I completed an evaluation a few days ago and it took a full 2 1/2 hours. I have done several of these and I do things to make it as efficient possible such as organizing all the pictures, having my receipts right here, etc.

The report are just so detailed and for me it is unrealistic I’m going to remember exact quotes from all the people dealt with. Honestly I make stuff up. Not to the extent that I’m totally fabricating things, but I make things up to the extent that I’m capturing the general gist of what really happened. I am a detail oriented person. In fact, my regular full-time job mandates attention to detail on a daily basis.

These restaurant shops are great for me because they do offer a generous reimbursement and these are typically really nice restaurants that are only five minutes from my house so in that respect, I feel like it’s kind of worth it. But every time I spend 2+ hours on the report, I say to myself this is the last one.

I even use ChatGPT to help jumpstart many of these narrative which get redundant quickly.

Fellow mystery shoppers, how long are you spending on these reports? Anyone else give up on Coyle? I’ve never had a shop rejected so there’s that.

Edit: if you are familiar with Coyle, you know they want actual quotes of things that people said. Like, you are using quotation marks in your narrative. I’m wondering if there’s anyone out there who actually remembers word for word what people said during the course of an entire dining experience evaluation.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2024 08:26PM by MS007.

Am I reading it right? You said you make up stuff to put on the report? Your words, "Honestly I make stuff up." That makes it hard for us to be a reliable and honest industry when things are made up just to fill out a report.

If you can't remember the exact quote be honest about it. Say something like "I was greeted by the server in a friendly tone. He welcomed me to the restaurant, identified if I was a repeat customer and then spieled the menu".
No need to lie

Let me clarify - if a host greeted me with a standard greeting and we had the typical exchange, I report those words to the greatest extent possible. During a normal dining experience, you might have a dozen exchanges of words with various staff members. They want exact quotes on all of this. Do people really remember exact multiple conversations, and have the ability to regurgitate them word for word?

Have you ever done a Coyle report? They actually want you to use quotation marks for these conversations. You can’t just say that the server greeted you cordially. You have to write down, in quotations, exactly what they said. I just think this is very unrealistic over the course of a whole evening, where you have multiple interactions with people.

VIV0412 - You’ve put your response in quotes. But that’s not what they want, and they will send it back for correction. They want you to (word for word), say exactly what the person said. That’s what quotation marks are used for; to surround actual words that came out of someone’s mouth.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2024 08:33PM by MS007.

Sorry duplicate

I wish I could do a Coyle report in 2.5 hours. It used to take me double. I used to be a lawyer before I changed careers, so I wrote for a living. For the quotes, I would text myself and had word for word quotes.

It probably takes me about an hour to do a report for a bar and dinner shop. I take a lot of notes on my phone but I never use quotes. I just do a general statement of how I was greeted, etc. Unless it is in the guidelines to remember a certain statement, I won't go out of my way to remember exactly what was said. Maybe you're being too hard on yourself? In the beginning, I was asked to provide more details on when things happen. Now that I have more time stamps, I don't get asked for edits anymore.

I think what was meant was they paraphrased what was said.

@MS007 wrote:

VIV0412 - You’ve put your response in quotes. But that’s not what they want, and they will send it back for correction. They want you to (word for word), say exactly what the person said. That’s what quotation marks are used for; to surround actual words that came out of someone’s mouth.

My quotes were not ment to be quotes in the report. More like me 'talking' to you on this forum kinda thing. More to separate my words.
I know what is expected in a Coyle report, I've done many. And I've never lied.

.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2024 01:06AM by wulflov.

Maybe I am making too much of this. There was one time recently on a Coyle report where I didn’t use exact quotes and quotation marks of what people said, and I was scolded for it.

I just record everything. Then I go back and either listen to the recording or have it transcribed, then copy & paste.

I put in the report I ordered the hibiscus beverage.
The follow up was please describe the flavor of the beverage. How do I do that? I already said hibiscus.
It is infuriating for sure.

After it took me all day to do the report for an upscale hamburger place for Coyle...(yes...hours...not just two...more like 8), I haven't done another. It was a nice meal, but not really a fancy dancy place...so not worth my time.

I used to be able to write up a standard restaurant/bar for Coyle in an hour (sometimes if I was really caffeinated - 45 minutes!). That has changed now - maybe because I am out of practice, maybe because they have added a whole additional "subjective" section on many of these restaurant/bar shops that wasn't there before (you used to put one line of subjective commentary at the end of each section), maybe something else...

Regarding quotes - generally they only want the opening and closing quote of the main players. So this is the opening and closing quote of the host that sat you, the server (and not each time the server comes to the table but just the initial greeting and final farewell), and the manager (if you interact). This doesn't mean what the server says to you each time he visits the table. At most we are talking six quotes - so make it a practice to write down in your phone those six quotes. If you are doing more quotes than this, you are doing too much and of course you aren't going to remember them all verbatim unless you are recording (note that Coyle prohibits recording explicitly, and if you are in a state that is two party consent - which many, many are - you really shouldn't be talking about recording).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2024 09:21PM by MickeyB.

