HS Brands International performs mystery shops all over the world and is always looking for new mystery shoppers, secret shoppers or field contractors in different areas of the country and around the globe. You must be able to pay incredible attention to detail, have a fantastic memory and possess the ability to convey your experience thoroughly and accurately when filling out reports and questionnaires about your shopping experience. Mystery shopping is factual reporting.
We retain a database of over 500,000 field contractors who perform mystery and integrity shops. We insist that our clients receive the highest quality service and information available. This is one of the reasons that HS Brands International is a leading organization within the mystery shopping industry and is a member of the Mystery Shopping Provider’s Association.
Our screening process is designed to protect the confidentiality of our company, clients and mystery shoppers. HS Brands International requires all field contractors and auditors to sign confidentiality and non-compete agreements in addition to other prerequisites.
What You Need To Know
When You Will Not Be Compensated
Please read through all the information below if you plan to sign up to be shopper in our Sherlock system. This constitutes VERSION 2.0 of the Shopper Agreement. You are required to be thoroughly familiar with all information contained herein before entering into your agreement with Service Sleuth to become a mystery shopper. Our best contractors retain and use the information we provide.
Responsibility
After you accept an assignment, it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the requirements of the shop. Your scheduler will give you any special requirements for that particular job (e.g. “only on Tuesday” or “no clearance items”). You should also download and read the profile or shop instructions attached to the shop. You will enter the Sherlock site, go to your job log, find the new assignment, click on “New” and download the shop instructions. Read the questionnaire thoroughly; many specific questions (dress codes, waiting times, dressing room requirements) are included on the form.
If you still have questions, contact us before you perform the shop. Make certain you know these details several days before performing the shop. It is inadvisable to call an hour before a shop, or on weekends or evenings, as there is little chance that we can respond back to you in time for the shop to be completed on time.
Unless otherwise instructed, it is imperative that you remain anonymous and perform the shop in complete confidentiality. After the shop is finished, enter your report as quickly as possible into our Sherlock site. It is important to keep your notes and make backup copies of your narratives and receipts. We will be available for telephone consultation if you have any questions about how to proceed. If we contact you with a question about a report, it is imperative that you get back to us quickly so the report can be completed and sent to the client. If we cannot use a report due to tardiness, poor quality or a lack of essential information, it will not be accepted and you may not be paid. Ultimately, to complete a successful shop, you must be responsible and must provide us with the highest quality final product. Your report will be rated, and the average of your ratings will be your CPR (Contractor Performance Rating.)
Your Agreement
The agreement process for our contractors is threefold:
You are independent contractors. Training and other multi-purpose material may state the word “employee,” but at no time should any contractor be under the impression that he or she is an employee of Service Sleuth. We may refer to you as mystery shoppers or secret shoppers, but you are independent contractors just the same. Although our contractors have specific guidelines to follow, they ultimately work for themselves and must comply with all state and federal tax laws regarding fees. When a contractor’s fees exceed $600 in a given calendar year, we are required to report to the IRS the total paid to the contractor as income. When that occurs, we will request the contractor’s Social Security number and will provide the contractor with a 1099 Tax Form.
Second, our screening process is in place to protect the confidentiality of our company, clients and contractors. We go above and beyond the industry standard by using a thorough application process, and we reserve the right to perform a complete background check (including criminal and/or credit history) on any contractor. We require all contractors to agree to our terms on confidentiality, non-competitiveness and other prerequisites before we will schedule them any assignments.
Finally, as an independent contractor, it is your responsibility to know the relevant laws of your state and/or town or city regarding their definitions of mystery shopping and private investigation.
Confidentiality
All of the information contained herein about HS Brands/Service Sleuth/The Mershimer Group is strictly confidential and proprietary. It is not appropriate or permissible to discuss with others any details about your services to our clients or us. Any information (written or oral) supplied to you is exclusive and should not be discussed with anyone. We have spent a considerable amount of time and research perfecting our services. Our competitors may not put the same value on screening and training as we do. For this reason, we must state that if your current or future intent is to use this material and auditing experience for your own behalf, or anothers, in competing against us, you will be in violation of state and local laws governing trade secrets. We consider this to be very serious and will take legal steps to stop you and to recover our losses. Any dispute you may have with our firm must be handled via our confidentiality policy. If we find that you have broken this agreement we reserve the right to take this incident to a court of law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and to take no action on your dispute until these confidentiality issues are resolved.
