@Agent001
I did a handful of fine dining shops and have not been that eager to do them with the tedious report. There is a very upscale steak house in my area but when I think of the report and timings I just rather pass. Coyle has a different type of shop called subjective I rather do those, not the scored ones. Though it probably still takes me about 1.5 hours to do the subjective ones. There is a ramen shop in my area that Coyle shops and the reimbursement is $75 for two ppl which is very generous for two bowls of noodles and some delicious appetizers. Since it is casual dining the report is not bad at all. This is a restaurant that I frequent on my own so it's a bonus to have it covered! Too bad I can't take my older children b/c at $75 it can still cover 4 bowls of noodles!
There is also a very popular dumpling restaurant in my area but the reimbursement is too low for me to bother. Plus that place always has a long line and does not take reservations so it would be much more time consuming event.
I think it is worthwhile to sign up for Coyle IMHO.

I'm curious how you approached Coyle regarding sharing the workload with someone else on a shop. My husband has done work for Coyle and has received positive feedback. However, on a recent hotel stay, I asked if he could do some of the tasks and was told that only the person assigned the hotel can complete the tasks. We could not "split" the work.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I have done 5 hotels back-to back before. Super-human would be a good choice of words to describe the workload. I continually got further behind throughout the week until my last report was turned in about 6 days after checking out.

I did a round of 6 hotels with an awesome shopping partner where we traded off being the one reporting. That was easier. I have also split hotels with that same evaluator and the experience was even better. I think sharing the workload with someone equally qualified is the best approach to taking on multiple properties.

@LindaM wrote:

I'm curious how you approached Coyle regarding sharing the workload with someone else on a shop.

Well...truth be told the one I mentioned splitting was not for Coyle. It was for another company and I think we are both in their top group of evaluators, so they were happy about it when I mentioned it to the scheduler.

The group where each did 3 shops in a series was for Coyle, but we did our own tests. Prior to that, my ex was an editor for Coyle and they would ask us to do shops as a team (that was back when editors were allowed to take hotel shops).

The thing is, If I sit down to dinner with you on your shop and then send you a dinner narrative at the end of the meal, how would anyone know where it came from? When it comes to spa appointments, you have to be the evaluator to take the appointment, however.

I wanted to comment on timing of edits or follow up questions, as I know others have been upset by this.

After submitting a report, within 1-3 days, the editor will review your report. You do not know exactly what time they will be reviewing. If you have follow up questions, they will send you follow up questions via email, with an extraordinary narrow window to reply. I submitted a report on Saturday evening. I just received a list of questions via email at 11:20 AM (10 minutes ago), with a bolded note that my responses must be received by 1:00 PM, for a total of a 1.5 hour turn around. Thankfully, I have access to email at my office job so could reply, and thankfully, I had my notes with me in my bag.

Not all submissions have follow up questions. Most of mine do not. Surprisingly, some of these questions were NOT items asked for in the initial form, so I could not have been proactive about it. However, I have seen folks on here complain (rightfully, in my opinion) about the narrow turn around times. What if I was driving? Or had left my notebook at home? However, I am telling you this to warn you to be "on call" for the few days after your submission.

Hope this knowledge helps someone! Working for Coyle is great, but there is limited flexibility. You must play by their rules and timeframes .

If they are asking follow-up questions that were not on the original form, my guess is that the client is asking about them?

Perhaps. My greater point though is that the turn around time was only 1.5 hours. A few months ago a woman posted on this forum saying she was given a few hours, but had to take care of her children, and thus could not respond in time. She was upset. I am posting here to let others know that this short turn around time does happen and that evaluators should be "on call" and ready to respond.

Strangely, I have never had a window of time to reply provided. I don't get follow-up emails that often, but I receive email on my phone and if I can't get the editor an answer within an hour, I will usually email them back with a projected time that I will get the information in. I have never had any pushback when it took my some time to get in answer in, however.

When I am at work at my main job, I am almost always in front of my laptop and on email at all times. On the few occasions that I have had a big report still pending and had to be offline for an extended period, I would usually proactively email support and let them know I would not be available. Fortunately, the few times that something like that has happened was when I was flying somewhere else for another Coyle assignment, so they really couldn't say much about my lack of availability.

Wondering is any of the evaluators that received time restraints had any history of not replying quickly on a previous occasion....

That said, a quick reply from one's phone stating when the information would be coming (provided it's within a 12-hour window) seems like a professional response to me. I would be surprised if that was not acceptable to them.

