Mystery Shopper Magazine

Company Overview: Based in Kennesaw, Georgia, The Training Factor specializes in apartment and call center training. There is minimal company history on their website. The company does both conventional and video mystery shops. The company began mystery shopping in 2009.

The Training Factor uses the Shopmetrics platform to register mystery shoppers. Registration is fairly straightforward at: http://thetrainingfactor.shopmetrics.com/shopperSignup.asp

Personal Experience: I recently completed my first shop for The Training Factor. It was an apartment complex. I felt the fee was commensurate with the required reporting. I have not yet received payment but it hasn’t been long enough to receive payment yet.

What Others Have to Say: Most of the conversations on Mystery Shop Forum regarding The Training Factor are very positive. They pay as advertised and on time. One shopper did note a problem with a series of telephone shops. The shopper was instructed not to lead the target. The shopper then got dinged for and their reports were rejected when the target missed points and the shopper followed the instruction to not lead the target. There’s a perfect “Catch 22”…you follow the instructions and you’re not paid when the target has missed key points and is in need of training. Go figure.

One other point was also brought up, and this hits very close to home for me. A request was sent out by The Training Factor that had several errors. The post on the forum about it got its fair share of ribbing. What impressed me though was when Sherry Moore VP of Client Services, The Training Factor, replied to the thread and gave two contact emails where shoppers could send the corrections. It was so refreshing to see a MSC admit that mistakes will happen and provide a contact to get them corrected.

Overall: I’m an advocate of try anything once, mainly to see if it’s a good fit for me and my style of shopping. I find the apartment shops for The Training Factor to be a very good value for the money. I wouldn’t say the report is “easy-peasy”, but I would say that it is much easier than an EPMS report. There is no redundant “Department of Redundancies” with The Training Factor everything is pretty straightforward in their reports. Another positive that I’ve heard about is there are some MSCs where, even after you’ve justified a negative response, they expect more proof of that negative. With The Training Factor it’s report the negative, provide the justification, and BAM…you’re done.