What to do now that you are a registered Independent Contractor:

1. Independent Contractor Agreement:

If you did not read the Independent Contractor Agreement before filling out your SASSIE profile, please take the time to read it before completing a job.  You can find the Independent Contractor Agreement on your SASSIE profile, under the Social Security section, located on the left side.  Click on “View Shopper Agreement“.

2. Payment:

Payments will be mailed to the address provided on your profile in SASSIE each month you have a completed survey. Be sure you keep your mailing address up-to-date. We currently do not use PayPal to send payments. See the FAQ section for more details about when payments are sent for completed surveys.

3. Log in to your Profile and:

Verify your email address.

Once your registration is complete, you will receive an email verifying that we received your registration. Click the link in that e-mail to verify your e-mail address.  This verification tells our system that your email address is a valid address, run by a human, not automated.

Bounce Handling & Blacklist:

When we receive too many bounced-back emails to a specific address, we will put that address on our “Blacklist” and stop sending emails to them, EXCEPT for a “Blacklist notification”, which we will send three days later (we give three days for any temporary issues such as full mailboxes to correct themselves). That notification will contain a link to a page where the contract shopper can remove themselves from the Blacklist. After 4 removals, the contract shopper will need to work with our support staff directly to receive emails from our platform again.

4. Get your SSN or Tax ID number verified.

This is one of the steps to completing your registration. If you do not feel comfortable entering your SSN online through our secure website, you may, instead, apply for a Tax ID Number (TIN). Just go to the IRS website, www.irs.gov to apply. Getting a Tax ID number is FREE. Some of our contract shoppers are choosing that option for security reasons.

5. Fill in any spaces that are highlighted with red lettering

In your SASSIE profile.  The demographic information helps us to get the right jobs to the right people. Once you have updated anything highlighted with red lettering, click on the EDIT SHOPPER PROFILE button to save.

6. Updating the Extended Shopper Profile.

Once you are registered, you may log in to your Profile and update your Extended Shopper Profile. It’s usually a box that flashes on your Shop Log. Click on the flashing box to update. Once you have answered the questions, click on SUBMIT. If it does not disappear on your screen, just hit your Refresh button and it should update.

7. Protect Your Email

Read

8. Tips for Mystery Shoppers, from Mystery Shoppers.

Read

9. What to do when a Survey Offer has been emailed to you:

A Survey Offer is a mass email sent out to multiple contract shoppers, explaining basic details about a survey/job that is available.

Survey Offers include information such as:

1. The type of business that needs to be evaluated,(2) what
2. The shop entails/what’s expected of you,
3. The day/date the evaluation is due to be completed and submitted online, and
4. The amount paid to the contract shopper that completes the job correctly and on time.

If you would like to apply for a survey, the emailed Survey Offer will include a link to apply. Sometimes there may only be one link to cover multiple locations, but some offers may include separate links for each location. You just click on the single link or the location that applies to you.

Once you are on the application screen, you will be asked to enter your email address and password to apply for the offer.

If a survey has been assigned to you, you will receive another email stating that a job has been posted to your account/Shop Log. Just login to your account and you’ll see it listed in your Shop log.

10. How To Navigate Around Your Shop Log:

Once a survey has been assigned to you, you will need to login to your account. The survey that has been assigned will be listed in your Shop Log.

There are a few links you need to know about so you can navigate yourself around your Shop Log.

First of all, once you have a survey assigned, it will be listed in your Shop Log and there will be a few links that are activated (in blue) or that need to be activated (in gray). Here are the explanations of each link:

In order for all links to be activated (and turn blue), you MUST read the Guidelines of the survey first. Click on the Guidelines link. This gives instructions directly from our client (the business we are evaluating).

The View/Submit link is what you will click on when you are ready to fill out your online form.

The Print link is used by most of our contract shoppers so they can “print” out the report form and use it to make notes. The “Print” version of the form also displays the answer choices (i.e. Yes/No, or multiple choice). This version of the form is great for making notes.  That way if you can’t submit the report online right away, you can make some notes  so as not to forget details of your visit.  Then the notes can be used to submit your shop.

Please Note: DO NOT print the shop form and take it with you on your visit! The employees will get suspicious, and if you are identified as a contract shopper, you will not get paid and your status as a contract shopper will be in jeopardy.

The Comments link is to give you specific information regarding your job (i.e. specific employee, name or department that you are supposed to shop, what to order, reimbursement amount, etc.).   The Comments link is very informative and must be read and followed, along with the Guidelines.

