shop It! lists over 150 mystery shopping companies to contact. I offer beginner-friendly tips and honest guidance without hype.
We're always looking for new faces to visit different places.
Buy the Kindle eBook (instant download)
Buy the Paperback (best field manual)
Buy the Hardcover (durable reference copy)
