Spot Check Services has an extensive database of trained personnel nationwide.
The ongoing training and stringent quality control ensures the integrity
that our customers have grown to expect from our company.
What does Spot Check Services expect from me?
My Shopper Profile
Assignments
What I need to know BEFORE doing my shop?
How does Spot Check Services pay?
How often does Spot Check Services pay?
Receipts
Shopper's Pay
Shopper Allowance
How do I make a payment inquiry?
What does Spot Check Services expect from me?
We expect that you are a Mystery Shopper with the following attributes:
honesty, observant, meticulous, detail-oriented; someone who understands the
importance of a due date. A Mystery Shopper who will complete the reporting
within the 24 hour guideline, and keep the lines of communication open until
the report has been approved, and any follow up questions that may arise from the visit.
Our Commitment:
Is to work in partnership with the Mystery Shopper to provide the client with an overall view of their customer service, and to do so with professional and unbiased reporting.
Spot Check Services reserves the right to withdraw your privileges as a Mystery Shopper if we believe you have not complied to any of the above.
My Shopper Profile:
Do I have to complete ALL of the questions on my shopper profile?
No, you are only required to complete the questions that have an * beside them. However, it is in your best interest to provide as much information as possible in your profile. This will help you in receiving more assignments, as some of the assignments require a specific type of shopper and if you have provided that information you may qualify for these extra assignments.
I have a new e-mail address. Who do I tell?
You can up-date your shopper profile at any time. You are not required to notify anyone. This would include your e-mail address or your home address. It is the shopper’s responsibility to keep their profile current. Profiles with outdated information will be deleted.
Profiles with no phone number will be deleted.
Assignments:
How do I know when assignments are available?
When assignments become available you will receive an e-mail letting you know there are new assignments
posted on the board. Feel free to check the board daily if you wish. When
assignments become available within your province, you will be notified. The
reason for this is, many shoppers want to know of any available assignments
within their province and not just their area as they might be traveling. It is very important that your e-mail address(es) are current on your shopper profile, as these are the addresses the system will use to send out the automatic
e-mail notifications.
How do I Look for Assignments?
Click on Available Assignments. A window will open that is titled Audit Search.
Here you have a few options. You can search by city, province or country. If nothing is appearing you can search by leaving all categories completely blank. This will show you
ALL available assignments. You can then sort the assignments by each column heading for easier viewing.
How do I Request an Assignment?
Once you have the available assignments showing on your board, you can click anywhere on the assignment line to open the assignment. To preview the details of this assignment, click on the “Preview the Assignment” link. You are required to read the Special Instructions BEFORE placing your request. These instructions quite often will contain specific criteria regarding this assignment. Shopper age requirement, dress size requirement, lunch or supper visit, time of day, etc. You should NEVER
request the assignment without reading these instructions first. Check to
make sure you are available for the required shop dates. You can complete
your shop on or between the start date and the end date. If you wish to
request the assignment, click return to assignment. Now you can click on, “Request this Assignment.”
PLEASE DO NOT REQUEST MULTIPLE ASSIGNMENTS WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT YOU WILL BE ASSIGNED THEM ALL.
We do not plan road trips and if you request 5 shops, chances are you will only be given one or two of the assignments.
For example: a shopper may want to request 5 Liquor Commission shops. But the shopper is only given one or two locations. Then the shopper declines what they HAVE been given because they did not receive all 5. This causes a lot of duplicate work for us and its REALLY discouraged.
If you are interested in doing multiple shops on a road trip, the best thing to do is send me an
e-mail stating what you are wanting to do. Once the bulk of the shops have been assigned and everyone has what I can give them, then I can look at what's left and see what we can arrange.
This generally only happens with the Liquor Commission shops.
We try to keep things as fair as possible, as these shops are in high
demand.
How do I know if I am Given the Assignment?