Hibiscus seems pretty specific to me.

You can jot down the greetings or other exact statements on your phone's note-taking app or in an email or text to self, immediately after the server/busser/manager leaves. You could also wait until the server leaves and record your own voice (not theirs) repeating what they said to you.

For timings I use the free timestamp camera and take a photo--empty table right after server leaves, drink right after server leaves it, entree right after, 1st visit to check for satisfaction, etc.

@MickeyB wrote:

At most we are talking six quotes - so make it a practice to write down in your phone those six quotes.

Agreed with what Mickey says here. If you are not able to discreetly take these notes into a phone, then you are probably not going to be able to offer the required detail and be successful at Coyle shops. Nobody is expecting you to remember the quotes at the time you go to write the report. And there's a limited amount of things they will probably say, so develop a shorthand for it and the note taking will be much easier.

The reports are supposed to be redundant. It's technical writing, not a novel. I have probably done over a thousand of these now and honestly, there's no shortcut to take the work out of it. The fastest processes I have found is to simply sit at the keyboard for 45 minutes and bang out a narrative from scratch, then proof it against the checklist. Using templates, AI or voice to text is going to take more time in editorial and potentially leave more errors that simply writing the narrative from start to finish.

It sounds like you need an app. Yes, these take a fair amount of time. Some have been worth it to me and others, not so much.

Just use the app to get time stamps of what you need to. Add details on the opening and closing statements in the app in real time so you're not trying to remember the next day.

Take a photo when you get there, when you leave and whenever something comes to the table and you'll have all those times in your phone.

For the drinks, I usually write the same about the presentation, temperature, value, flavor (or whatever they are!) and say it was cold as expected, garnished attractively with x, the value was fair for the 16 oz size glass and the flavor was a little unbalanced. It was too tart, sweet, etc. Whatever they ask for for the food I do for the drinks. I'll mention if a drink is cold or weak, or strong, etc.

What app do you use for time stamps?

I use TimeStamp Camera Free. It is an Android phone app.

@las30 wrote:

What app do you use for time stamps?

My go to is Shop It (by Tarushi). It allows time stamped photos, discreet inputs of descriptions or occurrences. There is a function to calculate time between entries which helps with how long from ordering to delivery or other timing you need. There is a small cost to the program but it has been immensely useful in preparing my reports to Coyles satisfaction. I will use a shorthand that makes sense when writing the report (M, blk hr, ptail,beard, no gls, 5-10) etc contemporaneously.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2024 07:09PM by Msilk.

@MS007 wrote:

I even use ChatGPT to help jumpstart many of these narrative which get redundant quickly.

Re: the redundancy. I once did a hotel shop for them. For every assigned interaction, I was required to describe the employee, their name, did they wear a nametag, did they introduce themselves, and the exact greeting. There were at least 15 of these interactions over the 3 days. So in writing the report, I began each section with a fill-in-the-blank template for the employee part. This was also helpful to make sure that I didn't leave anything out. In the end they criticized me for using a template and writing the same thing repeatedly. The shop was accepted but I feel that is unreasonably nit-picky, especially when they want you to write in a technical and objective manner.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@MickeyB wrote:

At most we are talking six quotes - so make it a practice to write down in your phone those six quotes.

Agreed with what Mickey says here. If you are not able to discreetly take these notes into a phone, then you are probably not going to be able to offer the required detail and be successful at Coyle shops. Nobody is expecting you to remember the quotes at the time you go to write the report. And there's a limited amount of things they will probably say, so develop a shorthand for it and the note taking will be much easier.

The reports are supposed to be redundant. It's technical writing, not a novel. I have probably done over a thousand of these now and honestly, there's no shortcut to take the work out of it. The fastest processes I have found is to simply sit at the keyboard for 45 minutes and bang out a narrative from scratch, then proof it against the checklist. Using templates, AI or voice to text is going to take more time in editorial and potentially leave more errors that simply writing the narrative from start to finish.

Me three. It takes me about an hour to type up a bar and dinner shop if I do it on a desktop. Maybe 1.25 hours on my laptop. I think that if you understand their system, it is not really that difficult.

They still SUCK.

I think it's a question of what sucks more; Paying for the meal/hotel on your own, or jumping through the hoops of the evaluation AND writing the report.

I have the reports down pretty well. It's the jumping the hoops that starting to wear on me. I appreciate dining on my own whenever I want and ordering whatever I want more and more after years of MSing. I'm limiting myself to 2-3 dinners a month these days and find that doesn't burn me out.

I also don't MS for profit anymore. I just do it for the food and travel....

Cranberry like, tart and sweet wiith earthy notes.

@big_sky_thunder wrote:

I put in the report I ordered the hibiscus beverage.
The follow up was please describe the flavor of the beverage. How do I do that? I already said hibiscus.
It is infuriating for sure.

Dang, my phone is apparently too new, can't use the ShopIt App! Sad!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2024 08:45PM by kimkenkat.

I hope support for this app is not sunsetting. I depend on it for all my shops.