Archived Cashier Speed Removed

[Sanzano]

So an email went out saying cashier Speed would be removed completely starting early October so that we can focus on "creating a positive guest experience" instead of rushing people through. They're leaving it up to store leadership to coach on speed as needed.

Definitely a step in the right direction.

 

[Redzee]

Fantastic! Another archaic, condescending cashier directive gone the way of the dinosaurs. Or ten-key which cashiers had to learn way back in the day

 

[The Dude Abides]

lol my GSTL was just yelling at cashiers about speed score yesterday.

 

[defang]

YES YES YES YES YES thank GOD

Our store is the lowest speed in the district. I am SOOOOO happy right now!

 

[smashandthrash]

Happy for the GSTL's

 

[smashandthrash]

And cashiers. Them too.

 

[Sanzano]

My store is one of the worst in the group for Speed...thank the target gods.

 

[Xanatos]

removed completely

Removed completely. So, no G/R on the register at all?

 

[The Dude Abides]

To me the cashier speed metric was always broken to begin with. It was less a measure of line speed than it was a measure of how good the cashier was at gaming the system. I once had a streak of more than 150 consecutive green transaction by following a few simple rules:

1. If the guest has a large order or looks unorganized talk to them about the redcard while organizing items on the belt before scanning. (Not faster in real time, but it games the computer)
2. Remove all hangers before scanning anything, tissue wrap glass/ceramic items after pressing total. (Still not faster, just makes the transaction green)
3. Any delay of any kind ex. price check, guest can't find card, guest digging in wallet/purse for coin etc. warrants a suspend. Even if I just suspend it and then immediately pull it back up. (Causes the system to not count it as a transaction for speed purpose)

None of those actually made things faster in fact mostly it made the transaction slower, but it came up green every time.

 

[LaTarjetaRoja]

Well there goes my dastardly plan for being the designated backup of last resort via awful speed score

In all seriousness though, I kind of liked it as a fairly new non-cashier, as it was nice to have some feedback/baseline. But I can easily imagine how it may have frustrated full time cashiers, especially when transactions went red due to factors out of their control.

 

[NKG]

Ugh we have cashier that constantly goes in red and causes huge backups, removing the speed would allow him to create more frustrated guests.

 

[Xanatos]

Ugh we have cashier that constantly goes in red and causes huge backups, removing the speed would allow him to create more frustrated guests.

This is why I liked the cashier speed. Some cashiers are consistently below 80%. That's not because they can't game the system. That's not because they got unlucky and had a few slow guests. That's because they put no effort into moving quickly (or don't have the physical ability to do it). These are the ones that cause more lines (making guests wait more) and pulling extra people for backup (making people do extra work because you aren't fast enough to do it yourself).

I will say that my store approaches cashier speed in the worst way, mostly thanks to my etl-ge. We coach the people who have red scores and that's pretty much it. If someone has 10 transactions and 2 are red, that score is 80% and we think they suck. Then we have cashiers who have 500 transactions and a score of 85%. That looks better, but it has an enormous affect on the overall store score.

 

[SrTLall]

Generally, Target does not develop leadership well, soooo, removing a coaching crutch like the cashier speed report will practically put an end to coaching cashiers on speed.

 

[Xanatos]

Then they can go as slow as they please and rely on the rest of the store to pick up the slack.

 

[Coqui]

This is why I liked the cashier speed. Some cashiers are consistently below 80%. That's not because they can't game the system. That's not because they got unlucky and had a few slow guests. That's because they put no effort into moving quickly (or don't have the physical ability to do it). These are the ones that cause more lines (making guests wait more) and pulling extra people for backup (making people do extra work because you aren't fast enough to do it yourself).

I will say that my store approaches cashier speed in the worst way, mostly thanks to my etl-ge. We coach the people who have red scores and that's pretty much it. If someone has 10 transactions and 2 are red, that score is 80% and we think they suck. Then we have cashiers who have 500 transactions and a score of 85%. That looks better, but it has an enormous affect on the overall store score.

Sounds like "leadership" that doesn't know how to problem solve.

 

[TeamRed]

I get it in some ways speed scores is great it definitely helps pokeys who need to speed it up but on the other hand it is kinda frustrating when the guests slow you down writing checks or say wait I have change!!

 

[Coqui]

It is annoying but it won't be the sole reason why a cashier has a consistently red checkout time.

 

[Xanatos]

I get it in some ways speed scores is great it definitely helps pokeys who need to speed it up but on the other hand it is kinda frustrating when the guests slow you down writing checks or say wait I have change!!

Right but as long as you have more than 50 transactions or so, slow guests are no longer an excuse for being under 90%. At some point, it's you.

 

[beautybrand]

I understand speed being a metric to motivate the cashiers who are constantly red or yellow, but when I backup cashier and fly through scanning only to hit total and have the guest take minutes to figure out how they want to pay or pull up coupons or cartwheel or some other stuff, it's frustrating for me to get an R because of it.

 

[beautybrand]

And I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like I'm being rude when I'm scanning items really fast and knocking out the guest's transaction in a minute or two. It makes me feel like I'm rushing the guest, when really I'm just rushing the computer system. I don't like cashier speed being stressed so much, I like focusing on the guest experience.

 

[Coqui]

I understand speed being a metric to motivate the cashiers who are constantly red or yellow, but when I backup cashier and fly through scanning only to hit total and have the guest take minutes to figure out how they want to pay or pull up coupons or cartwheel or some other stuff, it's frustrating for me to get an R because of it.

That's why I think some GSTLs have the cashiers suspend those transactions. It happens but it's not going to happen every transaction.

 

[Xanatos]

I understand speed being a metric to motivate the cashiers who are constantly red or yellow, but when I backup cashier and fly through scanning only to hit total and have the guest take minutes to figure out how they want to pay or pull up coupons or cartwheel or some other stuff, it's frustrating for me to get an R because of it.

Truth. We shouldn't be yelling at backup cashiers about their speed. We already know they want to move quickly so they can get back to what they were doing. Plus it's not their main job. I wouldn't expect a cashier to zone as quickly as a veteran sales floor team member; I might tell them to move quicker so they know what a good pace is, but I know they won't give the same results.

 

[Xanatos]

So I guess my original question still stands. What does this actually mean? Is it being taken off of myPerformance, is it completely removed from the register entirely (no G/R after the transaction or percentage of G), or will it still be in myPerformance and just get ignored like the guest survey? (Guest survey is getting some changes soon, btw.)

Has anyone other than OP heard of this? I guess I'm just being impatient. This thread was created only a few hours ago.

 

[KingBear]

I guess I'm just being impatient. This thread was created only a few hours ago.

Would you give this thread an R?

 

[Xanatos]

Would you give this thread an R?

Yep. But 1 R isn't so bad, as long as you end up green long term.