Archived Does every Target store have a scan rate/percentage for cashiers?

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Flabbergasted

Ex-GSA
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I've been trying to find threads/searching Google for something on the scan rate/percentage system for cashiers. At our store, this is what we have, so I assume it must be something that the other stores have too. If that's the case, why can't I find anything on it?

If anyone knows what I'm talking about, I'd like to know how the system determines when I did "good" ('G') on a transaction and when I did "bad" ('R'). My trainer said we should keep our percentage above 80% (the percentage being the number of transactions where you scored a 'G').

Thanks!
 
Scores are based on overall speed of the transaction, starting when you scan the first item, and ending when you either close the drawer completing the transaction, or if its a card, when the receipt prints out.

It's affected by different things, mostly the number of items, and the form of payment is taken into account as well from my understanding.

For example, one item shouldn't take more than 30 to 45 seconds from start to finish.... Unless the person is paying by cash, hasn't opened their wallet until after its been rung up, and counts out exact change, thus giving you a red score.

The Rs or Gs are averaged out, and I believe 90% overall is green.
 
88% or above is considered a green score by the system. You can see this on the POS screen when between transactions. I don't know how the actual metric is calculated, it could be on workbench somewhere or it might not be. I wouldn't stress over it overly much though, unless your score is down in the 70s or 60s on a consistent (weeks+ after a month or so in position probably) basis I doubt anyone will even give it a second glance. Conversion rate is much more of a thing, but even then nobody's getting fired at least at my store over it as long as they're not skipping prompts and/or never asking.

One tiny trick to buy yourself a little bit of time for little old ladies digging in their purse for that last penny or whatever or on single item transactions is to hit total then back out then total again, buys you maybe an extra 20 seconds. You will sometimes get unavoidable red scores though, comes with the territory.
 
I think it's total BS that it continues to time once you hit total. How long the guest takes to pay is COMPLETELY out of your control. We have a guest in pharmacy who doesn't even start looking in her black hole of a pocketbook for her red card until we've completely finished ringing out her items. No kidding, there have been times it's taken her a few minutes to locate it, she has so much crap in it and it's HUGE!!!
 
The guest behind the guest who can't locate their REDCard doesn't care if it's the cashier or the guest...all they know is that the transaction in front of them is taking too long. But the occasional guest with speed issues will not drag your speed score down significantly if you are a fast cashier.

That said, speed is not tracked on registers not at the front lanes.
 
Like Retail Girl said, speed score is only tracked at the front lanes. I do remember the speed score formula but this was from ages ago so this may have changed.

Each item you scan adds time based on how long on average it should take you to scan it. Hard lines adds 4 seconds to the timer, soft lines 6 seconds due to speedbumps. This is why you may notice a long transaction with multiple items still is green if there is a lot of small items scanned. Keying in quantities does not have any affect on that, the barcode or dpci must be entered. Then depending on the type of tender you get time added also. Cash adds the lowest amount of 20 seconds to the time, credit is 25 or 30, gift card is 30, debit is 40 and checks are 40 also. Keep in mind those numbers are mostly from memory.

So here is how a normal transaction could be calculated:

10 HL items adds 40 seconds, 10 SL items adds 60 seconds to timer. Then the guest decides to pay with debit, adding another 40 seconds. This means that the transaction should be finished within 140 seconds, or 2 min 20 seconds. If it isn't it's considered red.

This explains the frustration I received most of the time ringing a guest as a GSTL that had like a sods and candy bar. You only get 8 seconds to scan it, plus the guest pays with cash so the transaction must be done within 28 seconds. Very easy to miss that if you're talking about red cards or the survey.

Again this info is from my memory reading workbench circa 2007-8 so this may be outdated.
 
That makes a huge amount of sense to me, so thank you so much! I've found I am generally our fastest cashier...can scan a couple of items, stop to help the cashier next to me, and come back and finish my order and still get a green. Even hangers, when I can't take them off at the beginning, don't slow me down into red, and now I get why.

We have a few cashiers who, every time there is a little problem that might slow them down a second, hit the suspend button, which honestly, might help their speed score, but ends up slowing down their lane overall. If they would just work on being a bit faster on their "normal" orders, their speed score would naturally go up and they wouldn't have to worry about suspending everything.
 
