Company Overview: Data Quest Limited was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts and has a branch office in New York City. The company serves, “more than 1,000 companies, including Fortune 500 corporations, national chains as well as smaller companies on a local and regional level. These companies vary by industry, including but not limited to: Amusement & Entertainment, Banking & Financial, Corporate, Food & Beverage, Hospitality, Insurance, Legal, Parking, Retail, Theatre, and Warehouse & Distribution.”
Their website is http://dataquestonline.com/ and the registration is via Sassie. You will need to click on the “Employment” tab, then “Mystery Shoppers”
The website also states that the company’s “experienced professionals are drawn from diverse backgrounds, including the intelligence community, federal, state and local law enforcement, the FBI and criminal justice training.”
Personal Experience: I checked the states I routinely shop and they have none in my area. I searched some random states and found they had shops in the New England region.
What Others Have to Say: Comments on MysteryShopForum.com for the company are generally positive. One shopper observed, “I have completed a museum and auto service shop for them. The reports require significant narratives, but not quite as much as Coyle. The instructions were clear and schedulers were responsive. They have hotel shops in my area and I am considering one from them in the near future. My experience with Data Quest has been a good one.” Another shopper said, “This is one of the easiest 4-star hotel shop I have ever done, but I have done over 50 hotels with five different msc. I actually had time to walk the beach and work out in the gym. It’s straight forward and the details are no more than writing for a FD shop. I got a “10” without any clarification and I managed to write most of the narrative before check out.”
The company pays by check, usually in about 30 days.
Overall: Based on the discussions on MysteryShopForum.com, I wish Data Quest had shops in my area. They appear to be reputable, and they also appear to demand the same from their evaluators, given the backgrounds of many of their independent contractors.