Finally, the Help/Contact link is there for you to send a direct email to the Account rep that scheduled your job. Just click on Help/Contact and a separate screen will pop up. There is a message box for you to submit your question(s) or request(s) in the yellow-shaded area.

Below the message area, there are details about the shop assigned (the shop you are emailing about) and your contact information, so the Account Rep will know who sent the request/question and can respond promptly.

Hit SUBMIT EMAIL when your message is complete.

In your Shop Log, you may personalize what you view on your screen.

Under the banner Status/Job ID, you can click on the down arrow next to the white box and choose to see jobs designated as ANY, ACTIVE, or FINISHED.

ANY means any surveys you have been scheduled and not completed, surveys that are completed, and surveys that you’ve already been paid for. It shows ANY and all surveys you’ve done.  ACTIVE means any surveys that are NEW or INCOMPLETE.  FINISHED means surveys that have been completed and surveys for which you’ve already been paid.

Under the banner titled Shop/Due Date, you can personalize your view by clicking on the up arrow to display the oldest surveys first, then the down arrow to display the most recent surveys first.

The column titled Survey Submit Date is the date your survey was submitted online. Once the survey has been completed, this will usually be in gray. The column will be blank if the survey form hasn’t been filled out yet.

The column titled Don’t Shop Before is to let you know that you cannot perform your shop BEFORE the specified date.

Under the Survey Submit Date and Don’t Shop Before headers, there are boxes in the gray shaded area titled Shop Due Start and End. This allows a contract shopper to personalize their view where they only see shops between the dates selected.

For example: If you have 100 shops listed in your Shop log, and you want to find a specific shop you did during May 2012, you would select Shop Due Start as 5/1/12 and Shop Due End date as 5/31/12. This will only display the shops completed in the month of May 2012.

The next column to your right is Company Survey Location. This lists the name(s) of the client(s) you have “shopped” for us. Underneath the header is another box. Click on the down arrow and a list of all clients you have evaluated for us will be listed. If you choose a specific client you have shopped, you will be able to view those shops only.  You can also click on the up arrow (A-Z) or down arrow (Z-A) to list your shops on your Log.

The Shop Fees column is self-explanatory. This displays how much you get/got paid for each individual shop, including any reimbursements or bonuses (if applicable).

The column titled Shop Rtg is actually called Shop Rating. The Shoppers, Inc. rating scale is based on a 1-10 scale. A rating of 10 is best, a rating of 1 is not very good. For detailed information on the rating scale, please visit our Shopper FAQs. This explains each rating so contract shoppers can have an idea why their report received the rating it did.

The column Reviewer Comments are for comments directly to the contract shopper, if applicable. If there are any additional details the client will need to know regarding the shop, this is where you will find that information. This message is usually emailed to the contract shopper, as well.

11. How to evaluate and complete surveys.

Read

12. How To Fill Out A Shopper Report:

When you have been given a job to do, once you have completed the evaluation, you are ready to fill out the evaluation form.

Please Note: Evaluation forms are to be filled out within 24 hours of the completion of your visit.

To get started, click on the View/Submit link in your Shop Log. A gray “warning” box will pop up, explaining that you have 30 minutes to submit your form. Click on OK and your form will display on the screen.

Be aware of the 30-minute timer displayed in the upper left hand corner. It begins at 30:00 and counts down to zero.

Fill out all Comments areas and answer all questions.

Explain ALL “NO” answers. Explain why you answered NO in Comment boxes provided.

If you submit your evaluation and get an Oops!, this means you need to go back to your report and correct those areas. This could mean you left something blank, additional comments are needed, or some correction needs to be made.

Once you have filled out your report completely, click on SUBMIT SHOP.

If you need more than 30 minutes to fill out your survey, BEFORE your time runs out, click on SAVE SHOP FOR LATER. If you click on the Save Shop For Later button, this saves all the information you just filled out, to complete at a later time.  Once you are ready to finish submitting your survey, log into your Shop Log. Your unfinished survey will be listed as INCOMPLETE. Click on the Finish Shop link and finish filling out your survey. When your report form is completed, click on SUBMIT SHOP.

IMPORTANT: Remember, if your 30-minute timer runs out, you could lose the information you just entered. Keep an eye on your timer! Click on Save Shop For Later if you need additional time. Remember, be sure your surveys are completely entered within 24-hours of your call/visit.