I've seen a few high end, fine dining restaurant shops on Coyle lately. I'm tempted, but have heard horror stories about the the length and overly-pickiness of the surveys and reviewers. Has it gotten any better?

Are you expecting them to shorten the reports? I have done a few and they are much longer and much more tedious than many other msc reports.

It's funny because I do other reports and sometimes there is a narrative maximum (which is silly), but I want to write more and cannot. However, I don't want to be told I have to write a novel either.

If you are looking for quick shops to do, COYLE is not going to be that. Make your money doing the easier/quicker shops and then treat yourself to a nice place with the $ you made instead.

I mean, I enjoy having a free meal that costs $100-$200, but I don't wan to spend 2 hours or more doing a report for that. It becomes too much at some point. Everyone's breaking point is different.

As hbbigdaddy asked, what would make you think their business model has changed?
They are known for giving their clients a **novel** for each shop. Lol, always has been like that and I don't see any indication of a change.

For some of us Coyle is great. For some they are Hell.... only you can decide where you fall on that spectrum.

Personally, I don't mind them. Right now I have one restaurant & one hotel assigned to me for March/ April.

I will say I complain about them every time I do them but it definitely means I am having a nicer meal (and treating my boyfriend) more often but I will only pick up a fine dining with them every other month unless it is highly bonused since they tend to pay on the low side for fine dining and hotels for the amount of detail they want. But I enjoy the meals usually and I don't have to pay tax on that money so I still do them .

Thank you for this everyone. I appreciate the feedback. I might give one a try to see just how bad a 'novel' might be and see if the whole thing is worth it. I won't know until I actually try it, right?! lol

They are offering Mexican cuisines in my area at the moment. No Mexican restaurant's food is worth all the observations and explanations and professorial narratives Coyle wants.

@big_sky_thunder wrote:

They are offering Mexican cuisines in my area at the moment. No Mexican restaurant's food is worth all the observations and explanations and professorial narratives Coyle wants.

You are probably thinking, as most Americans do, that Mexican food is Tex-Mex - tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc.

If you ever go to Mexico City or Monterrey you will find food more in line with European continental. And I would consider that to be fine dining.

Now I'm not saying that's what the Mexican food shop they have is.

The Mexican restaurant they offerin my area is a well known chain that I used to shop with another MSC who had a detailed but much shorter form (and I think less reimbursement but that might have been because it was lunch)

I am always happy to see a restaurant on mystery shopping that is not a steak house as I prefer other cuisines. The Mexican restaurant that is a chain that I think is being spoken about above is mostly the American standards but the company owning that chain does have other restaurants that are shopped that have branched out from tacos and burritos.

The Mexican restaurant I have scheduled for March is DEFINITELY in line with other fine dining restaurants. No burritos served..... they aren't going to put chips & salsa at your table when you are seated. $$$$$$$$

thunder opines--No Mexican restaurant's food is worth all the observations and explanations and professorial narratives Coyle wants.

Bob comments--For me, no restaurant's food is worth what Coyle requires.If I am to provide a novella, the fee must be a minimum of triple digits.

On the plus side, every recent Coyle shop I’ve done allows take home bags, and since they want food photos discreet cell phone use is obviously ok too now. And I haven’t gotten a single question from their editors.

@NinS wrote:

On the plus side, every recent Coyle shop I’ve done allows take home bags, and since they want food photos discreet cell phone use is obviously ok too now. And I haven’t gotten a single question from their editors.

NOT using your cell phone at all during a visit is 'unusual' these days. Especially at the trendy, high end restaurants.

I used to do a lot of shops for Coyle when I lived in NYC. When I started doing them, in 2010, they had two divisions. I worked for the one that had mostly corporate employee dining rooms, museum employee cafeterias, and higher-end but still casual restaurants. They were scheduled by Francine Bryan at Quality Scheduling and that division used Prophet. I did a lot of those for her and loved them.

