I have been doing restaurant shops for a while, but not with Coyle. I have only completed the popular one last year that was mainly multiple choice answers and not narratives. There are a lot of shops open where I just moved, but I am hesitant to take them knowing that Coyle reports have a reputation for sometimes being a nightmare. They are primarily golf course or hotel restaurant or bar shops. One survey states it only has 40 questions, but others range from 100-200 questions. Are these shops worth it? Is anyone familiar with some of these shops and the reports? How difficult are they? Thank you!

They are the hardest ones I do and take me five and a half hours to complete a 200-240 question survey. Other restaurant shops for $100+ meals take me two and a half hours. Go for it and see what happens. There is a learning curve with their stylistic guidelines. For what it's worth, I am a lawyer, now teach, and am used to drafting lengthy and involved documents. Other people will say they can do the reports in an hour. I am giving you my honest experience.

I can do a Coyle restaurant in an hour but I type 120 words a minute and have been shopping for them for over ten years so I know their style almost to muscle memory.

My first restaurant shop with Coyle probably took me three hours to do and I bombed it.

I would advise an interim step between mostly multiple choice to Coyle. Have you tried ACL? That might be a better next step. If you are comfortable with ACL then you are probably ready to take plunge.

That's good advice.

I've done ACL, but I pick and choose the shops I do for them because some of the reports are very lengthy and redundant. I was wondering if Coyle reports are similar. The popular Asian restaurant last year had any easy report but I know that's not the norm.

@dafizisblue wrote:

I've done ACL, but I pick and choose the shops I do for them because some of the reports are very lengthy and redundant. I was wondering if Coyle reports are similar. The popular Asian restaurant last year had any easy report but I know that's not the norm.

Coyle’s typical shop is not like the popular Asian restaurant and is generally significantly harder than ACL. I would say Coyle’s stuff takes me at least twice as long as ACL.

However if you live in Dallas or Phoenix there are a bunch of Coyle bar shops that are not typical bar shops and I might suggest you take a look. Just know they are not indicative a normal bar shop in terms of level of work. They also pay less though.

Go for it if you feel it is a restaurant you like or would like to try.

Coyle is unlike any other company that I've ever worked with. Oddly enough, my first two companies to do mystery shopping with over a decade ago were Coyle and MF and those two couldn't be any more different than each other.
The reports are tough, but once you do a few, you'll know what to expect, you'll be writing the narrative in your head as you go home. I did maybe 6 fine dining shops for them before I did one hotel and then was assigned a cruise, which I almost bombed but learned so much on doing that shop.

I have always wondered about the cruise shops. I think you wouldn't get to enjoy the cruise much because you would be so busy conducting the shop.

I actually had a great time and we had plenty of time to have fun. The problem is that I wasn't ready for that kind of shop. Also, my usual mystery shopping partner then was my mother who could tell you who was wearing what and what time things were delivered, what they said, how many people were in the room, etc and I brought my boyfriend at the time who was an idiot lol. Also, it was a competitor shop, and I didn't know it until afterwards, which meant it wasn't going to be a reverse of charges, it was going to be a payment to paypal. AND, if I didn't have to worry about getting every single name down and descriptions, I could have paid more attention to service, quality, etc. I would definitely find out if it's a competitor shop or a regular shop before I applied and completed one of these shops and I wouldn't take one if you are relatively new to the business. I really had no business doing that shop, but I did it and I learned from it.

@MickeyB wrote:

I type 120 words a minute.

Good to know. Next time I get grief for being slow, I’m mentioning that I type 25 WPM - truth!

Well, I stand corrected. I just tested myself, and I've gotten slower... I clocked in at 98. I used to be faster when I was FT shopping, but now that I don't do it as much - I've slowed down.

@MickeyB wrote:

I can do a Coyle restaurant in an hour but I type 120 words a minute and have been shopping for them for over ten years so I know their style almost to muscle memory.

My first restaurant shop with Coyle probably took me three hours to do and I bombed it.

I would advise an interim step between mostly multiple choice to Coyle. Have you tried ACL? That might be a better next step. If you are comfortable with ACL then you are probably ready to take plunge.

