Grass Roots Group Mystery Shopping

...the Company

Grass Roots PLC is one of the top online UK market research agencies. Having a solid reputation is important, firstly it gives you confidence that you will be paid for your efforts and not taken advantage of and secondly market presence means that they will attract clients meaning a better choice of assignments.

Grass Roots are a market research agency and to become a mystery shopper you need to register ...
...payment I have had from Grass Roots has been £12 with a £25 spend although I turned down an assignment the other day which had a £50 spend but the time was not convenient for me. It can be good if you get to buy something you can make use of and with another company I once got to buy two things which made great Christmas presents for family members.

Be aware that if the report is poorly written or not completed to the agreed criteria ... more

Grassroots is one of two mystery shopper agencies that I have used; the other is Retail Eyes which I have already reviewed a few weeks ago. The two are very similar in operation and while this review is not about comparing the two my own personal preference is for Retail Eyes as the one major difference between the two companies is that with Retail Eyes you go to the website and search for assignments you want to do while with Grassroots you have to wait for an e-mail invite to carry out an assignment and even then you are not guaranteed to get the job.

About the Company

Grass Roots PLC is one of the top online UK market research agencies. Having a solid reputation is important, firstly it gives you confidence that you will be paid for your efforts and not taken advantage of and secondly market presence means that they will attract clients meaning a better choice of assignments.

Grass Roots are a market research agency and to become a mystery shopper you need to register with them through their website. The homepage is easily set out. There are two links on the left hand side of the page, one for existing shoppers to log in and check their account and the other for new shoppers who want to register with them. There are also a number of common questions answered by clicking on the relevant question. These set out some back ground information on the company, what the role of a Mystery Shopper is and then practical questions on how to register, how the assignments are obtained and how reports should be submitted.

Qualities you will need and the Signing up process

Firstly to be a mystery shopper you must be over 18 years of age and even then if you only just make the age limit you may find your access to assignments limited after all some financial products they may want older shoppers to ensure that they are believable so you would not qualify for these assignments. Secondly you must have access to the internet and preferably a printer as well. The site does say you need access to a scanner or fax but I have managed without either of these at home, using the local library if need be.

In addition to this you must possess a few other personality traits and competencies. It is vital that mystery shoppers remain anonymous, I used to work for a bank that used mystery shoppers to visit branches and the staff always tried to spot who it was, often they got it wrong however one branch were able to spot theirs as it was the only English speaking customer they got in a Welsh speaking community. Others were seen making notes in the banking hall or standing checking their script mid interview, such actions obviously make the research useless to the companies and could result in you not getting paid. Other qualities are the need to be reliable, you have to do the assignment within certain deadlines, you need to be observant, accurate and concise and your report needs to be free from spelling or grammar errors which anyone reading this review will know is a challenge for me.

Signing up is easy to do, is free and only takes a few minutes. You will need to provide a fair amount of personal details in order for them to be able to assign you the right assignments; background experience is requested as well as your bank account details in order to get paid. You will also have to submit a written piece so that they can ensure you have the written skills to be able to do the assignments. It is important to take the time to complete this accurately with the correct grammar and spelling otherwise you may not be accepted. Once you have been accepted you will receive a panellist number which you will need to record as it will form part of the signing in process. You should keep this confidential as it along with your date of birth are the only two things required to log into your account. This is one thing that I would like to see changed as it is not as secure as having a password as part of the signing in process in my opinion.

Carrying Out Assignments

You will receive an e-mail inviting you to carry out an assignment. It will detail the type of business to visit, the dates the visit must be completed by or the dates between which it must be carried out and also the amount of remuneration you will receive. Sometimes this will be broken down into two amounts, the money you will actually be paid and the amount you can spend and reclaim from the visit. Before accepting an assignment you must ensure that you can meet all of the criteria and carry it out on the date that you agree. You also need to consider whether it makes economic sense to do the job, remember you have to factor in the cost of getting to the location and also the cost of printing out the assignment, when a brief can run to eight to ten pages it all adds up especially as the payment may only be £10. For this reason I often try to ensure that I can do a couple of assignments on the same day unless the spend on the assignment is generous and I will either get something I need or something I can easily sell on.

