Our president, Elaine Buxton, attended the June 28-30 SHOPPERFEST conference hosted in Pittsburgh by the Mystery Shopping Professionals Association (MSPA) Americas.  During this event, mystery shoppers nationwide convened to network (including a fun game night!), learn mystery shopping tips, and gain information on topics including video shops, best practices and report writing.  Elaine was excited to meet many of the shopper/ evaluators in attendance. Some were new to the industry and others had years of experience. Mystery shoppers took certification courses while at the conference, including Retail I, Retail II, Property Management 1, Professional Report Writing, Video Shopping I and Video Shopping ii.

The Saturday events included sessions with MSPA companies and mystery shoppers.  Elaine was one of five panel members for the session, “Be this shopper, not that shopper.” This session offered insight into practices that are not effective for mystery shops and should be avoided, as well as traits and practices that are most helpful in doing well as a mystery shopper.  Elaine commented, “The MSPA ShopperFest Conference was fantastic!  I am so glad I went. The event was professional, well run and gave me an opportunity to connect with evaluators who were very experienced. We were proud to be a Gold sponsor of this important industry event.”