Will a company still contact me if I ignore their emails?

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Dear WAHFAQ,

I have signed up with a lot of the mystery shopping companies in your book, and I’m getting a lot of job offers but I simply don’t have time to answer all of the emails.  I’m concerned that they will stop sending me offers if I ignore them, but it’s a little overwhelming.  What happens if I can’t shop for awhile?  What do I do?

Don’t worry about it.  Seriously. Mystery Shopping companies play the numbers game when they send out emails and they don’t expect you to respond unless you’re interested in the job.  Actually, they prefer that you don’t respond unless you want the job! Many of the emails sent to shoppers are  automatically generated based on the assignments available on the company’s job board.  It’s just an automatic notification to let you know a job is available…you don’t have to respond unless you want it!

Think of it from the schedulers point of view: If they’re sending out a job offer to 50 people and 48 respond back saying, “Thanks for thinking of me, but I can’t do it this time.” It gets really frustrating.  Not only does it clog up their email, but it dashes their hopes each time they open an email thinking someone can do an assignment, but in reality, can’t. You may think you’re being polite, but in reality, it’s a huge nuisance for the scheduler.

From time to time, a company may contact their shoppers to clean up their database. So, they may ask at some point if you still want to receive emails from them. In that case, you should follow the instructions to make sure you’re still on the list. Generally, though, you will only be removed from a mystery shopping company’s database if you request it, or if you did such a horrible job they don’t want to work with you anymore. (We’ll assume that will never happen!) If you do take time off, just delete all the emails you got while you were away, and move forward with fresh shops!

Now if you get a job offer that you want, make sure that you reply in the exact manner that is requested. Many times, this is a weeding out process to see if you can follow directions. The scheduler may say, “If you want this assignment, please reply with the name of the assignment in the subject line, your name, contact information, dates you will do the assignment, and the locations you want in the body of the message.” In that case, if you just hit reply and say, “YES! SIGN ME UP!” you may not get the assignment because you didn’t follow directions!

So, again, don’t worry about not replying if you don’t want an assignment – and if you do want it, make sure you follow the specific directions provided. Good luck!