We have a few cashiers who, every time there is a little problem that might slow them down a second, hit the suspend button, which honestly, might help their speed score, but ends up slowing down their lane overall. If they would just work on being a bit faster on their "normal" orders, their speed score would naturally go up and they wouldn't have to worry about suspending everything.

It really is faster not to suspend. When you retrieve the order, it takes half a year to bring all the items back up.

If I remember correctly, the cashier training guide says that you shouldn't suspend transactions for the purpose of manipulating your speed score. Also, a lot of suspended orders might raise some red flags with AP.
 
I usually suspend the Oder when it is cash and the guest is taking forever to count exact change or when it is a kid who brought their piggy bank to buy somthing. I don't do it too often so I don't get in trouble.
 
When I train someone on cashier, I tell them not to worry at all for the first 2-3 weeks. If your ringing on a regular basis the speed will come. No one is going to come after you for a low speed score when you start. It is more important to worry about talking about red card (I can't believe I just said that), and developing at least a semi neat packing/sorting technique while still being friendly and pleasant. After a couple weeks a cashier should start actively trying to meet the speed score and figure out what needs to be done if it isn't coming completely naturally. Some people need to pull the hangers and pack after the transaction is done. If so, so be it. When I have a lot of individual glassware, I scan it first and let the guest know I will wrap it when I am finished with everything else.

If you are not a cashier but occasionally ring don't worry about speed score at all unless you are hoping to pick up extra shifts as a cashier.

"I had a lady have to dig thru THREE wallets the other day looking for her red card.... Ugh."

Even worse is after searching through 3 wallets, she gives up and wants to pay part in cash, digging again, and part on another CC earning you a R and a prompt. And then has a second transaction in which she gives up on the Red card but still wants to put $10 in cash and the rest on a card.
 
20 cents... I had toe guests put 20 cents on their cards last week.

I have no idea what our speed is supposed to be, no clue what to be improving.... I never had that training.
 
Tips for improving speed score are to use 2 hands while scanning, remove hangers before you start scanning or after you have hit total, and to remind your guest that they can swipe their card at any time and they do not need to wait for you to finish the transaction. Hitting suspend for a guest that is taking a long time to make their payment is ok, it essentially nullifies your transaction meaning that it does not count towards your number of transactions.
 
I never really cared about using tricks to keep myself Green, and in general was never worried about my speed score. If I knew I was going to get an R for a slow person, didn't really care much. Think I was always around 95-98%, and honestly theres no reason everyone shouldn't be 90%+ unless you're slow.

I would get the "Cashier Trending Red" alerts from time to time on my PDA, and it kinda struck me as sad for how slow some people were.
 
I disagree that there is no reason you shouldn't be under 90. Case in pint, yesterday... I was at 100%, one guest dug and dug... And dug and dug.... I went really yellow from that point on looking at the number, but I was GGGRGGGRGGGGR, etc. I'm fast, my score is all related to payment slowness. But some days you just cannot dig put from all of those slow guests. Oh and I've never been told my score beyond what I see. Of course, I've never had my review either....

We had a cashier that made someone else log onto her register to get rid of a slow number.... She obviously doesn't understand computers ;)
 
I never really cared about using tricks to keep myself Green, and in general was never worried about my speed score. If I knew I was going to get an R for a slow person, didn't really care much. Think I was always around 95-98%, and honestly theres no reason everyone shouldn't be 90%+ unless you're slow.

I would get the "Cashier Trending Red" alerts from time to time on my PDA, and it kinda struck me as sad for how slow some people were.

Yep, if you're fast, you can generally make it up if you are at a register for a while. There are days, of course, when that just won't happen, but there is no reason that over an entire week a cashier shouldn't be green. We do have some cashiers that have been there for years and are always in the mid 80s week after week. They get so worked up over every little thing, they slow themselves down instead of just calmly scanning the items and doing their jobs.

If I can back up cashier, step away in the middle of an order to help another cashier, come back and finish and order and still be green on a transaction, there is no way that another cashier should ever been red doing the same order.
 
It's a rolling average, so generally if you are fast the overall average will show it. I don't think i've ever seen or heard of a coaching about cashier speed unless the cashier was just that awful.
 
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