Within 24 hours you will receive an e-mail notification letting you know whether you received the assignment or not. This notification will be e-mailed to whatever addresses you have in your shopper profile. I always recommend you check your Confirmed Assignments board as a
back-up. Requests that are placed after 4pm on Friday’s are not responded to until Monday AM.
Unless, there was an URGENT assignment that needed to be completed. Only then will the request be responded to on the weekend.
Once you are confirmed for an assignment, be sure to mark the dates on your calendar. It is REALLY important that shops take place on their designated days.
How do I Cancel an Assignment?
If you cannot complete this assignment after all, PLEASE use the Cancel option on your board. I really do not mind having to re-schedule an assignment. What I do mind is when a shopper does not complete the assignment and does not notify me by
canceling the assignment.
Once you cancel the assignment an automatic e-mail is sent to the Shop Manager notifying him/her of the cancellation. As a back-up, please check your board to ensure the assignment is no longer on your Confirmed Assignments board.
How do I fill out my On-line report?
Go to your board and click on “My Confirmed Assignments.” You will then see
the assignment listed. Click anywhere on the highlighted line. Scroll down
and click on “Complete Your Assignment.” The report will open and you can
start entering your information. Please note: you will only be given a few
questions at a time and then required to click NEXT. If the next page does
not load up, this is because you have missed either a question or comment.
If the question states, “If NO, explain, you will be required to provide an
explanation. Once you have entered all of your information you will be asked
if you are ready to SUBMIT. Your report will automatically leave your board
and come to my completed board. If you want to verify this happened, just check your “My Confirmed Assignments” board and you should see that the assignment is now gone.
What I need to know BEFORE doing my shop:
Read through the information regarding your assignment. What is the shop criteria? Shop dates, time of day, area of restaurant (if you are shopping a restaurant), will a purchase be required etc. It is VERY IMPORTANT that your read the Print/View report. This is the report that will allow you to see all of the questions you will be required to answer when you get back home. Some of these questions are what we call statistical questions. If you do not read these questions before going to the location, you will never be able to answer these after the visit to the location is over. For example: were the business hours posted? You need to be aware of this question, so you will remember to look.
Stating on your report, "I forgot to look " or "I did not notice" is
NEVER accepted. Please never use
these comments on your report.
How does Spot Check Services pay?:
Spot Check Services is proud to be able to offer the fast, convenient service of Electronic File Transfer (direct deposit).
As this is Spot Check Services method of payment it is agreed by the
shopper, at the time of completing the first assignment, that they provide a
void cheque for processing or banking information. Line of credit accounts
are not accepted. When faxing you MUST write the numbers directly below the
cheque from left to right (including all zeros) as bank encoded numbers can
become distorted during the faxing process. You will receive confirmation
via e-mail once information has been received. Please allow 5 business days
for receiving and processing of confirmation. If you have not received a
confirmation, do not assume we have received the required information,
please re-send. We do understand that not all shopper's write cheques, in
which case, you can request from your bank a deposit form be filled out
stating account information, which we will accept. It is the shopper's
responsibility to advise of any changes in account information. Spot Check
Services will not be responsible for reminding shoppers to submit information for processing. This information is to be read and understood prior to accepting any assignments.
This feature is designed to benefit shoppers so payment is received in an expedient manner providing the set forth agreement is followed.
e-mail/scan: payroll@spotcheckservices.com
Toll free fax: 1-866-592-5368
How often does Spot Check
Services pay?:
Shopper payment deposits are made on the 15th of every month. Should the 15th fall on a weekend or holiday, deposits will be made on the business day prior to that date. Reports must be submitted and approved no later than the last business day of each month. Any reports received after that date will be paid the 15th of the following month.
For example; reports completed Friday March 30/05 can expect deposit payment on April 15/05. (Upon the condition that we have received a faxed/scan or e-mail copy of a void cheque for processing and any required original receipts via Canada Post, if listed in instructions). If you have shopped an assignment today it will be paid on the 15th of next month.
Receipts:
Do I need a receipt?
YES!! You are ALWAYS required to submit a receipt if any type of purchase is being made.
