Archived additional back ups to the lanes....

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 18, 2013
Messages
106
So as a sales floor team leader, does anyone get frustrated with the INSANE amount of backups that (or at least at my store....) lately? It seems within the past year we've been getting hit really hard with back ups after back ups after back ups. I work a set schedule including a majority of mornings and a closing and definitely expect it when I close. But at 10 am? And if it isn't the lanes, its the service desk. If it's not the service desk its the pharmacy. If not that it's target cafe. Or the back room needs help pulling. Or in stocks needs help with getting their task list done. Or the cart attendant needs helps pushing in carts cause he's behind. These are all things I did today. In addition to covering 2 electronics 15 min breaks and their lunch. and a covering the GSTL 30 min lunch. I am struggling to find anytime to work on anything in my areas because I'm either backing up somewhere or covering a break. Or we are so far behind on working the hourly pulls they need my help. Is there just something wrong with my store? Or is this everywhere? It's beyond frustrating.
 
As one of the two (we normally have four) hardlines team members on the floor on Monday, yes! I agree, it's been horrible! The push has been just ridiculous. The 4PM CAFs were about 30 or so, when on the usual Monday, it's 20.

Two guest service people have had to go home earlier because of headaches. Another one fell and hit her head, then came to work and said she might have to leave early.

And the cashier backup has been horrible. It's odd.
 
Welcome to no hours and crappy scheduling. At my store today the first hard lines TM didn't come in until 3pm.. It was one sales floor hard lines TL and process teams. Soft lines had one TL and 2 TM's one of which was the operator.. Hard Lines TL was pushing clearance, as was the SLTL, Plano ignores the radio and I only worked a 4hr shift in In-Stocks so I scanned my part of the task list and printed sub signs before I left.. I tried to hang some of the signs but the old folks home was in the store today and they are a riot so signs will go up tomorrow.. I was doing my part of guest service..
 
We had 1 cashier and a line long enough to think it was disneyland or something! Ended up having 4 other people jump on and still had 4-5 people per lane. Thanks Spot!
 
It is ridiculous at my store! The other day I was assigned to basically just superzone the A run because it looked horrible so I was pretty close to the lanes and there was only one other team member on that was supposed to respond to backups. Since I was so close the GSTL had no problem calling for backups every damn second. She would call for backup and most of the time I would go up and take one guest, thats it. It wasnt even busy but it seems like they always call for backup even if there is one person waiting in line. It really sets us behind when we have to run up there every minute. I would go up, take a guest or two, then go back to my zone. As soon as i got back to my zone "CAN WE GET A BACKUP TO THE FRONT LANES?!" I could have screamed that day. I was running back and forth constantly.
 
As a GSA at a ULV store I understand this concept all too well. I really do my best to avoid having to call for backup from the floor if possible because I understand just how tasked they are as well. Generally speaking as of these past few weeks our closing team is one person at IGS, one cashier and a GSA/GSTL. The GSA/TL has to zone usually Girls/Boys and is expected to help the CA with reshop/abandons. I usually zone my ass off early in my shift while we have a second cashier because after about 6pm every time we have any sort of rush I am the first responder. The Sales Floor team appreciates it because all of my peers refuse to check anyone out unless the situation is absolutely critical. For me it's much easier to hop on a lane and let the TLOD know they may be needed for assistance if an issue pops up than it is to call when we have maybe one SF TM other than the operator who can respond.
 
One concept one of my former higher volume stores did was to have all the salesfloor TMs rotate back up calls. When the alert goes off on the radio, the operator would call for a TM to report to the front lanes. It would start off hardlines then over to softlines and back. Then if its really backed up, the operator would call all available TMs to the front lanes.

However, this was a lot of redundant communication. Having the operator call over for which TM to report to the lanes. And if they were a guest, in the middle of something, or on break. It would be a fight to get someone else.
 
At my store plano has no choice but to ignore the radio or there workload will not get down. The are scheduled sometimes 10hr of work in an 8 he day. We have huddle impact and 1pm impact plus 2 15min breaks and a half. So the there is 2hr away from setting we only work an 8 her day. Now we're down to 6hrs, keep in mind they make have 10 hours of setting plus helping guest. Show me were there is time for plano to complete there workload for the week an respond to backups or phone calls.
 
Do any of have GSAs that call for backups when they don't need to? I'm so tired of being called up front only to find there is no need. Also for some reason they never tell each other which registers are not working. Every single day I'm moving guests to a different lane after they have some of their stuff on the belt.
 
Last edited:
Hell, I would just love if someone would respond to back up. It's gotten to the point that we hit the button, I call it out if I am jumping on or if we need back up, and if we need back up, no one responds half the time. Then I will eventually call for two back ups. And no one responds. My GSTL saw that first hand yesterday when he went back to market to grab some stuff for an endcap and all hell broke loose at the lanes. I told him that wasn't unusual, since people have figured out the LODs don't have our backs anymore. He said he would talk to the ETL-GE. Yeah, right. But for now, I continue to call it out, and if no one comes, I don't stress about it...if the LODs don't care, then I certainly don't get paid enough to care.
 
