Archived "Ding, Ding" Night Service

[importracer98]

Hi All-

I was wondering how many stores out there are using Night Service to answer calls? My store has been doing this for a while for both day and night shifts. Softlines is limited to 3-2 team members a night and in order for the scheduled operator to zone and put away foreign they have to use night service, answering calls from a cordless phone after the "dings". To me personally this makes our store look and sound bad. I've had guests come to me asking what is that noise, and it just doesn't make a retail store stand out in a good way. Has this become the norm now for Target Stores??

 

[Cel]

My store does this 100% of the time. Fitting Room Operator doesn't come in until 11 AM so before 11 the GSA has to answer the phone and there is nobody in softlines. After 11 softlines has 1-2 TMs until close (1 after 8 PM) so basically for anything to ever get done in Softlines, they need a cordless phone.

 

[redandkhaki]

this is done never at my store. HR answers the phone from 730-5, fitting room covers breaks, and fitting room answers from 5-close.

 

[nolongerspecial]

We never use night service during the day. The leaders go ballistic if even one gets through to night service at like 8:03.

 

[tgtguy]

We don't have anyone at the fitting room anymore ( at my store) so either its on night service or the calls are routed to the service desk.

 

[salesfloor10]

It's on night bell at my store from 8-9am usually (when we're without guest service coverage) and the GSA/gstl answers it, same with 9-10pm when guest service is closed.
The night bell drives me insane! It's so loud and annoying!!

 

[paidtosmile]

We always use the night bell. It doesn't ding more than once or twice before somebody gets to the phone, though.

 

[Elandora]

We have always left the bell on for phone calls in my 5 years there... the operator has to zone and carries a cordless.

 

[CIHYFS]

This really opens my eyes to how different every Target is. In our store the HR team is responsible for answering phone calls in the TSC and they have someone scheduled the entire time the store is open. Fitting room covers breaks and lunches when there is only one HR TM working.

 

[Retail Girl]

We used to have it on night service...then we got new phones and they couldn't get it to go back on. Serious pain in the butt, now.

 

[BullseyeBabe]

We are lucky. We have FRO, thank goodness!

 

[wilwum]

We forward to a cordless that's based at the jewelry boat. Night service goes on in the morning when there isn't an operator yet, but since myTime started there is basically always someone back there.

 

[importracer98]

Does anyone here find this "ghetto" for a huge retail store? I worked for target for 5 years and never heard that "ding" until the store was closed or before the doors were open. This is a testament on how target is not being managed correctly and how limited the sales floor is on team members. It's just sad.

 

[importracer98]

We are lucky. We have FRO, thank goodness!

What's FRO?

 

[redeye58]

Fitting Room/Operator.

 

[RunForACallBox]

I haven't heard ours in like a year, then out of nowhere during the middle of the day it just goes off, everyone had this puzzled look on their face.

 

[SoftlinesSquirrel]

Even though we have been having an FRO team member for most of the day now after MyTime rolled out, we generally keep it on night ring since there will only be the FRO and one other person in softlines. We're usually pretty good at answering the phone on the first or second ring so it's generally not an issue unless we're on break. Then it may beep forever until the LOD gets on the walkie.

Only time the phone isn't on night ring (at least recently) is when the STL is in the building. He seems to hate it, although I wonder if part of it is a misunderstanding on his part. I've gotten the sense that he thinks we can answer the phone via cordless whether or not the phone is on night ring which is incorrect. Drives me nuts when he's there though. While I like the night bell partly out of convenience (I don't have to run from the complete other side of RTW for example), I like keeping reshop clear when possible, and if he's there, the BGI reshop tends to pile up since I can't do that and hear the phone at the desk.

 

[SpotSpondee]

My store requisitioned a handful of new cordless phone for a few departments so we can forward calls amongst each other so someone/anyone can answer. We are so shorthanded that our fr person has to be able to zone more than just rtw. Although we have one person who won't venture out further than 5 steps outside rtw, cordless or not.

 

[mrknownothing]

The only time our night bell rings during open hours is if the opening operator hasn't gotten to the fitting room yet to turn it off. When we were super short on hours before MyTime, we'd be without an operator for the first half hour or so, but MyTime gives us fitting room coverage during all open hours.

 

[sigma7]

The only time the phone goes overhead is when the operator is running late and isn't at the desk by the time we open. And then it went to night service randomly the other day and the operator couldn't figure out how to get it to go back.

If we had the phone go overhead then all we would hear all day long is "ding, ding, ding...." Do other stores not have calls lighting up the phone 75% of the day? During Q4 youcan forget about the operator getting anything done other than few rap and trying to keep returns organized.

 

[MrBullseye]

Our phone system screwed up on a Saturday a few weeks or maybe months ago... And wouldn't come off night bell. Our forecast that day was something absurd like 190k, so it was busy as you can imagine... The bell was going off nonstop. Sales floor spent most of the day answering phones to stop the fresking rings.

 

[SoftlinesSquirrel]

Haven't had that happen, but the closest we had was when one weekend the night bell didn't work. It would ring, but it was impossible to pick up any calls. The phone would just ring until the person disconnected. Taking it off night bell was also a problem, since if somebody was trying to get through at that time, that call wouldn't then transfer to the desk.

 

[importracer98]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the cordless phone the FRO team member carried with them when they zoned or put away reshop to ring instead of that annoying "Ding, Ding, Ding?". If there cannot be a dedicated FRO then I think target should make this happen, I'm sure we are annoying guests.

 

[importracer98]

Also our store lowered the volume of the PA system so the "Dings" wouldn't be so loud (when they first started doing this the volume would hurt your ears), even with the reduced volume they are pretty annoying. So now when the operator does the closing announcements you can't even hear it. Around 10pm when our store closes the lights go off and I can always see the surprised/puzzled look on guest faces.

 

[SoftlinesSquirrel]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the cordless phone the FRO team member carried with them when they zoned or put away reshop to ring instead of that annoying "Ding, Ding, Ding?". If there cannot be a dedicated FRO then I think target should make this happen, I'm sure we are annoying guests.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't be possible. The way the phones are hooked up, the only way to answer from the cordless is if it's on night bell. If it's not on night bell, it goes straight back to the fitting room.