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Can different companies shop the same restaurants...
Several ways this happens. First a client may be "testing" another company to see if their results match up with the company they have been dealing with. Second and most usual is that different interests may be shopping the same location. There is a fast food here that is shopped, usually as a reveal, for a soda company. They are also shopped by what would appear to be the fast food company itself for compliance with product and pricing. They get shopped by a different outfit that is checking that the special promotions are in place and operating (games with pieces, discounts to amusement parks, movie toys and materials etc.). Then with some, many franchise locations are owned by a single company that may shop them again. The location then gets shopped by still another outfit that is comparing menu prices between various fast food places and it may even be shopped as a "competitor shop" by the competing brands.
They do it all the time. Same thing happens with retail. I've shopped the same location on back to back days for different MSPs.
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Thanks, I learned something tonight....I thought once they had a contract with an ms, they are committed to that one company, live and learn...
The issue here is who the CLIENT is. When you shop a retailer or a fast food the client may not be that establishment. The CLIENT is likely to have a contract with a particular company for a particular area of the country, so it is not unusual for folks on the East Coast to be doing a shop with a different MSP than is doing them on the West Coast. It would appear that a lot of those contracts are for a calendar year since there is such a fruit basket turnover each January of who is now shopping for whom. It was amusing this year to have the identical shop being performed by two different MSPs at the same locations with the same purchase requirements and the same observations to be made at two different fees but with the same reimbursement. Evidently the old MSP's contract had not yet run out while the new MSP's contract started in January. That was a rare bird, though.
Mea culpa. The brain cells are disintegrating quickly 
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Brain cells...what's that!!
That donut company is a current example. There are 2 MSP's shopping the SAME AREA, but different stores. The requirements, payments AND reimbursement are identical. How to explain that? One MSP is about to drop the client?
Yes, different companies can shop the same locations. It is up to the companies that own the businesses.
As stated in a few different ways, not all mystery shops are contracted by the owner of the business/entity being shopped.
A few that I know of are shopped in these various ways:
Cell Phone Shops: various cell phone manufacturers, the cellular service provider, competing cellular service providers
Automotive Shops: consumer testing/reporting agencies, the dealership itself, the automobile manufacturer, competing automobile manufacturers
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2012 04:43AM by SteveLA.
A few that I know of are shopped in these various ways:
Cell Phone Shops: various cell phone manufacturers, the cellular service provider, competing cellular service providers
Automotive Shops: consumer testing/reporting agencies, the dealership itself, the automobile manufacturer, competing automobile manufacturers
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2012 04:43AM by SteveLA.
Corporate, regional management, local management, and competitors can all hire shoppers. Any one of those groups can also hire more than one MSC to evaluate different areas/standards.
Also you have franchise-owned stores and independent-operated stores - they could easily hire different MSCs to shop. That is why you will see 2 different companies in same area with different stores.
I worked for a company years ago that had MS and we they used three different company. They believed that got different shoppers and thus more information overall.
I have shopped the same retail store for 4 different companies so far!
There are often licensees or subcontractors working within an establishment., I have shopped the same Costco location for various different companies: Cell Phone, Consumer Electronics Brand, High End Skin Cream, and the sample people. Our zoo has three different MSC's, one for the zoo operations, one for the food vendor, and one for the gift shop vendor.
I do a restaurant for two different MSC's, one is a bar audit, while the other straight eating. Many clients use different
MSC's, can't tell you why. I also shop three different MSC's for the same upscale retail, pay is different for all, reports similiar.
MSC's, can't tell you why. I also shop three different MSC's for the same upscale retail, pay is different for all, reports similiar.
Live consciously....
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