Frequently Asked Questions
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
Discover answers to the most common Service Evaluation Concepts queries. Need something more specific? Contact our team today at 516-576-1188
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
FAQs
New Applicants/General Information
Mystery Shopping is the practice of using research participants to anonymously evaluate customer service, operations, employee integrity, merchandising, and product quality.
Research Participants also known as ‘mystery shoppers”are engaged by specialized market research organizations. As a Research Participant, your name is entered into Service Evaluation Concept’s proprietary database; however, a research participant is not certified; therefore, cannot navigate through the Service Evaluation Concepts website and is denied entry to the BA Gallery, a self-serve environment. A research participant will only be used if a Project Liaison chooses to contact them for a particular assignment/evaluation.
In comparison, a Service Evaluation Concepts Brand Agent (BA) is Certified and thus has access to the inner workings of the Service Evaluation Concepts Website via the BA Gallery. Brand Agents are tested and certified to ensure they have a complete understanding of SEC policies, procedures and market research methodologies. A Brand Agent has access to a personal cyber briefcase and portfolio, in a self-serve, web-enabled environment. Only a Brand Agent has the ability to become a Service Evaluation Concepts Certified Brand Agent (CBA), the highest standard in the industry.
You must complete a registration form and an Independent Contractor Agreement. Both of these documents are located on our ‘Become a Brand Agent’ resource page. Once you have properly completed and submitted both documents, you will automatically be added to our database and notification schema.
You must register, submit an Independent Contractor Agreement, read a BA Certification Program and take a BA Certification Exam. The exam will examine your knowledge of Service Evaluation Concept’s policies and procedures, and market research methodologies. Upon successful completion of the exam, you will automatically be registered as a Service Evaluation Concepts Brand Agent and will have the ability to freely navigate through the Brand Agent Gallery. You can then take the necessary steps to become a CBA, the highest standard in the industry. The entire process is fast, easy and rewarding.
Your personal information is very secure. We will never disclose your personal identifiable information to our clients or to any other interested parties, as per the ‘Service Evaluation Concepts Privacy Policy’. Our clients will only be able to identify you by your Brand Agent ID number (BA ID). Clients do not have the ability to contact you without first going through Service Evaluation Concepts and without the presence and participation of a Project Liaison. We have also implemented Secured Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology on our website, which prevents outside sources from intercepting your confidential information.
In order to pay you as an Independent Contractor, we must have your Social Security Number on file. In the event that you make over $600 with Service Evaluation Concepts during the course of a fiscal year, we will send you and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) a 1099 statement of your earnings for income tax purposes. Further information can be found in the Independent Contractor Agreement, which must be agreed to in order to register with Service Evaluation Concepts. Your Social Security Number is used for no other purpose than the aforementioned.
You are paid an Independent Contractor at a specific invoice per assignment/evaluation on or around the 20th of each month for assignments/evaluations completed in the previous month. For example, assignments/evaluations completed in June will be paid in July and assignments/evaluations completed in July will be paid in August. Payment for each assignment/evaluation depends on the specifications involved in completing the assignment/evaluation. Payments may range from $10 to $50 or more per assignment/evaluation. When you take into account the free products and services that are available on many assignments/evaluations, the personal benefits rise substantially. Examples of free products and services include restoration of fees for groceries, meals, retail products, and much more.
Selecting/Availability Of Evaluations
Login to our BA microsite. The BA Gallery is a complete self-serve environment that a Brand Agent is brought to after logging in. You will only have access to this portal if you have taken and passed the Service Evaluation Concepts BA Certification Exam to become a Brand Agent.
A Certified Brand Agent is a research participant who is tested and certified to ensure they have a complete understanding of a specific client engagement. CBA status, the highest standard in mystery shopping, is achieved by reading client work order specifications and taking a certification exam for a particular client. Without CBA status, a BA cannot assign themselves to any Service Evaluation Concepts engagement. Our website is designed specifically for professionally Certified Service Evaluation Concepts BAs.
In order to become a CBA, you must read client engagement guidelines, and then pass a certification exam for that particular client engagement. You must get all answers correct in order to pass the exam. All information on the exams is in the guidelines. If you fail the exam on your first attempt, you will have two more opportunities to re-take the exam. Once passing the exam, you will be CBA for that particular engagement, until the specifications change. As a first time CBA, you are only able to assign yourself one assignment/evaluation. After the initial assignment/evaluation is successfully completed, you will be able to self-assign additional work via our website.
The option to Add Yourself to Notification List is functionality that allows a CBA to be on ‘notification’ for an assignment/evaluation that is already assigned to another Certified Brand Agent. In the event that the CBA who has the assignment/evaluation cannot complete it, the CBAs on the notification list will automatically receive an email that the assignment/evaluation is available and will be offered the opportunity to accept the assignment/evaluation. In case a CBA has to cancel/reject an assignment/evaluation for a particular reason, being on the notification list ensures that there is more than enough coverage for a particular assignment.
