---

Recently, we received a complaint about a mystery shopping visit, which we would like to share with you.

---

As required by the project guideline, a BARE evaluator obtained the contact information of several employees from the target brand stores.

However, after the visits were completed, the evaluator kept in touch with these employees in private, during which the employees were verbally offended and harassed.

After having verified the evaluator’s inappropriate behavior, we immediately deactivated his Apollo ID and added to our blacklist. At the meantime, we also reported this case to MSPA and CMRA to ensure this evaluator would no longer be used in this industry.

In addition, considering that the misconduct of this evaluator has seriously affected our company brand image and reputation, we have also involved local legal department to investigate legal liability.

We will also provide active support to this client, by providing related information and evidence so as to facilitate their legal process.

---

An incident like this is the least we would like to see, neither do other companies in this industry.

We would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm BARE company philosophy, that is for evaluators to respect BARE’s evaluator code of conduct and BARE’s clients, so as to work together with us to ensure positive and sustainable development of the industry.

01

Evaluator Behavior

Evaluators, as independent individuals entrusted by BARE, perform assigned customer experience research tasks and by return obtain the corresponding reward. They represent BARE during the visits, and thus they should maintain professionalism as market researchers, and always pay attention to their words/deeds, and avoid the following inappropriate behaviors:

Contact BARE clients in private

For whatever purpose, evaluators should not ask for personal contact of the clients (unless specified by the project) during the visits, and should not keep in touch with the clients in private after the visits. Disputes with or harassment to BARE clients, in particular, due to personal emotional reasons, are strictly prohibited by BARE.

Unprofessional appearance

BARE assigns tasks to only qualified evaluators after the screening, and on the basis of mutual trust, we expect our evaluators to be professional. When performing visits, especially luxury or high-end brands, evaluators should mind their appearance and hygienic condition, as well as courtesy and manners.

Behaviors that would affect the result of the visit

For certain projects, BARE does not strictly limit the number of people to accompany the evaluator, but if the visit is performed with the company, the evaluator is obliged to ensure completeness and impartiality of the visit. Behaviors like constantly chatting with the companied person during the visit would by no doubt affect the result of the visit.

02

Below behaviors are not allowed

Provide FAKE data

The evaluator should provide all relevant information based on the real visit experience.

Some examples of fake data:
– Edited POVs (storefront photos, photo of the receipts, etc.);
– Edited audio recordings;
– Biased/negative comments filled in reports due to some personal conflict with the staff

Scenario breach

Every Evaluator has to strictly follow the scenario step by step as stated in the evaluator guidelines.

Some examples of scenario breach:
– You are required to visit the shop alone, but you bring a friend along;
– You have completed the shop by checking a different product than the one indicated in evaluator guideline.

Other Behaviors

– Duplicate accounts;
– Re-assign the agreed task to another person without permission from BARE;
– Fake personal profile in order to meet project requirement;
– Proactively reveal mystery shopper profile during the visit to demand a bribe or for other purposes;
– Refund the product that has already been reimbursed by BARE, in order to gain double pay.

All the above behaviors, once verified, BARE would immediately deactivate evaluators’ accounts and take corresponding measures depending on the severity level.

03

Mutual Respect and Protection

We hold the belief that most of BARE evaluators have passion for this industry and would respect our company philosophy and project requirement. Therefore, while expecting professionalism of the evaluators, we would also respect and protect their personal information and privacy to the utmost extent.We call for our evaluators to inform us the very moment they encounter any inappropriate words or acts from BARE client, so that we could take immediate action after verification, in order to provide them with a trustworthy shopping environment where their privacy and safety could be guaranteed.

BARE hope to work together with our evaluators, on the basis of mutual understanding and respect, toward establishing a higher standard for customer experience industry.