@Taradawner wrote:

Why your restaurant shops have a cut off for age, like 45 or 55?

Without getting client specific, I have no clue what assignments you are talking about. There are absolutely no assignments currently available in my area that have an age limitation.

If there is a limit, it's because the client requested it It's their right to request a shopper under a certain age, based on the the demographic they area trying to appeal to.

@Misanthrope wrote:

I'm trying to look at some international locations Coyle has but their shopmetrics site is giving me a major headache, and their scheduler isn't being very forthcoming with information (I'm always being told to check shopmetrics without being given any help, despite the fact that shopmetrics' presentation of information is atrocious). Is there any way I can look at all available evaluations outside of the US, or at least in a radius outside of a US address?

You could also try the map feature. It's not the most user friendly either, but if you first set the filter to show 500 shops, then go to the map, it'll pinpoint locations worldwide. Locations are approximate and I would independently verify that the location is where you think it is before applying, just in case it's somewhere else entirely, but that's how I searched for opportunities with Coyle while in Europe a few weeks ago.

I'm doing a Coyle shop next week and for this month, they have a requirement that I am not quite sure how to handle:

"Go to the front desk and say you have lost an item in the public areas. See how they respond. Do they demonstrate urgency?"

The thing I am not sure about is what to say that I have lost (I am a female). Is this supposed to be a valuable item or just something small and not extremely valuable? I have no idea what I should say that I have lost. Does anyone have any ideas?

I haven't encountered this yet. Maybe a back to an earring? Or a book..You can say you were reading in the lobby. I'd be too worried to say my wallet, as they may offer to call the police for a report. How about a scarf?

Oh the book is a great idea, thanks! Yeah, I didn't want to go the valuables route as losing a wallet, phone, iPad, etc. would bound to send someone scrambling for action and it would make a big fuss. Book. Perfect.

So I live about 115 miles from where the hotel is located and in a different state. I had to make my reservation online. For some reason the guidelines stated that I should give an address of 150 miles away when making the reservation. I had to sign up for their rewards program prior to making the reservation and it did not specify if I was supposed to use my own address for the rewards program or not. I waited and waited with no reply to my email asking about that, so I went ahead and signed up today for the RP and made the reservation. I used my real address for the rewards program, so when I logged in to make my reservation, the fields automatically populated with my home address. I just left it. I had emailed them Friday asking how to handle this but for some reason I never heard back from support, the scheduler, or the other Coyle rep I emailed. I had no choice but to go ahead and make the reservation today because my visit is Tuesday. This also caused a delay on a requirement of making a phone call which was supposed to have been done a few days before the visit at 7 a.m., but since I hadn't made my reservation as of this morning, I will have to do it in the morning tomorrow, only one day before the visit. I know it's the weekend, but in the past Coyle has been so responsive in replying within 24 hours that I am rather surprised. I hope my waiting to make the reservation isn't going to flub up the shop.

Book or earring is a good suggestion on things to lose. So is a phone or tablet charger (the front desk often has left behind ones they will offer you).

Also...don't worry about the actual mileage away from the hotel. 115 Miles is sufficient for requiring a stay there. The spirit of the rule is the make sure you would have reason to book a hotel room and ask out-of-towner questions.

The lack of response is most likely related to the urgency of your request. There are more pressing items for support to deal with and they know your distance from the hotel will not be an issue.

As far as the pre-arrival call goes; Most calls can be made without a reservation being present. If the agent on the phone asked about your reservation, you could say that you would be making it later that day, but wanted an answer to the question first. Either way, I would suggest making the call the day prior and if the editor asks why you wanted, simple explain that you had emailed support and not heard back. There will be a record of that, so I expect it would not be an issue....and it will not affect the rest of the assignment.

A key to being successful at Coyle is often understanding the need for a particular request. Often, the standards (Checklist) the questions is attached to will gave it away. Other times it may be common sense. Just ask yourself what the client or MSC may be trying to gauge with that particular request. Is it the speed of response, the helpfulness of the staff, weather or not the request is noted in your profile or all of the above?

As far as the delay in response goes, I do understand that they may be very busy with urgent matters such as with shops that are being conducted over the weekend, but a short one liner of "yeah go ahead" would have been nice . I do feel better, though. Thank you for setting my mind at ease.

Okay, so they want the photos resized to 640 x 480 resolution. I remember this being a PITA last time because I did not change my camera settings on my phone or my digital camera (I used both for photos of defects in room) and had to resize them after I took all the pics. I thought I would be smart this time and go ahead and change the settings on the phone and camera tonight since my shop is tomorrow. Guess what? Both my phone camera and my digital camera only go as low as 1200 x 1600 (actually on my phone it's 2048 x 1536 as the lowest size). Any advice on how to get around resizing each pic?

I'll be honest, I never do the resizing and they don't take off points...

But I'll learn from how the others do it!

It depends on your operating system, but there are different software packages that will 'batch resize' photos. I use Automator on Mac. I simply drop the folder of photos on it and it outputs a new set at 640x480, but I has to program it to do that. I'm sure a search will turn up free batch conversion software for any platform, though.

While you could probably put your camera at the lowest setting and upload the pictures into the Shopmetrics without issue, that software gets slower and slower with the more data it has to load, so I find resizing the pics helps the reporting move faster.

Thanks again for your invaluable input, Steve.

If you use MS Outlook you can attach the photos and email them to yourself. You will be prompted to enter the size desired and 640x480 is an option. Then you can re save the batch at the lower size.

