Except for beauty and electronics, which doesn’t have TLs anymore. Our ETLs are running all over the store and helping push and other tasks because we are understaffed and apparently short on hours. The only Etl I ever see I front of a computer is our HR.
Free time? FREE TIME? Are you effing kidding me?! I have not had one second of "free time" save my breaks and lunches since I started with this company over a year ago! Trust me when I tell you this: my store is not even a top-tier store, and anyone in Softlines who claims they have no work to do is lying or lazy AF. Softlines never, ever has nothing to do. Never ever ever.
I agree with that. If you are logged in under Market on the zebra, those are the calls that should be coming through.
You shouldn't be answering all calls if you have logged in to your area. Unfortunately, we can't control the caller, who may not select the correct department. but most of those calls go to GM.
You summarized the real situation very well. There might be non-retail types of businesses where this operating model works well. On paper, it could theoretically work at Target but as you said getting this new system to work at a nationwide company with 1,849 stores and 39 distribution centers isn't cheap. A big retail company like Target might have to stop constantly hiring high-school and college students off the street to work randomly-scheduled hourly shifts, and focus instead on hiring people with a few years of real-world work experience that would prepare them for this type of business environment. These kinds of experienced workers, unlike the high school and college students who will just blindly follow orders, won't accept an offer unless they can obtain a full-time job with benefits combined with upward mobility potential, thorough cross-training and realistic amounts of time to complete specific tasks and functions.
My phone already rings to electronics and I don’t answer it when I’m busy.
That is how it used to be when I was first hired and for several months. In Softlines we had closers (minimum three, sometimes four) come in at 3 or 4 until close, and ALL they did was zone, except for the fitting room/Mens TM, who also sorted reshop. We used to have very good closes in Softlines, with no one really having trouble completing their area, even if the store was rough at the beginning of the shift.
If people are answering the zebras the way the should be, then very few calls should bounce back to the "operator". Having that phone located at the fitting room is fruitless in our store because we do not have coverage there for hours at a time. They are probably moving it to GS because at least there is someone there most of the day, and maybe they will be more vocal about complaining if floor TMs aren't answering their calls. Softlines is too wimpy (myself included), but if the store is told that this is the way it is with the new system, I will find my voice real quick. I've come at 6 for a four hour shift and had dozens of missed calls at the fitting room - one day recently that number was 90. So that means that no one was answering the zebra and no one picked up at the fitting room for hours. Not exactly great guest service.
You do know only so many people can be signed into the phone tree at any given time and if they are busy or on break or lunch than what? What if your guest advocate is busy at guest service and doesn't answer up there? I guess they go on a final. The phone system/tree is so flawed still, more than just the number of people that can be connected. Don't believe me just wait. You are so quick to judge a team member not getting the phone without realizing just like MoDeRiZaTiOn it in itself has just as many issues.
