This charter MSPA member company was founded in 1984 and has addresses in both Loveland OH and Rochester IL. It provides clients “customer experience mapping and customer satisfaction research.”
Types of Assignments: In addition to mystery shopping it also offers exit interviews, compliance audits and other related services. Various industries are served in the United States and Canada.
The website uses the Shopmetrics platform and can be accessed here: http://www.qams.com.
What Others Have to Say: There are few comments on the forum and much of it goes back several years. Among those comments there is much adoration for easy shops, clear instructions, and quick payments. Shoppers report receiving checks in a range from mere days to three weeks after completing the shop.
Owner Marie Furrie is cited several times as being excellent to work with. She says she values shoppers and there are reports on the forum that bear this out. One shopper states an assignment them to a closed location. Photos of the building were submitted in lieu of a report. The response was not only quick. It also offered an apology and a payment of $2 higher than the original fee for submitting the photos alone.
Another shopper reports being able to reschedule a shop that was at a temporarily closed location. An increased fee was given this shopper. In past years they used Kern to schedule shops. Today they have a website and send their own emails announcing shops. In about 2012 they changed to Summit Scheduling to assist with scheduling.
Their Shopmetrics website is barebones in that it does not have any additional information such as payment schedule, FAQ, or shopper hints that are often present on other Shopmetrics websites. It has only the shopper tutorial from Shopmetrics that helps shoppers orientate themselves to the platform. On the forum shopper feedback has slowed in the last three years. However, the favorable comments continue without any negatives.
The BBB has some interesting listings under the name Quality Assessments Mystery Shoppers. There are three unfavorable listings with this name at different addresses than provided by QAMS. These companies are all listed as mystery shopping companies. Two of the three listings cite the real QAMS website. Each complaint cites the all too familiar scam that uses the names of legitimate mystery shopping companies. Upon a careful reading I am reasonably confident these listings are not associated with QAMS, but are the result of victims of the scam mixing up the named MSP with the perpetrators of the scam. Unfortunately, these listings remain on the BBB website. There is no BBB listing for QAMS with the correct address(es).
Personal Experience: I signed up in August of 2013 and regularly receive emails for shops in my area. Most of the shops are on the outer edge of my range and have a fee that is a bit smaller than I like. I have not seen bonuses offered. Thus, I have not yet performed a shop for QAMS. It is possible I would one shop as a filler to a route in the not to distant future.
In conclusion, this is a smaller company that is very well-liked for easy shops and very quick payment. It has a long history and charter membership in the MSPA. Although shopper feedback has slowed in recent years, there is every indication the company is operating in the same manner than earned it a high level of acclaim in the past.