Hi all,

We'd like to address a few issues from above. I may not hit every topic in this post, but I'll try!

1. Our Name: Some of you call us Kern Scheduling, but truthfully, we've been KSS International, Inc since 2001! We were Kern Scheduling Services in 1998-2001 when we became too large for our owner (Lorri Kern) to run the business out of her bedroom and had to incorporate. Since 2001, we've grown from a company that scheduled about 1,000 shops per month to more than 1,000,000 shops per year on average!

2. The New Job Board:
- Because KSS International was one of the first 5 companies on the Sassie platform, and schedules more shops than ANY other company on the Sassie platform (of course, this is across dozens of MSPs that use Sassie!) we are often asked to "BETA test" new products that they are offering. The new job board is something that will be rolled out next month to ALL Sassie clients. So, they asked us to test it first so we could see what bugs there may be, what tweaks they need to make, etc.

--- TO THAT END --- if you have feedback about what you do/do not like, we would welcome your comments! Please send them directly to our CEO, Lorri Kern at KSSLorri@kernscheduling.com. She will compile the comments and let the folks at Surfmerchants (The makers of Sassie) know what you, our valued shoppers, think about the upgrade! In fact, all of the changes were made to the job board based on shopper feedback to Sassie, so if it's not working the way you wanted it to work, we know that Sassie would like to know why not!

(We are hoping that it's a lot like facebook.. we all HATE when they make changes, but down the road, we end up liking the improvements, once we learn how to use them!)

3. Is Our Job Board a "Waste of Time"? NO!

- I know it's confusing, especially to NEW shoppers, but we actually don't have ANY shops submitted on the KSS Sassie site. Our site is simply a recruiting tool. We schedule for about 80 MSPs at this point in time. Some are on Sassie, but more than 50% are not on Sassie. When a company hires us to fill their shops, we post FIRST the shops on their own site (be it Prophet, ShopMetrics, Sassie, or some other proprietary system). We fill as many shops as possible FIRST with that company's proven, reliable and valued database.

THEN, whatever locations are still open, we post on OUR Sassie site. However, 99% of the time you will not receive an "accepted" or "declined" message from our site. If you are the one that is selected for the shop, the scheduler will email you directly and say "Thank you for applying for XX shop. This shop is not scheduled directly on the KSS Sassie site, it is scheduled at [www.xxx.com]. Please register as a new shopper on that site, and email me when you have done so and I'll make sure you are assigned!"

Once the shop is completed and submitted by the shopper we assign, we remove that shop from our job board. We don't remove it sooner, because if other shoppers have applied and our original shopper "flakes" (we know, you guys HATE that word, but it is our reality. More than 40% of all shoppers flake on assignments every single project!), we can email or call the other applicants for that shop and see if they are still interested.

We hope that clears things up for you guys - but if not, let us know! We are happy to help!


3. Rude Schedulers - Really? Our schedulers are trained to respond to all shoppers within 24 hours, even if the answer is "I don't know, but I'm trying to find out". If you receive a rude response, you should definitely email our scheduling manager, Nola Penny at KSSNola@kernscheduling.com. We do not tolerate rude or abusive schedulers!




We probably missed something. While we don't monitor this board regularly, we'll try to watch it for the next couple of days so we can address any other concerns that you all have!

Happy St. Patricks Day and Happy Shopping!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2013 02:40AM by KSS International, Inc.

KSS International, Inc Wrote:
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> More than 40% of all
> shoppers flake on assignments every single
> project

Wow! That is a shockingly high average. My uninformed guess would have been around 15%. With figures such as you are stating, scheduling has to be a hellish endeavor.

shopgal - from talking with schedulers and editors, attending a few IMSC conferences, and reading the job boards, 40% almost seems low at times to me. For some shops, it's as high as 80-85% from what I've gathered.

On the topic of KSS - I do some thru them, since they often schedule for companies I work for, and I'll hit a scheduler from them. Usually these days, however, I am registered with all the companies, and do my scheduling direct through the company. (Be that a KSS scheduler or the main company scheduler I really don't care as long as I get the work.)

And ideas? My biggest issue with the Sassie platform is their HORRIBLE Jobslinger app for the Android. I've talked with Sassie/Jobslinger Plus and I think KSS before about it. I'm going to post here again, and will probably try again. The idea is good. Execution horrible. KSS is one of the companies that I've gotten emails and other such that promotes the GeoVerify. It's a great idea in concept, except it force closes the app EVERY time, and crashes my phone sometimes.

About the name . . . WE call you Kern Scheduling because every one of your email addresses do. It might help people to stop calling you Kern if your email address weren't all xxxxxx@ KERNSCHEDULING.com. So you can expect to be referred to as Kern until your email system catches up with the rest of the corporate identity.


Sent message regarding site feedback as directed.


