OMG! Their application is tortuous! I'm only at 30%. All the writing they want you to do. Has anyone recently completed their application? Is it worth doing? I do mystery shopping for fun, not to make a living. I have a full time career.

Funny you should ask! I just did it tonight. They said to allow 25-30 minutes. It took me at least three times that long. I hope it leads to some good assignments.

I did it about 6 weeks ago, It's definitely longer than other companies, but I don't think it should take more than 30 minutes. Like a lot of the suggestions, you should have a couple paragraphs saved about 1) why you want to be a MS, what makes you a good MS etc. 2) a good retail or dining experience. I only have like 4-5 sentences in each of those topics. That way when you come across a company that asks for writing samples you can just cut and paste it.

Coyle does have good bar/lounge, restaurant, nice hotel shops and also some phone shops that pay $20 to inquire about private dining etc. All the restaurants in my area are in upscale hotels. I've done 3 shops with them now, and have another fancy dinner scheduled for August and I just did the phone shop today. Also their reimbursements are fairly high so you don't have to order the cheapest item on the menu.

Good luck!

Hello,

If you have not yet done so, please make sure you complete the registration at:

[coyle.shopmetrics.com] (click on the word, "Evaluators" in the middle of the page).

All of our Clients are migrating over to this platform.

Please note - just to add to what Aayaey is saying, while the reimbursement is set by the client, the Clients will most likely have specific ordering guidelines that evaluators do need to follow. Each Client is different, of course, so it will vary. However, sticking to mid-priced items on any menu is always a good idea, regardless of the Client or the MSC. It's best, I think, to always err on the side of caution and keep under the max reimbursement when at all possible.

We still have a lot of great shops for July - so submit your shopmetrics registration and check out what is on the boards.

Thanks,

Kimberly

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I think those of you apply these days are getting off easy. A decade ago I probably spent two days working on a multi-page essay about my opinion of service to get my foot in the door with Coyle, then waited 8 months to hear back from them.

All you have to do these days is spend a few hours on the app and you have Kimberly working with you on scheduling as well. It's mach better than it used to be from that side of things....

@aayaey wrote:

... you should have a couple paragraphs saved about 1) why you want to be a MS, what makes you a good MS etc. 2) a good retail or dining experience. I only have like 4-5 sentences in each of those topics. That way when you come across a company that asks for writing samples you can just cut and paste it.

My saved samples did not help much on the Coyle app. In addition to the standard, "What makes you a good shopper" question, they asked 3 or 4 unique and very specific questions that each required a mini-essay.

Oh yes now I remember, the write a blurb if your friend is coming to your home town question... I like to read and (sometiems write) reviews on Amazon, Nordstrom, Tripadvisor, and Yelp etc. so I guess that didn't seem too bad.
Yes, Coyle is definitely longer than the typical Sassie companies but I guess we should count our lucky stars it wasn't the experience that Steve went through.

I've gotten into this application several times but something seems to happen that knocks me off and I can't get back to where I left off. Start over, start over. Not worth it.

@MBShops wrote:

I've gotten into this application several times but something seems to happen that knocks me off and I can't get back to where I left off. Start over, start over. Not worth it.

The same thing happens to me, but I haven't tried using my desktop, yet.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2015 03:27AM by Mom knows.

I filled out the application and got a "we'll let you know when we need you" confirmation, and have never heard back..

I've been shopping for Coyle for about six months now. Took a bit of time to get accepted, but I've done several upscale dining shops. I've got the hang of what is needed and scored 19 and 20 out of 20 on my last two. Takes a little time to get into the groove, but they have very nice dining shops and that's what I'm looking for. My hubby and I eat out often and would go to higher end places several times a month. Now I get paid and get a nice reimbursement as well. I also like that there's a 48 hour turnaround time on all shops, except Saturday night. I like to write and then review and don't feel pressure that I will submit and miss something. Paid on time every month. Highly recommend if you can deal with the longer narratives.

