Do you have an eye for detail? Can you follow instructions to the letter? Do you enjoy free experiences and services? There are mystery shops out there for people just like you. The most common type of mystery shop pays you a small fee for collecting information and submitting a survey or report. But some mystery shops focus on the quality of services provided in service-based industries. Read our evaluation of SQM, a mystery shopping service provider, to learn more about how this works.
Service provider company:
SQM (Sensors Quality Management)
www.sqm.ca
SQM, Sensors Quality Management, was established in 1993. This makes it one of the older mystery shopping service providers. The head office is located in Toronto, Ontario. They provide the majority of their services to restaurants and hotel chains, transportation services (air, bus, and rail), and some retail stores.
Their site boasts clients in more than 40 countries worldwide. From the SQM Inspector (the mystery shopper) site, there are shops available right now in Canada, USA, a number of Caribbean countries (Aruba, Jamaica, Cuba, etc.), and some middle eastern countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, etc.).
Mystery Shopping Professionals Association (MSPA):
SQM is not a member of the MSPA.
Better Business Bureau (BBB):
We could not find any listing of SQM with the Better Business Bureau.
Pay range:
Our evaluation of SQM confirms they follow a different model than most other mystery shopping service providers.
Most mystery shops pay you a fee for your survey or report. However, most SQM shops do not pay you a fee. Instead, you are reimbursed (either totally or partially) for the service provided.
For example, if you performed a mystery shop at a restaurant then you would be reimbursed the cost of the meal in exchange for your survey or report. There are usually restrictions stated in the instructions so you must stay within the spend amount they’ve specified.
If you enjoy free or discounted products or services, then you might enjoy these types of shops.
Payment method:
There are three options to receive payment through SQM: Pay Pal, physical cheque or direct deposit. Unfortunately, it’s not always your choice which method is used. It depends on your country of residence, NOT where you performed the shop:
- Canada – you have two options:
- Physical cheque – if you choose this option, you will be charged $1.00 CAD per cheque
- Direct deposit – there is no fee with this option but you must provide your banking details
- USA – your only option is physical cheque but you will be paid in USD
- Others – your only option is Pay Pal
Payment frequency:
SQM, like most mystery shopping service providers, pays at the end of the month for work performed the previous month. Specifically, if you performed shops in July, you submit an invoice through the SQM shopper site by the 10th of August, and then you’ll be paid between the 25th and 30th of August.
We have not performed any shops yet for SQM so we cannot confirm whether payment is timely and accurate.
Report submission:
You need to submit a report for every shopping mission you perform.
SQM requires the mystery shopping report to be entered within 24 hours of completing the shop. This is a pretty standard timeline in the industry.
What’s important to understand with SQM is the level of detail required in that report. The criteria they outline on their site is very detailed and must be followed.
But they also do a very good job of documenting their standards so you can review at any time.
Report standards:
You can view the complete documentation if you register as a shopper but these are the highlights:
- Write in complete sentences using proper punctuation
- All reports must be written in the past tense
- Do not use short forms or abbreviations, everything must be spelled out
- Always refer to employees by their proper name or job titles – for example, “the employee” is unacceptable
- Use appropriate notation for numbers – numbers one through nine must be spelled out, numbers 10 and above should be displayed numerically, if you begin a sentence with a number then it must be spelled out
- Apply appropriate notation for times – times must be written as minutes then seconds with no “and” nor comma between them, the time of day must be written starting with the hour then a colon then the minutes followed by lower case “a.m.” or “p.m.”
- Use appropriate grammar:
- Articles must be used where appropriate – “The Sales Associate approached me…” instead of “Sales Associate approached me…”
- Do not use quotation marks unless you are quoting someone word-for-word
- Use appropriate spelling for your region – Canadian shoppers use Canadian spelling (colour, harbour, centre, etc.) whereas American shoppers use American spelling (color, harbor, center, etc.)
- Employee descriptions must not comment on race, age, or weight. You can only comment on height, hair (colour, length, style), eye colour, glasses, tattoos, piercings, and clothing worn.
- Comments must be objective and not include your emotions, feelings, or opinions.
They expect extremely detailed reports for restaurant/food shops. You need to include comments on taste, texture, temperature, flavour, freshness, presentation, etc. And this is required for ALL dishes and side-dishes.
Our evaluation of SQM confirms they are a mystery shopping service provider with intense documentation requirements.
Website usability:
SQM has a separate portal for their Inspectors (this is what they call their mystery shoppers). The portal is where you search for available shopping missions and apply to complete them.
Shopper portal:
- Your SQM Account – your profile/account information
- Available Assignments – the job board of available shopping missions
- Shopper Information and STEP – SQM follows STEP (Shopper Training Educational Program) with 9 different levels of certification to prepare you for different types of shopping missions. You complete the training on your own schedule but must work through them in order. The higher your STEP level, the more premium shops you can perform.
- Payroll System – outlines your pay and invoice history
- Flash Force – a branch focused on field merchandising and inspections (for example, people who setup special merchandising displays)
The individual sections on the site are accessible and listed easily from a left navigation panel.
Job board:
The one area we found challenging with SQM was searching for mystery shopping missions:
- There is no map view to easily find shops near you
- There are many levels of selection required to drill down to find shops in your area
- You can’t see the shop fee or reimbursement fee from the directory listing. You have to proceed all the way through to viewing the instructions to figure out the fee. This makes it very difficult to compare shops – both for location and compensation.
- Both the instructions and the reports are very, very detailed.
Social media:
SQM is available on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and they also have a YouTube channel.
Shopping mission availability:
SQM has a decent total number of shops available. However, we’ve noticed the shops are usually at the same stores but with multiple locations.
For example, in the Toronto area right now there are around 60 shops available. But there are only about 10 unique shops – the rest are just different locations of that same shop.
This is lower than other providers we’ve reviewed.
Our evaluation of SQM as a mystery shopping service provider is fairly positive. But we definitely suggest you register with multiple providers.
Inspector support:
SQM uses Shopper Resources Coordinators to manage shopping missions. If you have any questions or challenges before or during your shop, you should contact your coordinator by phone or by email. SQM provides a toll-free phone number and an email address just for that purpose.
How does it work?
- You register on their website, www.sqm.ca, by scrolling to the very bottom of the main page and click “Become a Shopper”
- From the new page displayed, at the bottom of the page click “Join SQM”
- Fill out the form with the usual details: name, address, phone number, etc. Include the additional information: gender, birth date, etc. and click “Join Our Team”.
- Once you receive confirmation of acceptance by email then proceed to the shopper site to complete your basic training. Any training you can complete within STEP improves your ability to apply to more shops.
- Now you can search for available shops through “Available Assignments” and apply
- You cannot perform the shop until it’s been assigned to you by the coordinators
- Once assigned, then perform the shop and submit the report online through the shopper portal
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Recommendation:
We have not performed any shopping missions for SQM yet. Our assessment:
- Shopping mission availability – there are a fair number of shops available but they are for a small number of companies. Which is perfect if you enjoy the particular types of shops available.
- Shopper support – the coordinators are available by both email and phone. However, you are not guaranteed support outside of regular business hours. That could be a concern if you’re performing missions in the evenings or on weekends.
- Pay range – most of the shops are not paid but rather you are reimbursed for the products or services you purchase. This can be great if these are products or services you would normally buy anyway. The air transportation and hotel shops look particularly interesting.
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