I have not had a problem replying in the past. Like you, I rarely get follow up emails, and I always have email on my phone and at my office job. I had no problem responding promptly today, but I was surprised to see such a window stated, in bold font. In my main line of business, I would never dream of emailing an employee or a client with such a narrow window. It only opened by eyes to it though after a woman wrote on this forum a few months ago being upset with the window, so I am just posting to others to plan ahead. If someone only checks their email once a day or every other day, then perhaps working for Coyle is not the best fit. I am a "millennial" that is glued to my phone and email, so iI have not had a problem.

I think there is definitely an expectation that evaluators have constant email access.

I'm outside of the definition of millennial but my main job comes with an expectation that all workers have a phone which allows them to respond immediately to situations. I think that's just part of the professional workplace landscape in 2017.

I think I would probably have a negative reaction to a bolded request for a quick response, and many of the editors know me, so perhaps they leave that out when asking me follow up questions.

@laur371 wrote:

Not all submissions have follow up questions. Most of mine do not. Surprisingly, some of these questions were NOT items asked for in the initial form, so I could not have been proactive about it.

I think this is just plain ol' dirty pool by any MSC to ask for something that is not covered in the guidelines or report. This is clearly outside the scope-of-work for the assignment and should not be held against any shopper if they don't know the answer.

@msimon-2000 wrote:

This is clearly outside the scope-of-work for the assignment and should not be held against any shopper if they don't know the answer.

While I have had Coyle come back with questions that were not covered in the assignment scope on evaluations, It was not an intentional attempt to mislead or trap me. It was just a case of the client asking for changes after the report was created or assigned. In each case, they were happy with whatever additional detail I was able to provide.

While this MSC obviously has issues at times with instructions not being completely on-point or having editors make unreasonable demands, the one thing I have always been able to count on is for them to be fair and professional when issues arose. At all times when I have have pointed out a fault on their end, even if it resulted in me not having the required information to complete an assignment, they have been careful to cover my expenses and pay me for the assignment.

How stringent is Coyle about getting names during phone assessments? If I cannot understand what the person stated their name was, should I just write that I could not understand the name and give a few examples of what I thought it could have been, or am I supposed to ask for their name at the end of the call? I know some MSCs are real sticklers for that. I noticed in the reference guide it stated that for outside calls the associate does not have to give their name, but if they do and I do not understand it, what's the protocol? I made my previsit call last night and could not understand what she said her name was. I did not ask and I wrote a close approximation of what I thought it was in that section of the report. I did not want to be conspicuous, especially when making my previsit phone call.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

How stringent is Coyle about getting names during phone assessments?

If they gave the name and you couldn't understand it, you can just write [unintelligible] or [sounded like...] for the name. They will be okay with that.

If you are directed to ask for a name and don't, that could be an issue. If you've done 10 assignments and can never seem to understand anyone's name, that would most likely become a problem as well...

LOL. No, I don't think I need to sign up for the AARP hearing test shop. This is the first time I have ever had a problem with understanding a person's name while doing a shop for them. Generally front desk associates speak clearly and she did, but from what I thought I understood about the name, it was an unusual one. That's what presents the most difficulty. I Googled what I thought the name was and came up with some European possibilities. I am hoping to perhaps encounter this person during the 2-day stay to get a correct spelling from their name tag. Thanks for the response, I will put "sounded like" on the report if they are actually not on duty during my stay.

Oh, also--they have a list of things to ask from the concierge, housekeeping, engineering etc. that are based on the month of the visit. Are they very adamant that this must be exactly followed, or can I use a different scenario if it's something that seems more natural for me personally but is for a different month?

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Can I use a different scenario if it's something that seems more natural for me personally but is for a different month?

Usually yes; but it's best to email email support and ask permission if you intend to change a question. The tests are standardized and don't always apply.

It's best to stick to the script when you can, because management can judge the responses equally amongst all properties. If you give a softball question to concierge in Hotel A but a difficult question to concierge in Hotel B, Concierge A might score better than Concierge B, even if they are not as good at their job.

That said, if the question of the front desk is to ask for the nearest Starbucks and there's on in the hotel lobby, punt and make up a different question....

Right, I guess I was thinking that my scenario doesn't really match up with February. I am supposed to ask the concierge sometime during my stay about doing something that is an outdoor activity, and in my part of the country, even though it's warmer this time of year right now than normal, it doesn't make much sense. I think the high where I am going is going to be in the 50s tomorrow and considering we are normally piled with snow it could work, but still would be a little uncomfortable.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2017 07:05PM by JASFLALMT.