Please follow the steps that follow in order to self-assign or be placed on the Notification List for an assignment/evaluation:
Step 1: Go to www.serviceevaluation.com
Step 2: In the upper right hand area of the homepage click the orange ‘LOGIN’, enter your Username and Password.
Step 3: After entering this information, hit the ‘login’ button.
Step 4: Select a state by clicking on the appropriate image on the map or from the pull down menu below the map.
Step 5: The cities and number of assignments/evaluations available within each city will be displayed.
Step 6: To view the assignments/evaluations within a given city or cities you must click on the box listed next to the city. All available assignments/evaluations for that city or cities will appear.
Step 7: Next to the assignment/evaluation ID you will see the text ‘Available’ or ‘Add to Notification List’.
Step 8: Depending on the assignment/evaluation status, you may choose to be assigned or placed on the notification list for the assignment/evaluation.
Step 9: Click on the ‘Add to Notification List’ link. Another window will open. Click on ‘Click Here’ to be placed on the Notification List.
In order to take on any assignments/evaluations you first must be certified for that specific client. As a first time CBA, you can only receive one assignment/evaluation. Until the first assignment/evaluation is successfully completed, no other assignments/evaluations can be taken. After you successfully complete an assignment/evaluation, you can assign more work. The number of assignments/evaluations you can receive depends upon the amount of work available in your area, and your CBA rating. The higher your CBA rating, the more assignments/evaluations you will be able to receive. Generally, you will be allowed to have 8 assignments/evaluations open at a time.
You are paid an Independent Contractor at a specific invoice per assignment/evaluation on or around the 20th of each month for assignments/evaluations completed in the previous month. For example, assignments/evaluations completed in June will be paid in July and assignments/evaluations completed in July will be paid in August. Payment for each assignment/evaluation depends on the specifications involved in completing the assignment/evaluation. Payments may range from $10 to $50 or more per assignment/evaluation. When you take into account the free products and services that are available on many assignments/evaluations, the personal benefits rise substantially. Examples of free products and services include restoration of fees for groceries, meals, retail products, and much more.
Completing/Submitting Evaluations
Assignment/Evaluations can be completed at your convenience, as long as they are completed within the ‘When to Shop’ times and/or dates listed on your Assignment/Evaluation Sheet and on the Assignment/Evaluation Details page of our website.
All Service Evaluation Concepts assignments/evaluations are submitted online, unless otherwise noted in the client engagement guidelines. You must submit the evaluation within 24 hours of the assignment/evaluation’s completion. The 24 hour deadline to submit the completed assignment/evaluation does not apply if you complete the assignment/evaluation on the due date, as the assignment/evaluation must be submitted by 12:00 PM, EST of the following morning. If the assignment/evaluation is not submitted by this time or if you have not contacted Service Evaluation Concepts regarding its completion, it will automatically go into rejection status. If you have a problem with submission, but have completed the assignment/evaluation, please be sure to contact SEC during business hours to notify us of the assignments/evaluations completion.
In order to become a CBA, you must read client engagement guidelines, and then pass a certification exam for that particular client engagement. You must get all answers correct in order to pass the exam. All information on the exams is in the guidelines. If you fail the exam on your first attempt, you will have two more opportunities to re-take the exam. Once passing the exam, you will be CBA for that particular engagement, until the specifications change. As a first time CBA, you are only able to assign yourself one assignment/evaluation. After the initial assignment/evaluation is successfully completed, you will be able to self-assign additional work via our website.
After submitting your assignment/evaluation, it will be removed from your Assignment/Evaluations in Progress immediately and placed in Assignments/Evaluations Submitted. If it was completed accurately, it will appear in your Assignments/Evaluations Completed within 72 business hours. It takes this amount of time to go into Complete status because SEC needs to verify/review your evaluation. If it does not appear in your Assignments/Evaluations Completed after 72 business hours of submission, you need to email your SEC contact or feedback@serviceevaluation.com to ensure there are no issues with your report.
All documentation needed to complete this assignment/evaluation successfully can be obtained from your Cyber Briefcase and Assignment/Evaluation Sheet, which are located in the BA Gallery.
Problems Using the Website
If you encounter an error when submitting your evaluation, please email feedback@serviceevaluation.com, with your BA ID, the Assignment/Evaluation ID, and the EXACT error message you received. We receive thousands of evaluations each month and the site does work, but we want your feedback on any error message you may encounter.
Although Service Evaluation Concepts engages in fieldwork that specifically requires the use of a Smart Device through its Smart Agent application, unfortunately, only those specific assignments/evaluations are designed to work on an Android or Apple platform. Although you may be able to log in and access some of our site features while using a Smart device, you may not be able to access all of the interactive features on our site or Submit your reports successfully. In these cases, you may need to access our site using a desktop device.
You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. This is a program used by many web sites for viewing and printing information, and is free of charge.
Additional
If you have additional questions or concerns, please email feedback@serviceevaluation.com or call Service Evaluation Concepts at 516-714-0323 and a Representative will be happy to assist you. Our hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, EST.
Become A Brand Agent
Brand Agents typically known in the research industry as Mystery Shoppers, enhance a business’ ability to prevent negative impacts resulting from customer experience.