Client Contact
Unless our shop instructions direct you to contact the client, this must NEVER occur. It is never appropriate that you contact the client directly. If we find that you have done this, we will permanently remove you from our database. Even in the case of a payment dispute, you may not contact the client. If you do, we will automatically cancel payments to you and resolve the matter via a neutral mediator in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If you, the contractor, is found to be at fault we will require you to reimburse all of applicable legal expenses.
Compensation
If you are a contractor and looking for information about payment, please click here.
The fees compensated to our contractors depend in part upon what our clients pay us, on the complexity of the survey, and on the project itself. However, we caution new contractors that to plan mystery shopping as a full-time career is extremely difficult.
Compensation depends on the type of audit. It may be an individual audit or one that is part of several performed on the same trip. It may be a special audit, with little or no advance notice, or one with weeks of notice. In most instances, our shoppers will receive a total of $10 to $20 for shops, although special shops may pay more, or pay nothing except expenses. All expenses for pre-authorized items that cannot be used by the contractor or items that are not returnable (such as meals and admission fees) will be reimbursed to the contractor. There are strict limits to reimbursement of approved expenses. Once a contractor is assigned an “audit,” they must not expect to receive any money exceeding the expense caps given. Expenses beyond this limit will not be reimbursed. It is up the contractor to be certain of these approved expense amounts.
In most cases, our clients do not require two contractors but will reimburse the expenses of two. That would be the case with most restaurant shops or shops that include admission fees. It is permissible in such circumstances to bring another person with you. It is advisable, however, that your companion does not know the purpose of the visit. If, by chance, your companion finds out the purpose of the visit, they must also be aware of the confidentiality agreement you signed, since it is your responsibility. Details of the audit, client, or Service Sleuth should not be discussed with the guest. Should our client ever hear from a third party that a shopper or guest was talking about the confidential nature of what they do, we cannot use that shopper again. Please respect the Confidentiality Agreement.
The contractor retains the right to refuse any assignment for any reason. If you have not been told the rate for an assignment, please ask before accepting it. If you do not feel our rate is fair, please let us know. We will evaluate whether your service to us requires a higher fee according to the industry norm. As an independent contractor, you have the right to name your own fees. As your client, we have the prerogative to use someone else asking for a lower rate. Extra money may be earned by referring us to prospective businesses that ultimately turn into clients.
When You Will Not Be Compensated
Your work has a unique “shelf life.” The information you provide must be quickly turned around to the client for optimal usefulness. Therefore, a shopper has 24 hours to get a complete report entered into our Sherlock site. If we are made aware of an emergency in advance, assistance may be available. Otherwise, any report that is not entered into the Sherlock site within 24 hours will not be accepted and the work will be rescheduled. Fees and expenses cannot be paid for these late reports. We only pay for on-time, acceptable, quality work. If the results of an assignment do not meet the expectations of our clients or Service Sleuth, we cannot compensate you for the expenses or fees associated with the audit. This rarely happens; however, when it does occur, it is mainly due to the poor quality of a report. For example, a failure to follow instructions, a lack of critical information, failure to perform the shop at the correct time, or a delay in sending the required reports or documents all nullify the usefulness of the audit.
Disputes
Should you have a dispute it must be dealt with confidentially and directly with our firm as stated above and below in these instructions.
Damage
Periodically, contractors are asked to put themselves or their property in situations from which a dispute may result, for example: an auto repair that may have not been done correctly, body damage to one’s car in a parking lot, a bad haircut, food poisoning, etc. These random, unforeseeable situations are very rare, but even when they occur in connection with an audit, are not our responsibility. Your recourse is to contact the establishment (only after you receive permission from us) to resolve the issue just as you would with any other consumer complaint. We will attempt to assist you as well. Ultimately, as an independent contractor, the risk you undertake is your own. You should contact your insurance company with any questions.
Following Through
Reports must be done immediately after an audit. Names and descriptions are essential, as well as attention to detail regarding both positive and negative findings. If you are not certain about the details required to complete a report, please contact us immediately. All of our contractors must complete assigned shops as soon as possible. Once a shop is assigned, we expect it to be completed within a the time frame assigned to you by the scheduler. The exception to this rule is if you have notified us of a personal limitation and we agree to the new due date. If you are not certain you can complete an assignment, please do not accept it. Contractors who cancel assignments after they have been accepted will no longer be offered choice assignments for a probationary period or may not be used at all for future shops.