I'm typing at 75 wpm according to a typing test. I have never taken one of those before. I think typing speed must be faster when you are just typing what you are thinking instead of trying to copy a sentence though. Anyway, if the new rotation is complete a shop and never do it again, this will no longer be an issue!

@MickeyB wrote:

Well, I stand corrected. I just tested myself, and I've gotten slower... I clocked in at 98. I used to be faster when I was FT shopping, but now that I don't do it as much - I've slowed down.

There are a lot of factors the influence typing speed. I swear that I've gotten slower with age, but I'm also usually trying to type with a cat in my lap when I'm at home....

I think that's why speech to text is working out better for me. I can pet and type at the same time!

What is ACL?

A Closer Look. Restaurants.

? what is ACL

A closer look at restaurants? hello?

I would never do another fine dining restaurant shop for Coyle. Answering 200 questions plus writing detailed narratives for every little thing makes it not worth it for me. I had to have my partner help me because they also want to know exactly what time someone put a glass in front of you, brought you a menu, food or drink, took a plate away, talked to you, when you went to the bathroom and how long you were there, etc. it’s pretty hard to do this by yourself without looking out of place. Of course, Coyle also expects detailed comments about all these things mentioned above plus the food. To me, no meal is worth doing that much nitpicking and work for. They should hire video shoppers since they expect a minute by minute accounting. I’m surprised they don’t ask you how many times you chewed your food! All I can say is, more power to the people who can claim doing Coyle’s fine dining shops has become second nature for them and those who enjoy them. I’m a detail oriented, experienced shopper and a very observant person and I have a good writing skills. My time is worth more to me than to spend several hours on a restaurant report, and the editors will send the report back for more details every time. The schedulers even warn you in advance how tedious these reports are.

Try one if you think you can handle it but don’t be surprised if you feel frustrated by the demands at the restaurant and of the tedious reports.

The cafeteria shops for Coyle don’t require anywhere near as much work and you actually can make $20 doing them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2019 09:59PM by nycrocks.

You get used to taking down the times, it's really not a big issue. I will sit down over two days (if it's during a work week) and write the report. For a $200 dinner, I would need to make $300+ at my job before taxes. Four Coyle dinner shops in a month would be $1200+ of my gross earnings. I will write a report. Even if it takes five hours, that's $60/hr.

I find that I can remember 3 timings before things get fuzzy for me. Each time I have 3 things to notate, I quickly enter them into my phone. It's not that suspect since they are usually either dropping something off at the table or clearing another thing, so the staff have walked away at the time you are taking any notes. The seating and ordering process is the hardest to catch. It gets easier with experience.

You will need a dining partner none-the-less for any of the fine dining restaurants, so definitely put them to use on food pics and bathroom visits. I personally don't like to the leave the table during the meal because than I have to play catch-up with anything that happened when I was gone.

I started and finished a dinner report last night in 2 hours while stopping to check emails, feed the cat take a few quick work calls. I'm not saying these assignments are for everyone, but if you cannot record and deliver the required timings, you probably are not the most detail oriented and organized shopper, since there are literally dozens of other shoppers doing these every night. Even if you don't like the payoff for the amount of work required, it's got an additional payoff in training you to be a better shopper for when a desired shop does come up!

Furthering Niner's point; Many of the restaurants in the NYC & LA area reimburse closer to $300-400. There's a dinner on the board in LA right now with $400 reimbursement....and the famous sushi place that has multiple locations offering $350. You can go above that if you take the hotel assignment for that restaurant brand, but that's about the hardest report that Coyle offers so I don't recommend it for the meek.

For what it's worth, a majority of my free time last month was spent on Coyle reports but my reimbursements for June are over $7,000, and I profited a little over $300 in fees, plus this summer I will end up re-qualifying for platinum status with an airline, and earn numerous free hotel nights. My reimbursements match my career income in some months, so there is value in being able to take these assignments, even if they are a PITA.

To Steve’s point, with close to $10,000.00 in a reversible hotel portfolio, you can bet I note ALL of the timings.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I find that I can remember 3 timings before things get fuzzy for me. Each time I have 3 things to notate, I quickly enter them into my phone. It's not that suspect since they are usually either dropping something off at the table or clearing another thing, so the staff have walked away at the time you are taking any notes. The seating and ordering process is the hardest to catch. It gets easier with experience.