I'm sorry. I've posted in another thread about my store and Red Cards. I was on a lane one day for a back up. No one else was responding. We kept hitting the Additional Cashier buttons & I counted 8 requests for back ups from the GSA. Every register had long lines & the guests were not happy. Then the LOD comes across the walkie asking how many RCs the GSA had. LOD was going on & on about how the GSA needed to be on the walkie proving RCs. I looked at the GSA's face and just felt so bad. I felt bad for the guests, bad for the cashiers and really bad for the GSA. That exact moment epitomized the situation in our store.
 
Last edited:
As far as requests when help is not needed goes, every time we get a new ETL they holler over the walkie "Who's responding, guys?!" when the auto voice goes off. It's been SOP at my store since before I started to not respond unless someone with eyes on the lanes announces that they need backup on the GM or grocery side. Days with a new ETL and new cashiers who mash the button are the worst when it comes to unneeded laps to the front lanes.
 
How can you respond, if you are the only tm/tl on the Salesfloor. Just go for it! I have more done it than once. Just tell the operator & electronics to handle the Salesfloor. My lod's are finally jumping on the lanes to help out too.
Sales are more important than ever before.
 
The day I was pleading for back up, staring at several etls standing in the tsc ignoring my begging just did it in for me.
 
The day I was begging for back-up, I was standing in front of softlines & saw 3 SLTMs continuing to zone as they ignored my calls.
I caught the eye of one of the girls & she looked at me like "What?"
I asked her if she could please jump on a lane so she sighed heavily & stalked over to a lane.
When I mentioned it to the SLTL, she said "Oh, well they get called up so much that they can't get their zone done."
I reminded her how often I'd sent cashiers out to help softlines zone.
I also mentioned how often her TMs pick up cashier shifts only to get taken to softlines with the promise of "being the FIRST to respond for back-up" & it never happened.
 
We finally started making a list of who was responsible for responding for a guest first... Each sales floor TM gets a chunk of time that they're expected to come up if needed... it works pretty well bc the GSA/GSTL can call them out on the walkie, and their breaks aren't scheduled during their "chunk" so we know they're available. Our GSAs, GSTLs, and guest service TMs are really the only people who call for a guest first, so we usually don't have unnecessary guest first requests :)
 
We finally started making a list of who was responsible for responding for a guest first... Each sales floor TM gets a chunk of time that they're expected to come up if needed... it works pretty well bc the GSA/GSTL can call them out on the walkie, and their breaks aren't scheduled during their "chunk" so we know they're available. Our GSAs, GSTLs, and guest service TMs are really the only people who call for a guest first, so we usually don't have unnecessary guest first requests :)
That's what we used to do when I worked at Kohls about 9 years ago. Then there were certain chunks of time when it was everyone. Those were usually in the morning.
 
Do any of have GSAs that call for backups when they don't need to? I'm so tired of being called up front only to find there is no need. Also for some reason they never tell each other which registers are not working. Every single day I'm moving guests to a different lane after they have some of their stuff on the belt.

YES! It's like we work in the same store. Credit card reader doesn't work, hand held scanner doesn't work, out of bags.... etc. You name it, I've seen it. I hopped on a lane to have a cashier tell me it's not working. I'm thinking "why didn't you put an 'Out of Order' sign on the damn monitor, then?"

:shakes head, helps the one guest who's waiting, and then heads back out to the floor.:
 
Do any of have GSAs that call for backups when they don't need to? I'm so tired of being called up front only to find there is no need. Also for some reason they never tell each other which registers are not working. Every single day I'm moving guests to a different lane after they have some of their stuff on the belt.

YES! It's like we work in the same store. Credit card reader doesn't work, hand held scanner doesn't work, out of bags.... etc. You name it, I've seen it. I hopped on a lane to have a cashier tell me it's not working. I'm thinking "why didn't you put an 'Out of Order' sign on the damn monitor, then?"

:shakes head, helps the one guest who's waiting, and then heads back out to the floor.:

Whenever something is wrong with a register, I make a sign out of receipt paper and a marker and let the neighboring cashiers know to warn people before they head there. I just hate coming back to that register and there is no sign, so people think it's fixed, and then it's not working.
 
My GSAs/GSTLs call for backup more often if the STL is there. He's there pretty often, so we walk up and by the time we get there, they're already back at 1+1. Also, the person watching the lanes will go to the service desk and some overzealous cashier will push their button and we get there and they're either at 1+1 or there's another lane open that the guest(s) just didn't notice. So at my store we (salesfloor people) have become slow at responding because wolf has been cried too many times. We also have like 5 registers that don't work in some way. Pin pads not working, belts that don't move, lanes where only the handheld scanner work, etc etc. It's a pain. If I'm close, though, I'll look up and if it doesn't appear to be a b.s. call, I'll go. I don't like going for backup, but unfortunately backing up is just as much a part of the job as the zoning is.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top