I never thought the reports were that onerous. But I'm a bit of a foodie and dined out frequently in NYC (that's just the lifestyle there), so I loved getting reimbursed for a good meal and didn't care how long it took me to complete the report! Yes, the reports were pretty long, but I don't recall ever grumbling about them. And I loved being allowed into these corporate dining rooms with a special pass! It was fun to have a fancy lunch with a view of the city, surrounded by upper-level managers and executives at big companies and investment firms, or to be able to go behind the scenes at a major museum. I took a friend with me on a couple of them that allowed me to bring a guest. I remember one was for dinner in the rooftop dining room at a museum, just for the trustees. VERY fancy!

You had to apply separately for the hotel and fine dining division via Coyle's website. I remember they were very picky and I had to prove to them I had experience with the other division. The fine dining/hotel division used Shopmetrics. For some reason, during a convo I had on the old Volition forum, I mentioned this and a lot of shoppers were not aware of the two divisions. Anyway, at some point, there was some kind of reorganization and it all became one. I had to work with other schedulers who didn't know me. It was like pulling teeth to get an assignment. I don't know what became of Francine. Eventually I just stopped working for them because I would submit applications and never get assigned.

It breaks my heart that they don't have any shops where I live now. I do not do fast food shops, as I love fine dining. We have a few high-end dining establishments near me, but I doubt they would have them shopped. I see Coyle is now doing airport terminal shops, in NYC, so I guess that's why CSE doesn't have many there anymore. But anyway, if I had the chance again, I would definitely do a fine dining shop for Coyle even if it took two hours to complete the report!

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2023 02:28AM by shopnyc.

Two hours I can deal with for a report. The last dining shop report I did for Coyle took me all day for a hamburger...granted it was a really fine hamburger and came with a nice glass of wine, but still...I stopped shopping for them after that. I struggled through that report and a few others. I always got high scores, but it's just not for me.

Edited to add: I did complete several airport shops for them but it was several years ago. I found their reports for those shops to be easier than the ones with CSE.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2023 11:07PM by MsJudi.

speaking of airport shops - i had a trip a few weeks ago and found some options, but the reimbursement wouldn't even cover the price of a single beer ($17) or any sandwich, and I can't imagine anyone would accept these for so little pay.

More generally though: I became very frustrated with Coyle and stopped pre-covid. It seemed my reports ALWAYS needed edits, and I dreaded getting my "score" out of 100. I recently got sucked back in, and some of the reports were not so bad/lengthy, but then I had one for a casual chain that was insanely long (even their Bar portions of the review can go on and on and on - I can't believe clients even WANT to read these long-ass reports). There are so many MSCs where I can get just as good (and expensive) a meal for half the work, that Coyle is an absolute last-resort. I definitely feel like I can give the client a better impression of the overall experience in half as much time, which saves both me and the client a lot of effort. If I owned a company, I wouldn't hire Coyle to review my operations.

What's up with Coyle's "Bidding system"? It says the pay is $10 (or $10.02 or $10.03 for some reason - maybe a code to be deciphered like Costco prices ending in .97 means clearance), but then the instructions allude to bidding and a range. Whenever I bid, I didn't get the shop (I guess because I didn't really want it anyway, so I'd bid high), but has anyone had any success with bidding?

yes, I have bid high on things that sit on the board for a long time and gotten it. Sometimes they have bonused and will send out emails that this is as high as they can go, so I will take it for the stated amount as my bid. If for some reason I really want the shop (expensive restaurant that I want to try out), I will go with a mid range bid. But you aren't likely to get high bids until you are established with the company. Take some of the easier things (fast casual or valet parking) to build up your credibility.

Coyle used to be my absolute favorite MSC. At the time, I took a lot of little weekend trips, and I trolled their site for hotels close enough for an overnight road trip. Yes, the shops were a lot of work, but I like camping too, and they both take a little elbow grease. It depends on what you want and your disposable income level. At the end of the day, I'm a working stiff who likes to travel, and I found their hotel shops to be well worth my while.

I noticed the pennies at the end of the shop pay a few months ago. That is to help them easily identify which months the shop is for. It started with 01 (january) and then 02 (february) and they have kept it going. I never received an explanation on this, but I saw all the shops listed that way each month and it has continued, so that is my best assumption having seen it repeatedly for several months.

As far as bidding, I have bid above what was posted a couple of times and was assigned the shop. I don't bid an outrageous amount. So if the shop started at $10 pay, I bid $40. I wouldn't expect to get it if I bid $100.

