Overview: Trying to figure out what to do for dinner? Too busy catching up on your mystery shopping reporting to cook? Don’t worry about it. With one phone call you can have your meal delivered to your home, or you can have it ready to pick up.
Pizza assignments can be a fun change from the endless visits to fast food restaurants.
Project Variations: The simplest assignment doesn’t even require a phone call. The shopper picks up a ready-made pizza. That’s it!
Then there is the carryout assignment. Client guidelines will specify what you are to order. You make the call to the location and then go pick up your pizza. Once home, there will be a photo session of the pizza from all different angles.
Last is the delivery assignment. Once again, client guidelines will tell you what to order. You make the call to the location and wait for it to be delivered in the comfort of your home. This will then be followed by picture-taking of your pizza.
Visit & Reporting Requirements: Time on-site for the ready-made pizza assignment is about 3 to 5 minutes, with reporting about 5 to 10 minutes.
The time on-site for the carryout assignment is usually about the same or less than the ready-made pizza assignment. Reporting is about 10 minutes. Picture-taking can take 5 to 10 minutes, depending upon your photography skills.
Of course, there is no time-on site for the delivery assignment. Reporting and picture-taking times are the same as for the carryout assignment.
Strategies: The only sticky point with the ready-made pizza assignment is getting a receipt. The employees of this client are not used to providing receipts to customers, and some will tell you so. Stand your ground and insist.
The big problem with the carryout and delivery assignments is the photo session required. You must be able to take pictures exactly from the angles specified in your instructions, or you just bought yourself a pizza. There is no leeway on this. Numerous shoppers have had their reports rejected due to supposedly inferior photos being submitted.
Die-hard pizza patrons all have their ways of setting up for these photo shoots. Some set the pizza on a chair or stool. Some place it on their open oven door. Some put it on the floor. Others have placed it on their tailgate or a park bench when doing carryouts.
Wherever you place your pizza, make sure that you can get the top entirely within the frame shooting straight down. You also need to ensure you can get a perfectly horizontal shot of the side of the pizza. Practice with a Frisbee.
One last word of advice: keep your furry friends out of your “studio” while you are involved with the picture-taking, or you might lose some of your pizza before you have completed all required shots! Yes, this has happened!
What Others Have to Say: Forum members on www.mysteryshopforum.com have a love/hate thing going about pizza assignments. Many like them because they really enjoy pizza. However, a significant number of shoppers are getting more and more frustrated with the increasing frequency of shop rejections for allegedly poor photos. They have also expressed that they think this is a shady practice on the part of the MSC to avoid paying shoppers.
Estimated Pay: Pay is usually nominal. Sometimes these are reiumbursement only. Others offer a small fee in addition to reiumbursement.
MSCs: Among the mystery shopping companies that offer pizza assignments are Trendsource and National Shopping Service.