I’m a pretty regular Coyle shopper, having done probably 50 shops in the last few years. Nearly all my shops have been restaurant shops. In the past I’ve done a mix of fine dining shops ($100+ reimbursement, bar+table service, with the long detailed reports Coyle is known for) and casual or takeout shops ($30ish reimbursement, shorter reports).

But in maybe the past six months, I’ve been unable to get assigned any fine dining shops. When new shops are listed I’ll apply for a mix; I’ll often get assigned the casual shops within a day but the fine dining applications will be waiting for a few days and then disappear.

I think I haven’t been assigned a fine dining shop since a few months ago when I dropped one relatively last-minute after the shop was changed from a brunch shop to a dinner one without asking or notifying me.

I can’t tell if I’m imagining things or if there’s just a lot of demand for the fine dining shops, or if I’m somehow blacklisted from them or just not preferred for some reason. Does anybody have any insight or know how to get back in Coyle’s good graces?

If you worked with a scheduler, I would reach out to that person.

@wulflov are you applying for locations you have been to before? And what is your average score percentage?

There is a lot of competition from other shoppers these days, because many people are trying to find way to cut down on costs more than in the recent past. I have thousands of fine dining assignments under my belt for them and probably one of the highest ratings of any shopper, and I am regularly passed over for even basic dining shops.

Coyle puts a priority on putting a new shopper into a location before repeating one, and doesn't like to repeat at shopper at a fine dining location ever, if they have that option. When I apply for new location and state in my application I have not been there before, I am much more likely to get that shop.

What is a desired score with Coyle? I am in the high 90's and often do not get the shops I want...

As usual @SteveSoCal will have the most insights but at this point I don’t think your score is that big a factor in getting assignments (as long as it isn’t awful). With all the easy parking assignments on the board someone can earn a very high score pretty easily these days. (Although ironically with the inconsistent editing I recently had a parking editor ask me eight questions and issue a bogus reduced score that I didn’t bother to fight. The same week I did a $1400 hotel stay and got zero editor questions and a 100 score.)

@NinS wrote:

I don’t think your score is that big a factor in getting assignments (as long as it isn’t awful).

I think if a scheduler doesn't know you, they are going to look at 2 things; Your score and your assignment history, so having 100% and 3 parking shops is not the same as having 98% and 100 restaurants...but having below 96% or so will make a difference, since most of the top shoppers live in that 96-100% range.

I get marked down all the time for things that don't make any sense, but chalk that up to Coyle assigning new editors to my submissions when training them. I got a deduction last week for not writing objectively on a restaurant assignment from an editor I have never seen before, and then also got a 100% with no questions on a resort shop the same day. The thing is, I have so many completed shops now, the deduction only lowered my score by 0.02%, so I don't bother pushing back.

The hotel schedulers know me and I get most of what I ask for in hotels/resorts, but am passed over for the majority of the dining assignments I apply for, so I am pretty sure it's just a very competitive market right now. It frees me up to not have to do ANY favors for the scheduling team, at least. In the past, I would get an email begging me to take an undesirable shop last day of the month and feel obligated to help out, but now I just reply, "No thank you."

I have a few hundred restaurant shops with Coyle, and I agree that it probably isn't the score, but that they prefer new shoppers in fine dining shops. In the beginning, once I had proven myself with a number of 100% scores, I was getting just about every single fine dining shop I applied for. But then after I did every location, I found that I almost always get passed over for the same places, months later. And when I am traveling and apply for a shop that I have never done before, I almost always get it. So, I am basically seconding what SteveSoCal already said. I personally have not had luck with the schedulers emailing me back about how to improve my chances of getting picked. I once asked them the rotation for a certain upscale chain, and the response I got back was - "Just apply and we will decide whether to assign you."

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2024 12:19AM by laloweryshops.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I think if a scheduler doesn't know you, they are going to look at 2 things; Your score and your assignment history, so having 100% and 3 parking shops is not the same as having 98% and 100 restaurants...but having below 96% or so will make a difference, since most of the top shoppers live in that 96-100% range

I have not had an editor question in over two years. I haven't had feedback in forever from them.
Where is my overall score? I can't find it. TIA

@BayShopper22 When your shop gets approved you should receive an email titled, "Your Mystery Shop Results". Check your junk mail, perhaps?

The email has both the score from the shop and your overall score below that. Scoring is not available on the Coyle site, @Okie

@laloweryshops There is no official rotation for any Coyle shops, but since they have grown, they have no choice but to repeat shoppers at times, for some locations. Unofficially, it's a year for restaurants and never for hotels, but after a decade, I was granted permission to repeat all of the hotels for a particular chain. One of their sales tactics to clients is saying that they don't repeat shoppers, so they do it as infrequently as possible.

I did a lot of the long running clients in their system they used before Shopmetrics, so they cannot actually see that I am repeat shopper for some shops. I usually put a statement in my application saying I have not evaluated the location before, or mention the time that has passed since my last shop.

I have applied over and over again for one shop until I finally decided on my own that one visit it is in a lifetime. Not the highest paid shop, but my type of food. My grade overall is 98+%. I see from the comments that I am marked down for their requirements regarding their description conventions. Hard to do when you need to use caps, parenthesis, periods, dashes, spaces; enter them in the description field and then do it again in the narrative. I try to concentrate and place these in the the first encounter narratives but I guess, copy and paste, going back and forth does not always work.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@BayShopper22 When your shop gets approved you should receive an email titled, "Your Mystery Shop Results". Check your junk mail, perhaps?

Nope. Last time they sent one was 2022. I had a 97% then. Oh well. I think that I have emails turned off because one bounced a million years ago. I can't turn them back on. They are still assigning me and still paying me, so all is good. Last time I got an email from them, the bartender took my cash and pocketed it. Otherwise, they have no questions, and apparently until today, neither did I.

I was getting emailed scores from Coyle until mid May. Since then crickets. I do see a composite score on the ShopMetrics app and it has budged a bit since then so they are still keeping track. I don’t see that information on their website.

So I had been assigned a shop at one establishment for different dining periods (weekend brunch vs weekday dinner).

Something happened in the system, where I got an email telling me to confirm an assignment. I logged in and noticed one of my shops was missing. The one that they were telling me to confirm was back in my account, but it looks like they changed the reimbursement amount to $25 less than before.

Anyway, I emailed about the missing shop and reapplied for it since it was back on the board.

After several emails, they told me that they were just updating the form. They did not mention the decrease in reimbursment.

I asked when the other shop would be reassigned. The response was that it had been given back to me.

I mentioned that it had not. She then told me that I was only allowed to have one.

I made the mistake of telling her I had done the brunch before and asked to do the dinner one instead.

She then told me she had to take away the brunch as well claiming that we are only allowed to do one location every 12 months.

I must have missed this since I can not find it anywhere on the shop log. Is it true? Are we only allowed one location a year?

I really would have liked better communication from Coyle. This isnt the first time assigned shops have mysteriously disappeared from my inbox.

Ive also noticed that the reimbursement amounts have not been fully reimbursed (usually only by a dollar or two). I don't bother contacting them ahout the minor change, but one was around $20 short. I emailed and they said they fixed it, but this hasn't been confidence building, especially considering we aren't making money on these evaluations.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2024 07:34PM by MHN.

@Okie It's pretty safe to consider it one year for dining. Never for hotels. I doubt they will ever post an official rule on rotation.

I also do a few specialty assignments for them where I am in regular rotation monthly/quarterly, so it's a constantly evolving situation, and you just learn from whatever communication you can get from the scheduling team.