For the particular shop you are referring to, I believe it's ok to change the scenario for the engineering test. As for the rest of the shop, it's best to check with Support as Steve advised. I asked if it was ok to change the question for doorman and was told no.

I already did. They agreed.

Okay, so last couple of reports I renamed the files but did not follow the instructions on adding a caption to the lower left corner of each image and got dinged a few points for it. I didn't understand what I had done incorrectly and thought maybe I didn't name the files properly, but now I see that I was supposed to do something more than just rename the file. So, I have tried clicking on paint and then entering text, clicking save...that doesn't work. How do I add a caption to the lower left corner of the image? I emailed support but it's late and probably won't hear back from them until tomorrow afternoon...help me, please?

Go into the little paint icon and then within there you will see a T for text box. Click that and then place it into the picture. Then type. You often have to then change the color because it types in black but if your picture is darker you cannot see the text (you will need to change the color to white). It's a lot of steps and takes a significant amount of time. I do feel your pain. I tried doing it on the last shop and it kept collapsing the box so I could not type into it - I tried everything (dragging and making the box bigger - typing anyway) and I could not get it to work so I gave up and submitted it without doing it. I am sure I will get dinged too.

Thank you!!! I was struggling. I had emailed support about it and managed to get one of the images properly captioned (using white as you suggested), but then for the other images I couldn't get the text box to show so there was nothing to write in!!!! No matter how many times I clicked on "T" the text box would not appear for me to write in. So, support emailed me this morning and they said that I didn't have to do that--all I needed to do was to rename the file using the pencil icon. I wrote back explaining that is what I had been doing on previous shops but got dinged for not naming the images correctly. I didn't hear back on that yet. I don't know if there is a disconnect between support and editing on this or not. I really don't want to lose points over it. Hoping to hear back soon to find out.

In all honesty...just take the point loss for ridiculous deductions like that. It won't really affect your ability to get shops.

You are either in the group of shoppers who generally score well and get assigned shops, or the group that doesn't.

I certainly don't have a 100% score with Coyle. I get deductions for photo naming, not following impossible instructions, having to reply a second time to questions that were already answered in my first submission, etc....

I let it go because I think making a stink about it makes me a more of a problematic shopper than one who performs every single assignment given to them with little additional communication required.

Yes, I guess since I am scoring between 94% to 100% on my shops I can live with it...I definitely don't want to be problematic, but at the same time I want to do the best I can possibly do on every shop.

Oh, and I only got 100% once and that was a fine dining shop. The hotels have been between 94% to 96%.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

In all honesty...just take the point loss for ridiculous deductions like that. It won't really affect your ability to get shops.

You are either in the group of shoppers who generally score well and get assigned shops, or the group that doesn't.

I certainly don't have a 100% score with Coyle. I get deductions for photo naming, not following impossible instructions, having to reply a second time to questions that were already answered in my first submission, etc....

I let it go because I think making a stink about it makes me a more of a problematic shopper than one who performs every single assignment given to them with little additional communication required.

I only have two graded shops (outside of NV). Thanks to you, I'm still sitting on my 100% rating.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

In all honesty...just take the point loss for ridiculous deductions like that. It won't really affect your ability to get shops.

You are either in the group of shoppers who generally score well and get assigned shops, or the group that doesn't.

I certainly don't have a 100% score with Coyle. I get deductions for photo naming, not following impossible instructions, having to reply a second time to questions that were already answered in my first submission, etc....

I let it go because I think making a stink about it makes me a more of a problematic shopper than one who performs every single assignment given to them with little additional communication required.

Agreed.

It used to bother me, but, hey, I still get assigned some amazing properties.

I figure if I get dinged for one thing from one editor, but not for the same thing by another editor, - or whatever, yet still get assigned to five-star resorts, I'm not going to get into the minutiae and be a pain in their, ahem, side. I'm just going to continue doing the best job I can for them, and hopefully it continues to be noticed.

LOL. I know I am a persnickity PITA. But, I don't bother the editors. I have a few times very nicely sent inquiries on how to do a few things better but I don't go off on tangents.

Oh, and by the way, support emailed back and said we definitely DO NOT have to caption the photos like Shop Metrics instructions state. I hope that THEY don't think I am too much of a PITA. LOL!!!!!

Steve,
How do you keep the hotel points,when charges are generally reversed by management?

@EileenS wrote:

How do you keep the hotel points,when charges are generally reversed by management?

The two things are not related, Eileen. The front desk processes the charge the for the stay and the guest management system automatically applies the points to your account.

A hotel manger would have to specifically access the guest retention system and separately back out your points for the stay to have them reverse as well. That rarely happens.