Identity
On occasion, something may occur to you in the course of a shop that may cause a staff member to remember or identify you as a contractor when your report is read by the client. Receipt numbers, video systems, unusual occurrences, and simple recognition may all play a part in this identification. When a serious situation occurs that may put your identity at risk, you may write this part of the report in the “third person”, i.e., write the report as if you had observed yourself, by saying “The customer in front of me…”, etc… Should you choose this method, mention it as a special note in your report to the editor, either in the comments field or in another appropriate place.
How You Are Compensated
Service Sleuth compensates all shoppers through PayPal. If you do not accept payments via PayPal, you are not eligible to shop for Service Sleuth. Shoppers must set up their own PayPal account at www.Paypal.com and must be 18 years of age or older. Payments are submitted to PayPal approximately 60 days after the last day of the month in which the shop was completed. Please note that it then takes PayPal up to 5 business days to process this transaction and clear the money for disbursement. If you do not receive payment by this time, please notify us after confirming that both your professional email address and PayPal accounts were correct and active. You are responsible for updating your email address in our Sherlock system and in your PayPal account (email addresses must be EXACTLY the same) to ensure prompt payment. Your Shop Log will provide a description of your payment, so there is no need to call us unless your log does not match what you were emailed when you accepted the shop and were scheduled.
Drinking Alcohol
If an audit involves the drinking of alcohol, you may refuse it. If you take a job that requires the drinking of alcohol, you need to have a designated driver with you and/or minimize your intake so that you can be sure of driving legally and safely. As a contractor under contract, it is your responsibility to ensure that you do not drive while impaired. If you find yourself in an intoxicated state where you can not safely and legally drive and have no one to assist you, we will pay for a taxi or for lodging but must remove you from our database as a result.
Insurance
As an independent contractor, you are responsible for having your own insurance for whatever type of activity you might be involved with while performing shops. Contact us for more information on this item if you require it.
Honesty and Procedural Audits
At times we are asked by our clients to perform “Honesty” or “Integrity” audits. These involve presenting a situation to an employee where he or she will have the choice of being honest or not. You may have to directly say, “Here is $10 for this item; I do not need a receipt” and leave. Our contractors are expected to perform them when necessary. We realize it may make you uncomfortable, but integrity shops are important to a client attempting to discover dishonesty within his or her business. Honesty shops are legal and the employee should always get the benefit of the doubt. Do not accept this type of assignment if you are not comfortable with meeting the requirements.
Scheduling
Your shops as a contractor will be scheduled in one of two ways. Once you are signed up in Sherlock, you will receive postings from the schedulers about mystery shopping opportunities in your state. Respond as quickly as possible. In some instances, the scheduler will assign the shop within a matter of hours, and at other times, they may wait as long as 24 hours to assign the shops. Occasionally, one of the Service Sleuth schedulers may email you or telephone you with an offer.
Most assignments are scheduled days (5-6 days is normal) in advance, giving you plenty of time to arrange your schedule. However, in some cases, we are running with a short deadline and we are unable to give that amount of notice. Some may require day, night, weekend and even late night auditing.
If you are unable to perform the shop for any reason, you must contact the scheduler before the due date. Failure to contact the scheduler about a shop that cannot be completed by the due date may result in a termination of our relationship. Schedulers in your shopper information note cancellations and postponements.
We attempt to incorporate as many new contractors as possible at the very beginning of each month. New contractors are notorious for not completing shops; however, it’s important that we always enlarge our database and give new contractors opportunity. It’s imperative that you complete your shop on time and that the report contains all the necessary information. You will not get another chance if you fail to complete that first shop on time. Later in the month, the contractors are assigned on a first-come/first-response basis and contractors with the highest CPR’s (Contractor Performance Rating) often have first choice. In order to be in this group, your work must be consistently on time and of high quality. If you do not receive postings regularly, it probably just means we do not have any shops in your state/area. If you frequently respond to postings but do not receive jobs, please be patient. It probably means you are in an area where there are many contractors.
A Fun Job
Mystery Shopping is exciting and interesting. Most of our contractors love what they do. In many cases they obtain free or discounted products and services they often would have purchased anyway, and may get compensated on top of that. If you think you are interested in being a mystery shopper/contractor for Service Sleuth, please fill out the Shopper Application. Part of the application is a questionnaire. This questionnaire not only provides us with pertinent personal information, but it also helps us evaluate your skills as a potential contractor. This questionnaire will require you to provide a sample of your writing.
<back to top>
Apply to become a shopper/contractor here. Click on the country you will be completing the shops in and then click “New Contractor Signup.”