About the application process . . . You have gone back and forth with your Arizona-based credit union shops, telling us last month that from now on they would be on the MSC's site effective on a certain date, then they didn't show up there, now they're back on your site -- and I still have not been told yes or no if I can do the shop for the credit union that is six miles from me. It has been over a week I believe since I applied for it through your site, I am registered with the MSC, it is not on their board, and neither of you are saying yes or no. The job finally disappeared off my App board but I find it hard to believe it was given to someone else since I have reason to think I might be the only mystery shopper in this town. It would be appreciated if the job would be either awarded or denied within 24 hours of request so we know where we stand. I have been trying to get some of those credit union jobs for two months in more than one location and have been told NOTHING. Why does it take so long to get a response? I was right near two of those credit unions earlier this month while doing a route of other bank shops but I never heard back about them. I no longer remember if I had applied through you or the MSC on those. The more recent, local one I'm pretty sure was through your site.


Thank you for reaching out to the forum with explanations and information!

Oh -- one more thing.... There is not a single change Facebook has made that I hated initially that I don't STILL HATE. I hate timeline, I hate that stupid status box asking me inane questions all day, I hate the fact that they give you "control" over what you see then randomly change your choices back to what they think you should see. I hate Facebook and have tried to get people to leave it and go somewhere else and I barely post on it because I don't trust where my posts will be seen. I hate that they don't respond to customer complaints, that they cram things down your throat despite massive, uproarious protest over it. I hate that they spam my news feed with ads as if having six ads on the side of the screen wasn't enough; now they try to disguise them as suggestions from friends.

So . . . you make no points with me by saying it's "like Facebook." Because I HATE Facebook, because of all the changes it does without regard to what its users want.

treydawgmt Wrote:
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> shopgal - from talking with schedulers and
> editors, attending a few IMSC conferences, and
> reading the job boards, 40% almost seems low at
> times to me. For some shops, it's as high as
> 80-85% from what I've gathered.


This is just appalling to me! Good Lord.

But, better for me! I've never truly flaked... there have been a few times over 2+ years where I've had something completely unavoidable come up, though. But when shops are sometimes scheduled so far out, you don't realize you'll be sick that day, or have to take the dog for an emergency vet appointment, or your car will break down, or the streets in my area will actually get ice (at 150-200 feet above sea level it doesn't happen often!). I've always contacted my scheduler ASAP. All but once it was resolved amicably and the moved the due date for me.

I hope that's because 99% of the time I do the shops as scheduled, and that they like the reports I submit!

itsasecret Wrote:
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> Oh -- one more thing.... There is not a single
> change Facebook has made that I hated initially
> that I don't STILL HATE. I hate timeline, I hate
> that stupid status box asking me inane questions
> all day, I hate the fact that they give you
> "control" over what you see then randomly change
> your choices back to what they think you should
> see. I hate Facebook and have tried to get people
> to leave it and go somewhere else and I barely
> post on it because I don't trust where my posts
> will be seen. I hate that they don't respond to
> customer complaints, that they cram things down
> your throat despite massive, uproarious protest
> over it. I hate that they spam my news feed with
> ads as if having six ads on the side of the screen
> wasn't enough; now they try to disguise them as
> suggestions from friends.
>
> So . . . you make no points with me by saying it's
> "like Facebook." Because I HATE Facebook, because
> of all the changes it does without regard to what
> its users want.

You said it its a secret! I hate facebook, too. I like to enter sweepstakes and send away for free samples, and I find that I am often forced to like something on facebook before I can enter the sweeps or send for the sample now. It doesn't even make any sense. If I have not yet tried the sample, how am I supposed to know if I like it or not?

In my experience, yes they're a waste of time. I've applied for jobs over the past couple of years with them and never been assigned one.

And I agree that the new job board is horrible. I sincerely hope sassie in not planning to ruin their boards with this msitake.
If you want to search on your state, you have to look for US -(your state) instead of just looking at a list of the states. It hurts my eyes.

While the map feature might be useful to some people in planning routes (if all of their shops were scheduled by KSS) I prefer a simple list of available shops.

> itsasecret Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
I find that I am often forced to like
> something on facebook before I can enter the
> sweeps or send for the sample now. It doesn't even
> make any sense. If I have not yet tried the
> sample, how am I supposed to know if I like it or
> not?


This is getting off topic of this thread. However, it'sasecret makes an excellent point. I also hate that the page wants permission to have access to your information. Put up an entry form on the company website and I'll fill it in, but I've given up on Facebook "liking" completely.

Another example this week concerning cell phone shops. New round advertised on Sunday. Advised to apply and if I wasn't registered with MSC Kern would advise me to signup. Applied for shop, had to supply date which is tomorrow. No reply from anyone. Typical.

Applied for several shops. Was assigned one of those shops this morning. Emailed scheduler six minutes after receiving the acceptance email. Got scheduler's reply two minutes later.

YMMV.

I did receive an e-mail from the MSC at 1:17 AM giving me the shop. Although they give me a few more days to complete the shop today was the only time I would be in the area. So the email got here in the nick of time.



ces1948 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another example this week concerning cell phone
> shops. New round advertised on Sunday. Advised to
> apply and if I wasn't registered with MSC Kern
> would advise me to signup. Applied for shop, had
> to supply date which is tomorrow. No reply from
> anyone. Typical.

Glad it worked out but a response within 24 hours would have been better.

I've only ever had one shop with KSS (through another MSC). I keep applying and I don't get them. I think people flake because of the uncertainty expressed by others in this thread.

Either I've got the assignment, or I don't ... I don't really care either way, I just want to know in a timely fashion.

P.S. thank you official KSS person for clearing some things up.