Rolling Up Mystery Shopping: Market Force CEO Karl Maier (Part 3)

Sramana: What is the story behind Market Force?

Karl Maier: There is a serial entrepreneur in the Boulder area whom I have known for years. I had just sold Vector, and he had just left the board of Raindance Communications. We were talking, and I said that I felt I was a bit too young to be painted as a turnaround guy for the rest of my career. I expressed my desired to start something new and that I was looking for a consolidation opportunity where I could pair up a few under-the-radar companies in an off-the-wall space and put them together. I intended to use the new entity to create new technologies to transform the industry.

He immediately told me of an opportunity. He described a highly fragmented industry called mystery shopping, which was totally foreign to me. When we started researching the industry, we found it was indeed very fragmented. We also identified very important data that was bring provided to large retail brands.

Sramana: What is the mystery shopper service?

Karl Maier: I will explain it using an example, in this case McDonald’s. They have 35,000 restaurants around the world. They want to understand what is going on in their stores world-wide, so they hire a mystery shopping company to help them get that perspective.

A mystery shopping company has a lot of independent contractors. We have 3,000 in our network. Our contractors would go into a McDonald’s and complete a survey about their experience. That survey could include service, cleanliness, and quality of the food. Essentially, we are selling information to our clients about what is happening in their stores. This allows them to improve the customer experience in their stores, which should result in improved same store sells and increased referral business.

Sramana: How do you choose the independent contractors who work on your behalf?

Karl Maier: Anybody can come to our website and fill out a fairly comprehensive questionnaire about themselves. We require writing samples and have a pretty thorough screening process. We have programs for 200 different clients, so we will certify our sub-contractors for each particular screening program. We provide that certification training online. Once they are certified, they can then pick up mystery shopping jobs every month, week, or even day via our website.

Sramana: How much money do contractors make in a year doing this job?

Karl Maier: It totally varies. Some people only do two or three jobs, while others may do four or five a day. There is a huge range. We also have a wide range in what we pay. For a fast food visit we may pay $10, but for a sophisticated visit such as client services at Wells Fargo we may pay $100. There are very few people who do this as a true career. Most of our contractors have full-time jobs and do mystery shopping for additional income.

Sramana: Have you seen an increase in the number of independent contractors after the economy went downhill?

Karl Maier: We absolutely did, and we are interested in recruiting more people. We visit 150,000 retail locations every month. We are always interested in getting more people signed up. From time to time, we get great exposure. Every time we get that exposure, we see a huge spike in independent contractors applicants. In this down economy, it is an attractive way to make some extra money.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Rolling Up Mystery Shopping: Market Force CEO Karl Maier
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