Mac Mail has a similar feature but doesn't allow you to specify the precise size; Just small, medium and large.

Medium seems to work, however.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@Taradawner wrote:

Why your restaurant shops have a cut off for age, like 45 or 55?

Without getting client specific, I have no clue what assignments you are talking about. There are absolutely no assignments currently available in my area that have an age limitation.

If there is a limit, it's because the client requested it It's their right to request a shopper under a certain age, based on the the demographic they area trying to appeal to.

I had that experience as well last year and just stopped doing them. There definitely is an age requirement.
I get it, not upset, don't need to drive 60 miles for a stupid (not good) lunch even If i was 45. Some clients are asking for a younger demographic. Then we have Lucilles BBQ, better food, can do them monthly, get a fee and a great meal, with an MSC that cares and responds. Coyle's lunches aren't anything to be upset about, but do read the requirement's to save yourself a trip. The Schedulers don't have a clue.

So how long do I have to submit a report? Is it 48 hours? I couldn't find this information anywhere on the checklist or website. I checked out of my two-night hotel shop Thursday at noon. It's been a real bear for me and there is so much detail! I submitted one segment last night and I am almost finished with the second segment, but it looks like it will be around 5 before I am finished with the last one. How much will they ding for a late report?

A hotel shop is generally 48 hours. I've never submitted a report in parts before, though. Is that a new thing?

Does anyone know why Coyle takes so long to assign shops? I always feel like "OK, we see your application but we're going to wait until we find someone better." After a month of nothing, I go ahead and fill the time with another shop and then sometimes they'll assign me the day before - which I then have to cancel. Does this happen to anyone else?

I don't know. It came in three sections. I am pretty new with Coyle, so I am really not sure why/how they do things.

I am just curious how badly they are going to ding me for being late if it is 48 hours. Almost done with section 2.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

So how long do I have to submit a report?

It's generally 48 hours. You will get a notification from the system when the report becomes overdue, then a check-in from an actual person if they start to wonder about the rest of it.

If you have submitted one component already, they will probably expect the rest is on the way and not bother you for 24 hours. You can also send a heads-up to the support address and let them know an ETA for completion so they can block out time for editorial.

I recommend padding it by at least an hour and be sure to specify your time zone, as editors are all over the place geographically.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I am just curious how badly they are going to ding me for being late if it is 48 hours. Almost done with section 2.

Technically you lose 1 point for a late submission but they don't always take it off...especially if you have submitted some parts on time and are in communication about the rest.

Yes, I let them know I was going to be late. I actually got called into work today and that was my initial reason for being late...and I was working on the report last night when my cousin called to let me know my uncle died, so I was too upset to go to work today and am working on it right now. I didn't tell them that part. But they know it will get submitted by tonight. One point isn't horrible. I can live with that. They already graded the first section and I got a 94.4%.

@pambam57 wrote:

Does anyone know why Coyle takes so long to assign shops?

I think I wrote about this earlier in the thread, but there's a lot involved in assigning shops and a small group of people who do it. If you have good communication with the scheduler and can request the shops with them via email after after submitting your requests.

Don't take personal offensive to the delay. I think I'm in the top group of evaluators and my requests will often sit for weeks/months if I don't say anything.

What I normally do is to request a small group of evaluations for the month. I don't request anything that I cannot commit to doing (meaning I don't just put in a request for every available assignment by me). If there are two restaurants I am interested in, I might request both for the same night and put a note in the request to assign me one or the other. That way the scheduler knows that I have blocked out a commitment for that evening to work on a Coyle report. I leave that evening open and if it's a week out and I have not been assigned a shop, I send an email.

Deadline for the report is noted in the instructions: for dinners, it's 24 hours if you're going on a Saturday and 48 hours if you're going other days of the week.

Not in my instructions for my hotel shop. It's not noted anywhere.

@pambam57 wrote:

A hotel shop is generally 48 hours. I've never submitted a report in parts before, though. Is that a new thing?

I believe that JASFLALMT was referring to the surveys. Most hotel assignments are made up of several surveys, for instance, Reservations, Bell, Front Desk, and Concierge making up one survey. Housekeeping, Engineering, PBX, Service Recovery, etc, as a second survey. F and B as another survey, etc.,

You can submit one or more surveys on time and still not have completed the entire "package" as Coyle refers to mulitple surveys for a hotel assignment.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2017 12:42AM by Professional Guest.

I'm getting there. Got two surveys submitted and halfway through with the last. Hopefully they won't ding me. I am a bit confused about a few things. In the first survey, for "Adherence to CHG conventions for date, time, phone number, number writing, etc" I received a 0 (No), but I was positive I did each correctly, following the examples in the resource center to the tee. Also, I followed the instructions on the last page of my guidelines for naming the photos for the housekeeping section as "Arrival-Bed" and "Defect-Scuff on Wall" and so forth, but the note in the graded email stated that I did not name all of the photos correctly. I got a 94.4% on the survey, so I guess I can't complain, but I sure wish I knew which ones were incorrect so I could keep from making the same mistake again in the future.

I was just reading in the resource center that an average full service 2-night stay report should take about 6 hours. Mine's more like 15, LOL. Am I giving them too much detail or am I just slow because I am so new with them? I have a great typing speed, it's not like a hunt and peck.

For hotels, I recall the deadline is 36 hours after checking out.