Some assignments do require the original receipt to be mailed via Canada post, as well as, fax/scan or e-mailed. Instructions of assignment will state this.
Your assignment is not considered complete until we have received your receipt.
We will only accept the original receipt. You can pay by any method, but we do not accept the receipt from a credit/debit card transaction. If you use this method, PLEASE make sure you retain the original receipt that shows the items purchased.
How do I submit my receipt?
Your assignment instructions will indicate whether you are required to fax/scan or mail your receipt. ALL assignments require you to fax or scan the receipt.
You are only required to mail the receipt on an assignment where you made a purchase and you were allowed to keep the purchase.
For example: a restaurant assignment requires you to fax or scan the receipt only.
A liquor store assignment requires you to fax or scan AND mail the receipt as well.
You are required to mail the receipt also, to ensure the purchase is not being returned.
Once you have completed the On-line report the system will prompt you at the end of your report to submit your receipt. You can print the last page and submit this with your receipt as this form has all of the information needed right on the page. If you do not have a printer you can copy the information (shopper #, audit#, name, etc) on a piece of paper or directly on the receipt and submit. Please make sure this information is legible if written by hand.
Where do I send my receipts?
To fax your receipt:
toll free fax 1-866-592-5368
To scan your receipt:
payroll@spotcheckservices.com
To mail your receipt:
Spot Check Services Ltd.
1540 Albert St.
Regina, Sask
S4P 2S4
Shopper
Pay
What is the shopper pay?
This is the amount of money the shopper is paid for doing the shop. The shopper
pay differ on assignments, so please check your assignment to see what this amount will be.
Shopper Allowance:
What is the shopper allowance?
The shopper allowance is a fixed amount that is paid to the shopper to cover the purchase that has been requested by the client. You are required to use ALL of your
allowance money.
Do not allow your receipt to fall below the allowance amount. If you spend more than the
allowance amount, you the shopper will cover this.
Restaurant shops:
If any portion of your meal was complimentary and this causes you to fall short of your
allowance amount, do not worry. Accept the complimentary items and state on your report exactly what happened and why your meal or part of your meal was
complimentary. (free of charge)
Gratuities:
Gratuities are not covered by your shop allowance and left up to the shopper
Taxes:
Taxes can be covered by the allowance amount on your assignment.
Hotel Assignments:
The allowance on a hotel assignment will show 0.
The reason for this is, the allowance on a hotel assignment differ from one assignment to the next.
Once you have submitted your receipt, the allowance amount will be manually entered into the assignment by payroll.
See assignment for this information.
How do I make a payment inquiry?:
If you are making a payment inquiry and it states; documents needed; this is a standard message communicating to the shopper that we have not yet received the original receipt via Canada Post as stated in the instructions prior to accepting the assignment. Therefore; it is not necessary to contact us and ask what documents do we need. This information would have been stated in the instructions prior to accepting the assignment. Keep in mind, we process hundreds of pieces of mail daily and it can often take staff time to process your information once the mail has been received. Keep checking frequently and you will know when we have received the documents when the status shows ready to pay. We do ensure that all mail is continually processed prior to the EFT file being sent to the bank for the 15th deposit.
In the event we have not received the shopper banking information for processing payment a message will appear in black at the top of they payment inquiry screen communicating this to the shopper.
REMEMBER: make sure you have submitted a copy of a void cheque or banking information for processing AND that you have mailed in any ORIGINAL receipts that were a requirement listed in the instructions prior to accepting an assignment, otherwise; the payment will remain outstanding until received. Mailing address as follows:
Spot Check Services Ltd.
1540 Albert St.
Regina, Sask.
S4P 2S4
If you do need to e-mail an inquiry about an assignment that has not been paid; be sure to include in the e-mail your shopper number and the audit you are inquiring about; otherwise the e-mail will be sent back asking you to be more specific.
Accounts Payable Dept.
payroll@spotcheckservices.com