SQM Blogs

A few months ago, my family drove out of town to visit some family friends. It isn't a long drive normally, maybe 45 minutes in good traffic. Unfortunately, we were driving through a pretty severe blizzard like situation...

 

Tags: Mystery Shoppers, SQM Inc., Customer Service, Canadian Tire, Wiper Blades

I recently purchased a few items from my favourite online store the Ann Arbor T-Shirt Company . I don't normally buy a lot of things online...

 

Tags: Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, SQM, Ann Arbor TShirt Company, Online Shopping

There is nothing worse than being on a family trip and driving through the mountains in Virginia with a car that isn't working properly. The last time my family went on vacation that's exactly what happened...

 

Tags: Car Trouble, Vacation, Customer Service, SQM, Mystery Shopping

For my birthday I decided that all I wanted was DVD box sets of the television show Grey's Anatomy. Instead of buying them for me, my relatives decided to send money and gift cards...

 

Tags: Walmart, Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, SQM Canada, DVD Box Sets

As warmer weather descends on Toronto I have begun wearing my Danier jacket to work. One of my coworkers noticed my jacket the other day and told me she loved it. This is a little bit ironic since this coworker, let's call her Julie, is always joking about me having terrible style...

 

Tags: SQM Inc., Customer Service, Mystery Shopper, Danier Leather, Leather Jacket

When ever I need a basic clothing item, my first choice store is Old Navy. They have a great selection of durable basics, staples for every season, and can clothe every person in your family...

 

Tags: Mystery Shopping, SQM, Customer Service, Old Navy, Basics

Moving can be one of the most difficult tasks for a family or business. It's stressful, it's tedious and trying to find friends and family members who are willing to spend a day carrying around your heaviest furniture is nearly impossible...

 

Tags: SQM, Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, Moving, Ten Steps

Several weeks before my vacation to Mexico I saw a Picaboo gift certificate available for sale on Groupon. As a passionate scrapbooker, I was interested in testing out this new technology that seems to be getting quite popular.

 

When I returned home from Mexico, I went onto the Picaboo website http://www.picaboo.com and followed their easy to use instructions for downloading the software and uploading my pictures. Being the perfectionist that I am, I knew I wanted to completely customise my book. As an avid scrapper, I was expecting this project to take several weeks. Wow, was I ever wrong! I uploaded the pictures and the website automatically placed all of the pictures across the bottom of the book creating a window for easy access. Truth be told, the slowest part of the process was sorting through all of my pictures on the camera to select the 200 pictures I could use in the book. I tend to take 4 to 5 pictures of the same thing, just in case one picture turns out better than the others.

 

The whole process took me about 4 to 10 hours including me reorganising each page a few times, showing it to friends for their opinions, and calling into their helpline to get tips on how to make the images on my lay flat pages look the best.

 

The site was easy to use, and the customer service people were incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. The book arrived in less time than the website told me it would, and my album looks fantastic! With fantastic quality and great customer service, Picaboo really exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to make my next book!

 

Tags: Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, SQM, Scrapbooking, Picaboo

While on vacation in Mexico we had the opportunity to enjoy life outside of our resort. As a couple who enjoys a good adventure we decided to try the Coba Extreme Tour. The tour consisted of: a trip to the Coba Pyramids complete with guided tour, rappelling into a Cenote (a lake inside of a cave), canoing across a lake, hiking in the forest, zip lining across a river, and the experience of a traditional Mayan ceremony...

 

Tags: Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, SQM, Sunquest, Travel

After looking around on Trip Advisor and several other resort rating sites, I had determined the hotel we were going to was just average. Boy was I wrong! The trip from the airport to our beautiful hotel nestled in the Mayan Riviera was uncomfortable (2 hours on a bus after a 5 hour flight), but the service, staff, and food were anything but...

Tags: Vacation, Trip Advisor, Customer Service, SQM, Mystery Shopping

Sometimes it feels like the world is a big place and we are all just ants on the giant ant hill called life. It is easy to slip into your own little bubble and forget that you are not alone. Every once in a while something remarkable happens and your perspective shifts. In my case, it was something small, but remarkable none the less...

 

Tags: Driving, Kindness, Customer Service, SQM, Mystery Shopping

After writing the “cheese-less poutine” blog, I wasn't expecting any kind of follow up from Pizza Pizza. I wasn't angry and I understand it was an honest mistake...

Tags: Follow Up Story, Pizza Pizza, SQM, Customer Service, Mystery Shopping

As Easter rolls around, the shelves near the checkout of your local stores turn into pale floral colors signifying spring is finally here and so is Easter chocolate. Whether you are spending the morning at church, enjoying time with family, or not even celebrating; everyone falls victim to buying a few Easter goodies. Perhaps you love those adorable Lindt bunnies or you might love the crunch of Cadbury mini eggs...

 

Tags: Mystery Shopper, Customer Service, SQM, Easter, Walmart

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went to Pizza Pizza on our way to school. We had been to that location more than a few times for lunch. We'd always been greeted by friendly employees. They took our order efficiently and never seemed to judge us for ordering too much cheese and the most unhealthy toppings that you can imagine.

Tags: Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, SQM, Poutine, Pizza Pizza

A video about a woman who was scammed while Mystery Shopping is quickly becoming popular, hopefully you have seen this, if not I will explain. This poor woman was duped by a fake mystery shopping company who had asked her to send money through Western Union...

 

Tags: Mystery Shopping, SQM, Customer Service, Mystery Shopping Scam, Western Union

I thought it was important to make mention of a company that exudes excellent customer service and that consistently provides the public with quality products...

Tags: Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, SQM, Trutech, High Quality

I needed a little retail therapy and decided to treat myself to a new top. After checking out a couple different stores I found what I thought was the perfect top. It was turquoise green, a colour I typically I don't wear, but I wanted to try something new...

Tags: Mystery Shopping, Customer Service, SQM Inc., Clothing Store, Sales Associate

I am a bit of a make-up junkie. I don't know when my passion really started. I never wore make-up until I was 17 and even then it was only mascara. In recent years I have begun to spend a lot of money buying good quality products. One of my favourite places to shop for makeup is Sephora...

Tags: Mystery Shopping, SQM Inc., Customer Service, Sephora, Mascara

Much like any holiday where drinking is involved, sometimes St. Patrick's Day gets a little wild. This year, I went with a few close girlfriends to one of my favorite Irish Pubs in the city. We were all decked out in green and may I add, we looked very cute...

Tags: Bouncer, St Patrick's Day, Customer Service, Mystery Shopper, SQM

I love to scrapbook and have been an avid Michael's enthusiast for several years now. They're a tad pricey, but I find the quality of their stickers, tools, and papers to be much better than anywhere else. Just a few weeks ago while in my local Michael's, a Customer Service representative who I had seen around before but never spoke to, approached me...

Tags: Customer Service, Scrapbook, Michael's, Mystery Shopping, SQM