I have done several shops for Coyle for the last 9 months. Their reports are very detailed & takes me most of 2 days to complete. I take breaks as hard for me to do all at once. I just did one last week. It did take me less time than usual- did in one day. A suggestion: Print out the sample report in its entiety. Follow the format for the report. This is what Coyle wants. They do not want creative writing or your own style. If do not follow it, will send back to you to reformat it. It will save you a lot of time & effort.

I just did my first Coyle, and frankly it is likely to be my last, Somehow I doubt they will contact me or I them, I just did the mystery shop form hell with them. Now I love my scheduler, and unfortunately I didn't start the form the same night and probably should have so it wouldn't go into he weekend, but to my defense, we didn't get out of the restaurant until after 9 and had an hour long drive home and I had another 2 shop reports to write for the day. But when I tried to do it the next evening, the s*** hit the fan. My questionnaire had 128 questions and 128 separate narratives. Fine, I know in advance Coyle is tough which is why you get the fancy restaurants and the pay, mine was $30.00. I don't mind doing detail. But I hate tech issues and these were the worst I have ever seen, something was wrong with the save and submit feature on their shopmetrics and every time I entered the form and answered the questions with a narrative, the damned thing would refuse to save or submit them and I would have to do the same 128 questions + again and again. I spent over 15 hours on this project from the 2 hour drive, the 2 hour meal and the 11 hours of input. I know people will think I am crazy when I say this, I feel a little crazy having done it...but up until July 2015, the only income I could count on was rent from my department store, 983 miles to the south. I own an old JC Penny's building with a mortgage on it, and an empty house with a mortgage on it which I a trying to sell, and I rent another house in expensive northern Colorado. My husband is retired, my kid who is now living with me is in college. My renters of 6 years just up and left with 3 weeks notice. And sadly I was renting to the federal government who with their youth program managed to do some significant damage to my building which I am now having a hard time re-renting. So I can't afford to lose a shop that is worth $110.00 to me now. But after 15 hours, one revision, they requested a second revision with things like when the bartender brought my drink to the second and what temperature the appetizer was ....I have already described it as a wondrous crusty artisan loaf stuffed with a warm and creamy herbed cream cheese and infused with leaves and chunks from the heart of the artichoke with a side of crudities' and fried green tomatoes. Then in my revision they want me to guess the temperature of the appetizer. I have already said all my food was at the exact right temperature, not to hot nor too cold. I have described the appetizer as warm and creamy already. I just thought really, you know what a hassle having to put this in over and over again and obviously I have no control over tech issues on a MSC site. Then they chide me for being late and remind me that this was time sensitive shop, when the only advice over the entire weekend I was given for my tech issues was to use a different browser than Safari, so I also used Firefox and Chrome. I am working with a newish 1700 Mac lap top. I doubt it was me or my system that would't allow me to input this info....Am I frustrated oh yes. Ihavethree shops this week with similar issues !!11 ARRGGH..

April, I though you were stepping away from the narrative-heavy dining shops. As tempting as they may be, they are generally not going to be anywhere near as profitable as others for the time you spend. Hoping everything goes through with your shop and you get the payment, though.

I feel your pain on the tech issues also, but I'm on a MacBook and Shopmetrics, though frustrating at times, is functional with Safari on my system. What version of Safari are you using?

As far as the food descriptions go, anyone doing dining shops for Coyle really needs to read the examples and give them exactly when they ask for, or you will get a follow up on it. They don't want flowery language, extended descriptions or large amounts of detail on the food. Just Presentation, Temperature and Portion size, plus if it met your expectations. I can usually cram that into 2-3 short sentences. You can't say it was the right temperature. That would be guessing. You need to say it was hot, cold, warm, freezing, boiling or whatever you gauged the temperature to be. It's up to the client to then decide if that's the appropriate temperature for their food to be served at.

@aprilredbird I feel your pain. Even though this has not happened to me on Shopmetrics site, it happened to me on the ISS platform and it was a total pain. It was also a dining shop and some sections had over 50 questions and it kept timing / blanking out and not saving. After a couple blank outs after entering like 20 or so questions, I learned to save after every 3 questions that I entered! It was a nightmare!

With the longer narratives I think it is best to type things out on Word and then cut and paste different sections back in.