You will need a dining partner none-the-less for any of the fine dining restaurants, so definitely put them to use on food pics and bathroom visits. I personally don't like to the leave the table during the meal because than I have to play catch-up with anything that happened when I was gone.

I started and finished a dinner report last night in 2 hours while stopping to check emails, feed the cat take a few quick work calls. I'm not saying these assignments are for everyone, but if you cannot record and deliver the required timings, you probably are not the most detail oriented and organized shopper, since there are literally dozens of other shoppers doing these every night. Even if you don't like the payoff for the amount of work required, it's got an additional payoff in training you to be a better shopper for when a desired shop does come up!

Furthering Niner's point; Many of the restaurants in the NYC & LA area reimburse closer to $300-400. There's a dinner on the board in LA right now with $400 reimbursement....and the famous sushi place that has multiple locations offering $350. You can go above that if you take the hotel assignment for that restaurant brand, but that's about the hardest report that Coyle offers so I don't recommend it for the meek.

For what it's worth, a majority of my free time last month was spent on Coyle reports but my reimbursements for June are over $7,000, and I profited a little over $300 in fees, plus this summer I will end up re-qualifying for platinum status with an airline, and earn numerous free hotel nights. My reimbursements match my career income in some months, so there is value in being able to take these assignments, even if they are a PITA.

I knew someone would try to denigrate my abilities while praising themselves. It never fails on this forum. This is why I rarely post here. I got all the timings correct and did everything that was required for the Coyle fine dining shops I did but I still don’t think they are worth it. There’s also no way I’d want to tie up my credit cards to wait for $7000 in reimbursements each month or spend that much time in restaurants. More power to you. I said I was happy for people who found these shops worthwhile.. To each their own.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2019 09:54PM by nycrocks.

@nycrocks wrote:

I knew someone would try to denigrate my abilities while praising themselves. It never fails on this forum.

My apologies if you felt denigrated. In re-reading my post, I could have stated it better, but I think you may also be missing my overall point that to many, the shops are worth it. For you, time in restaurants and large reimbursements may not be worth it. It's more about lifestyle choices that shopping abilities.

Tedious and written in a atrange style.
Get descriptions for everyone and time for every event greet, seat, greet by server. Water, bread...
Be aware that example for fine dining has 8 timings but they actually want about 24

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@nycrocks wrote:

I knew someone would try to denigrate my abilities while praising themselves. It never fails on this forum.

My apologies if you felt denigrated. In re-reading my post, I could have stated it better, but I think you may also be missing my overall point that to many, the shops are worth it. For you, time in restaurants and large reimbursements may not be worth it. It's more about lifestyle choices that shopping abilities.

Thanks for the apology. I didn’t feel denigrated. It’s just not productive to make assumptions about anyone’s abilities because they have different preferences and priorities. I didn’t miss your point. This is now the third time I’ve said I was happy for people who find these shops worthwhile.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2019 09:30AM by nycrocks.

The thing I do like about Coyle is the reimbursement covers the required items. ACL doesn't usually cover all and no fee added.

Coyle's reports are long, but as others have said, the more you do them, the easier (and quicker) they become. The fees make everything more palatable! And I have so many wonderful memories of the hotel shops my late husband and I did for them...our $800 - $1200 reimbursed hotel weekend shops were amazing! It got to a point that I had at least half the report done before we left the hotels and well worth the effort, in my opinion. These were something we could not have afforded on a routine basis otherwise and definitely enriched our lives. (Now I continue to do their restaurant shops).

@bluegirl wrote:

The thing I do like about Coyle is the reimbursement covers the required items. ACL doesn't usually cover all and no fee added.

Coyle is much more realistic in their reimbursements. ACL never pays a fee, and they expect you to pay out of pocket after reimbursements. There were so many required orders that $75 does not cover much unless you order only Mac n Cheese and stripped down hamburgers. First off they require you to sit at the bar first and order a Signature drink. That is already $15 including tax and tip. That leaves $60 for 2 beverages (one alcoholic is required, and no draft beer allowed), an appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert. Paid parking is only for 2 hours. If you go over 2 hours, you have to pay out of pocket for the third hour too.

Does anybody know what's happening with ACL's class action lawsuit?