Occasionally you may get a call at short notice asking you to do a job if they have been let down by someone else however this is rare.

To accept the assignment there is a free phone number to call and you have to quote a unique identification number, if you are the first to call then you will get the assignment and will receive confirmation at the end of the call and also an e-mail confirmation. A few days before the visit is due you will also get an e-mail with the full brief attached including the template for the online report you will need to complete. Remember assignments are given on a first come first served basis so you need to respond quickly to the original e-mail otherwise someone else may beat you to it.

Normally as part of the assignment feedback you will be asked to confirm the identity of the building either side of the site you are visiting as a way of validating your report and it is also important that you remember the names and job titles of the people who serve you as these will be required in the report as well as a physical description in some cases. The key for me of being a good mystery shopper is to be as natural as possible and also to limit the bits I make up to an absolute minimum. By this I mean while doing the shop, not filling out the report, so if I have to pose as someone buying a birthday present I will ensure my story is about someone I know, if enquiring about a bank account I will use my old employment details, the less you make up the less chance you have of being caught out.

All of the reports I have submitted have been online, there are links on the site to take you through every stage of the process and once the visit is complete you should input your findings straight away, there is a lot of guidance on how to do this and it is important that your responses are professional and honest, if the service was bad say so and justify your answers with clear examples. You can save your work as you progress and I would advise that you do this in case of a system crash. You may also be asked for the names or job roles of people who serve you if they are wearing name badges so make sure you can remember these. Most of the time inputting the report takes no longer than twenty minutes in my experience. Once completed and checked it should be transmitted. You may have to copy and post any receipts from the job although recently inputting the receipt code has been sufficient proof that you completed a purchase.

Getting Paid

Payment is by Bacs into your current account and is usually made once a month so dependant on the time of month you input the report the most you will wait will be 28 days for payment. I have never had a problem with payment on my assignments and they have always paid the correct amount.

Remember you will not get rich being a Mystery Shopper, the biggest assignment payment I have had from Grass Roots has been £12 with a £25 spend although I turned down an assignment the other day which had a £50 spend but the time was not convenient for me. It can be good if you get to buy something you can make use of and with another company I once got to buy two things which made great Christmas presents for family members.

Be aware that if the report is poorly written or not completed to the agreed criteria or if they suspect that you made it up or were discovered then you will have done the work for nothing and will be out of pocket.

Although I would recommend Grass Roots for me there are a couple of issues with them. Firstly for the location I live in there is a limited number of assignments. Being male I do not get invited for all of the assignments as well. Naturally they are not the only company out there doing this so sometimes I will match up jobs with other companies' assignments. I do find however that the offer of assignments are not very regular and given that I can only do them at certain times of the year I do not get a great deal of work from them.

When I have had to contact the office I have found them very helpful however at times it has been hard to get through to someone. Once when I realised that an assignment was a lot further to reach than I first thought they did agree to pay travelling expenses over and above the agreed amount rather than me cancel the job however on another occasion when I could not make a job due to illness I could never get through to anyone to cancel and my e-mails were ignored. Meaning they kept leaving messages asking when would I do the job.

Overall I would definitely recommend them, as I said earlier I prefer Retail Eyes as they allow me to choose the assignments I want rather than waiting for e-mails however Grass Roots is also worth joining and they do pay promptly. No tax is deducted from your earnings and when taking the job you sign a declaration that confirms you will report all earnings to Gordon so that he can take his cut however if you are below the tax earnings threshold this is not an issue.

For more information check out the companies website.

https://www.grgresearch.com/default.htm

Thanks for reading and rating my review.  

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