@non sequitur wrote:

What's up with Coyle's "Bidding system"? It says the pay is $10 (or $10.02 or $10.03 for some reason - maybe a code to be deciphered like Costco prices ending in .97 means clearance), but then the instructions allude to bidding and a range. Whenever I bid, I didn't get the shop (I guess because I didn't really want it anyway, so I'd bid high), but has anyone had any success with bidding?

Has anyone done their Chipotle-like fast casual chain shops in the NY area? There's one left near me and the payment is up to $30, but they have twice (maybe three times) ignored emails from me asking for details on the report. Usually the website tells you how many questions there are, but this doesn't have that, and you don't see the guidelines until you take the shop.

I was in this position before, and would say to accept so you can see what you need to see, and if you don’t like, say so and reject it.

@hbbigdaddy - Thats helpful - thanks!
Bidding surely depends on demand in the area, and I’ve never lived anywhere in “low demand” so I guess I’d never bid, but good to know.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2023 12:04AM by non sequitur.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

I noticed the pennies at the end of the shop pay a few months ago. That is to help them easily identify which months the shop is for. It started with 01 (january) and then 02 (february) and they have kept it going. I never received an explanation on this, but I saw all the shops listed that way each month and it has continued, so that is my best assumption having seen it repeatedly for several months.

As far as bidding, I have bid above what was posted a couple of times and was assigned the shop. I don't bid an outrageous amount. So if the shop started at $10 pay, I bid $40. I wouldn't expect to get it if I bid $100.

@non sequitur wrote:

What's up with Coyle's "Bidding system"? It says the pay is $10 (or $10.02 or $10.03 for some reason - maybe a code to be deciphered like Costco prices ending in .97 means clearance), but then the instructions allude to bidding and a range. Whenever I bid, I didn't get the shop (I guess because I didn't really want it anyway, so I'd bid high), but has anyone had any success with bidding?

My thoughts is that number stands for the number of months they didn't get it shopped. .00 is January, if it is not shopped it becomes .01. If it's March now and it wasn't shopped yet, it becomes .02 or two months without it being shopped.

I never saw .11 or .12 at the end of last year, but did see several .01 and .02 in November and December.

I did a fine dining shop for Coyle a couple of weeks ago. My partner and I enjoyed a delicious high-end meal and bar visit, reimbursed at $200.

When I got home and started the report, I timed it, and it took exactly 1 hour and 12 minutes to complete the report, from sitting down at the computer to submitting it. This was one of Coyle's lengthier reports, with 8 narratives of 500+ characters each, plus many shorter comment boxes to fill in.

Personally, I find Coyle to be worth it for the fine dining shops (reimbursement of $150+). I do a lot of writing at my full-time job, so maybe I am just used to it, but it doesn't take me that long to write the narratives. However, if the reimbursement were $50....no thanks. I'll just go grab a TXRH.

@wrosie ....you could be right about the number of months shop is overdue, but I do get these emails frequently and the locations are getting done. Even a location I did for them, so I don't believe it's the number of months. I do not remember seeing the odd pennies in November and December. I did start seeing them with January thru current postings.

If that were the case that it was the # of months since last shopped and it was a monthly shop, that would not be good for them to "advertise" they are struggling to fill it. That information just gives the shopper more negotiating leverage.

I used to work regularly for Coyle (years ago), but gradually I began to feel the reports just weren't worth the time I spent on them. I have the highest regard for Jim Coyle and the high standards of the company, but I went through a period where editors were asking for information outside of the shop requirements, "editing" in grammatical errors, and the back-and-forth with the editing staff was just too frustrating. I was later told the editors were using my reports to train new editors, but it made me want to throw up my hands. I now do fine dining and hotel reports for other companies that are far less time-consuming. It is my hope that Coyle will become more streamlined in what they ask of shoppers, but from what I read regularly it does not seem likely.

No, they're still the same.

I have done quite a few of the fine dining shops but got tired of having to sit in the bar for 20 minutes pretending to wait for someone.

I enjoy Coyle shops. The reports are a little tedious, but not too bad IMO.