I have found that the best time of the month to get shops varies by company. It really is the same type of common sense rule you would use for, say, grocery store sales. You may know from experience that your favorite grocery store has a double coupon sale once a month. So, you save up your coupons until that time and then stock up on all the things you would normally need. The same exact theory goes for getting good shops with companies you know. First, you need to learn when the good shops are likely to come available. The best way to do that is to ask. Get to know your scheduler. Make chit chat. Do the assignments they give you in a timely manner and do them right. Then, call them up. Leave them a message or talk to them then. Just tell them you really enjoy the shops you've been doing with them and would like the opportunity to do more, or help them out in any way you can. Be truthful. If they offer a restaurant type shop and a sports bar type shop and you only like doing the restaurant one, tell them. Tell them why too. If the pay is too low for the sports bar one, maybe they can up it a bit to keep you going there in return for quality work. If it's the fact that you can't take your kids with you and it isn't worth it to get a sitter for a bar shop, they should be able to understand that and work with you. Ask when the best time is to contact them about future assignments. Also ask what the best method of contacting them would be to get noticed for the assignments. If they tell you to e-mail and you call four or five times and leave messages, they may not use you just because you drive them batty.

Many of the schedulers I have worked with, whether outside schedulers or in-house ones, have been great about answering my questions as best they can once they've seen the work I can do. I, in return, try not to bother them too much during their busy times of the month. (Which I've asked them about and noted.)

As a side track, some of you may wonder what an outside booking agent is compared to an in-house scheduler. An outside agent or scheduler is an independent contractor, just like you are as a shopper, who schedules for one or more shopping companies from their home. An in-house scheduler is an employee of the particular shopping company they work for, and usually work from that company's office.

In my experience, the crucial times for getting good assignments has been the first and third week of the month. The third week of the month they, (schedulers) are booking for the following month. The first week of the month, they are rebooking shops that did not get done or were not done correctly, or whatever.

Now, about getting good pay for emergency shops. To me, and this is pure opinion, an emergency shop is seven days or less I have to do a shop for a company. I mean if they call up and ask if I can do a gas station shop two months from now during such and such a week, that's not a problem. If they call up and ask me if I can do an assignment for them within the next seven days, it's an emergency. I will usually base my reply on my schedule. If I have nothing lined up work related or home related that takes precedence, I will generally do the assignment without too much fuss. However, if doing the assignment requires me to change my schedule around and miss other things, I will ask for a bonus and explain to the scheduler that I have something happening that I would be missing to do the assignment. I do not mind doing that, but I'd like a bit more for going out of my way to accommodate them. Sometimes the scheduler can be flexible and offer a bit of a pay increase and sometimes they can not. It's totally up to you whether you take the shop or not. Be aware that if you ask for a 'lot' more to do an assignment, your scheduler will probably find someone else in your area to do it than work with you on pay. Many schedulers do not have the authority to up the pay for a shop without talking to their boss first. So, for them, it's easier to find someone else than be a go between for a single assignment.