Secret Shopping and Merchandising

Like most things in life, this is just a common sense thing to do that many of us just don’t do well enough.

Even  if you have to back out of a shopping or merchandising job, it’s always best to communicate directly with your scheduler if that’s a possibility with the company you are working for.

No matter what the reason, unforeseen circumstances, bad time management on your part, or just no longer interested in that particular assignment for some reason, many schedulers will appreciate the extra effort of sending an email or making a phone call to let them know what’s going on before your assignment goes into a late status or is canceled.

As a personal example, one company suspended my account for not submitting my report when it was due.  This is not something that normally happens, but my paperwork plainly stated the consequences not reporting by the deadline for this particular project.  Most likely, if I would have contacted them before the report was due to let them know I wouldn’t be submitting it on time, I would not have been suspended.

I have since starting working for them again and have made a conscious effort to make sure I contact them anytime I’m running into issues.

Communicating can often let the scheduler find a replacement sooner so that they aren’t under even more deadline pressure than normal and as long as you aren’t a chronic problem, you’ll have a much better relationship with the scheduler and the company.