Hi everyone,

I'm somewhat new to Coyle but a rather experienced mystery shopper. When I heard about Coyle and saw the things they were scheduling in my area, I was excited to get started with them.

In the past couple months as a shopper, I've only been assigned fast food and phone evaluations which may be expected for a newbie at a mystery shopping company. I've been consistent with my reports and have received good marks on all of them by the editor. Now, I've heard mixed things about them in this forum, so I understand there may be some varying opinions here, but I'm eager to be given an opportunity to evaluate some of the fine dining and other higher profile experiences they have to offer regardless of the job fee. For the past couple of months, I've consistently bid under the pay rate, and apply to jobs as soon as they come out. I live in a rather metropolitan area in the US, so there may be more 'preferred' shoppers ahead of me, but does anyone know how long I need to continue doing these phone reports and fast food evaluations before being 'trusted' to do some of the better things? Is it worth it to stick it out and build more of a 'reputation' to get some of the higher level evals?

Thanks for your input!

This is just the way they do business. They post tons of jobs, then assign them piecemeal one at a time as they get around to it. We have another thread on this as well.

Thanks! I tried to do a search but couldn't find anything (still new to the site). Is there a Coyle thread laying around somewhere?

@boilernate wrote:

Thanks! I tried to do a search but couldn't find anything (still new to the site). Is there a Coyle thread laying around somewhere?

Many of them.

Be careful what you wish for. If you get a fine dining shop you will tear your hair out by the time they ask you for 5 sets of edits with questions that were not in the guidelines.

Never had any luck with Coyle. The only thing is my area is for a watch shop. I just can't get into character for wanting a watch. They have some better ones about two hours from me for restaurants but I've never been assigned and they are never taken.

I have shelved the idea that schedulers know who is reliable and choose them. They overlook long time shoppers for whoever will bid lowest.

I will not pretend to understand how Coyle schedules but on Tuesday I had 14 pending applications and now ten have been assigned (some to me and some to others) so they are certainly actively assigning shops right now. I live in an away with a lot of valet shops which I often pick up. It’s certainly made me eligible for more high-end dining and hotel shops which I enjoy doing for them. So I’d tell the OP to keep doing what you’re doing. You’ll likely get more of your desired shops as the other regulars get rotated out.

Part of the problem is the fact they don't list the rotation requirements and we shoppers apply for shops for which we are not eligible. I have only found this out after multiple e-mails.

Rotation can definitely be an issue for not getting assigned, but clearly not in the case of the OP.

@boilernate is a new shopper to Coyle, and probably needs do the research here on the many old threads about Coyle...but the core concept is this; They don't really care how many shops you have completed for other MSC's. In fact, it's potentially even a strike against you if you stated being an experienced shopper in your application. They are not looking for experienced mystery shoppers because the powers that be have learned that is not a good indicator for success with Coyle shops. Many who consider themselves "experienced" (as potentially noted above) get frustrated with the level of detail required by Coyle.

I think they opened up 2024 with about 2,500 available assignments. A large amount of those are parking shops, with probably 20% fine dining and at the most, 5% hotels. About 1,000 have been assigned and that makes up the 'low hanging fruit' (Desirable assignments with plenty of applications so they can pick the most experienced evaluators, with potentially the lowest fee paid). Then the schedulers have to get to work plugging in the remaining harder-to-fill assignments.

If you got passed over in the first round of scheduling, you are not considered in the core group of their experienced shoppers, and so your opportunity to prove yourself to them is by taking on one of those remaining assignments.

For those who wonder why they just don't go through and assign every shop that has an application, I think it's counter to the process. The majority of Coyle evaluators are not making a living as mystery shoppers, and may not be checking for available assignments every day. To keep the core group of experienced shopper happy, it's best to wait until they have all had a chance to apply, and then start assigning a few to each of them.

That said, I know how their process works. I have over 20 years of experience with Coyle and even worked for them at one point in my life...as a scheduler! I put in 5 applications at the top of January and got 2 of those assignments. Neither were great assignments. They were backup applications I put in, in case I didn't get the super-desirable assignments. At one point in time, I would have been offended by that, but I realize they need those desirable assignments as 'carrots' to get the undesirable ones filled. I'm not willing to do a parking shop on December 31st so that the scheduler can hit their mark anymore, so I don't get the $500 steakhouse dinner in January.

If you want the opportunity to get that desirable assignment, you wait for the end of the month/quarter/year when that wholly undesirable assignment returns to the job board (most likely because somebody flaked or botched it) and then knock it out of the park to establish the relationship. And don't do it for a low fee. Ask for twice or more what the going rate it and make some money on it, because you'll probably be ordering a drink at a rooftop bar in the freezing cold, or ice skating in the rain, or even possibly flying to location you don't particularly want to be at, just so you can order a breakfast buffet at a hotel and pay cash.

As far as it being worth it, I have some great stories and experiences from 20 years of doing this. And I have met some amazing friends from it, here on this very forum, so to me, it's worth it. It would be even better without the frustrating scheduling, contradictory instructions and billing issues, however.

I gave up on them. I spent a few months checking the site regularly and bidding on jobs and never got assigned to any. I deleted my account with them as there is no point in wasting time.

It is somewhat ironic that they send out multiple e-mails every day asking for shoppers and they don't assign people who are experienced, ready, and willing.

interesting info, thanks for that. In your opinion a score of 90 is good, very good isn't it for your overall score? I am thinking coyle are not doing as well these days and there are not as many shops available anymore.