Archived Electronics Scheduling

[jjman114]

Hey all, long time visitor, first time poster here. I'm a electronics tm at a ULV store and I just have a question for some other electronics tm's, especially ULV store tms. Lately I've been finding myself scheduled solo for just about every one of my shifts here post BF when guest traffic begins picking up. It's not a big deal with us being ULV the other 10 1/2 months of the year but this time of year it's a stretch often times for 1 person to be able to effectively service guests, set salesplans and research elec/mmb with the increased guest traffic. The guy I left today looked like a deer in the headlights when I said I was leaving and he said,"You mean I'm alone all night?" I love working in electronics and I enjoy what I do but I'm just lookin for a little feedback from other tms in electronics on how scheduling typically works for you during the 4th quarter so I know if this is common or not(it's my first 4th quarter on the floor). Thanks for any feedback and I'm glad to have found this site, it's such an asset for us tm's!

 

[Rock Lobster]

The answer you are looking for will depend on your store unfortunately... Even ULV stores will differ between each other because you could be a store that is mostly selling in grocery and not electronics, or a store that requires alot more flow hours for some reason, or maybe you aren't making goals and hours are getting cut? There are more factors than we are probably aware that go into the STL allocating hours! All I can say is that you could tell your TL you think there are scheduling issues/not enough hours being allocated to give guest service and see what they say... More likely than not they won't budge because its fourth quarter and everyone struggles this last stretch!

 

[TMOfTheCentury]

Were a low volume store and we get tm for electronics by themselves, we may have the electronic tl in the mornings to help out for backup and break coverage and for closing, we have tm in toys help out if needed. That's how my store works. Same for weekends.

 

[nolongerspecial]

I'm in an ULV store and I started making a big deal about this in the middle of summer since they kept us scheduled to a bare minimum last Christmas. They tried to pull it this year, our service scores took a nosedive, and then they started throwing more hours at us then we know what to do with.

 

[greatteam]

Easy (yet non-brand) solution: Let every callbox request go to 3rd request. After a week with service scores blazing red, they'll do something about it.

At least that's what my store did..now we have 2 cashiers and 2 TM's at all times for 4th quarter back in Electronics

 

[jjman114]

greatteam, yeah that's unfortunately one of the few ways to get their attention when it comes to scheduling allocation. Our service scores in electronics have been near the top of the district for a little while now, maybe that does have something to do with the lack of hours for electronics. I've been trying to find the right way to broach the topic with our HR ETL.

 

[eleuthreophile]

I agree that letting scores get red will get them to do something. I wouldn't let ALL buttons go to third request, because it'll look too obvious when the scores suddenly take a huge nosedive. I would let them get worse and worse week by week, until someone does something.

At my store (for comparison, our goal on BF was $385k), we usually have our first electronics TM come in at 9, sometimes 10, and there's usually no overlap. Over the weekends, there's sometimes a mid that comes in around 11 or 12. We need more people though; I'm on instocks and whenever I do anything on electronics, I spend more than half my time helping guests, which wastes my precious instocks hours, lol.

Maybe you could tell your ETL-HR that guests are having to wait for service because often all available TMs are with guests, and that you need more people scheduled back there. If you don't have enough TMs that know electronics, you could suggest scheduling a cashier back there (whichever cashier knows the most about electronics, especially service plans), so that the TMs who do know E&E are free to service guests.

 

[jjman114]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I love having this site as a resource and being able to bounce questions off of other tm's. I just talked to one of our hardlines team leads who is an overseer of electronics and she told me that they will start scheduling more mids to help out with guest service, I didn't even really have to say much to her she said it was a company thing that had just been talked about for our store. However she said that the main reason we're being allocated more hours in electronics isn't for service...it's for help with our attachment score. Because whenever we have people help out with guests they aren't always electronics familiar tm's so they miss some ops for attachments/esps and I can understand that. But my ETL tends to make me feel like crap for our attachment score and gives us zero credit for effort being there. Just a ? do ETL's get bonuses for green attachment scores at their store? It just seems like mine has an alterior motive for coming down hard on us for attachments even tho we are all seriously trying.

 

[eleuthreophile]

As far as I know, ETLs only get bonuses for payroll reasons (this is probably why sometimes they won't give us the hours we need). I know that corporate recently changed the scoring for AAR, so that you have to get more attachments to be green, so possibly the DTL is coming down on the STLs about scores, since as far as I've heard, most stores went from a green AAR to either red or just barely yellow, and, of course, the world will end if anyone has a score that's not green.

 

[jjman114]

Haha itsamutiny, so so true about our scores. We don't hear too much positive chirping about our 3.80 electronics service score, just the AAR lol.

 

[eleuthreophile]

My eyes just about bugged out of my head. 3.80?! Daaaaaamn. And here I was, super proud of my 3.70 regular-priced instocks score. How do you guys keep it so high with the scheduling issues you talked about?

 

[jjman114]

Well, about a month and a half ago we started speaking to every guest about the surveys on the receipts, not just telling them but physically highlighting the survey portion and our number of electronics surveys went from averaging 2-3 per week to close to 10 per week and our scores went from 3.23(blushing red) to solid green in about a month or so, so it wasn't poor service we were giving but rather a lack of store surveys being taken and 1 bad score out of 2-3 will tank any service score as I'm sure you know. I'm a little surprised myself that our service scores haven't dropped recently with the increased guest traffic and guests having to wait for someone to get over to assist me, maybe those guests aren't the ones taking the surveys lol. Your instocks score is awesome tho, I do instocks on rotating weekends at our store and I'm not sure where we're at, but lately we've been having issues with our PDAs dropping signal after you scan 3-4 rigs and on Sunday I must've switched PDAs 3 times and rebooted many more, we've had to mysupport our issue, as it sometimes affects standalone research scanning as well. Any issues at your store with using the Instocks or Research apps?

 

[eleuthreophile]

That PDA issue sounds horrific. Holy god.

The only instocks issues at my store really revolve around issues with pushing (according to best practice, SF is supposed to push all instocks batches, but they never do, and also people just don't push accurately), and issues with a specific TM, who does probably 60% of the work I manage to get done on an average day. It's infuriating, and my TL agrees with me, but my ETL just doesn't get it, apparently. All the apps are working fine (although sometimes POG batches mysteriously never appear in the PDA).

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

On PDA issues, ck your routers in the ceiling. When they create dead zones, you are stuck like a duck. We had to replace 4 of them after p-fresh upgrade.

 

[Stuckinsoftlines]

Our Instocks team scans mmb and electronics and our Tl sets sales planners if the overnight presentation team didn't get to it already then all the tl's in the building are cross trained so when the tm in electronics needs help were there I often just hop on the register for him and ring out people or while he unlocks everything for guests and puts it on the boat.

We do sometimes have a mid and you would think with this economy people would show up to work...most the time we have a call off somewhere in the store and the mid becomes a calf pusher or the mid calls off.
I'd say the key to surviving is team support partner with you to or etl see what you guys can do

 

[commiecorvus]

I've been doing signing in electronics and got stuck there for an hour or two helping out.
I usually help customers with the computer, apple, media and some of the gaming stuff. I'm not very good on the cameras.
It amazes me that they still don't schedule someone till 9:00 and will grab whoever is handy for breaks.
There are times when there should be a hardlines person assigned to toys as well.

 

[jjman114]

I'll mention the router problem to my STL and SFT guy and see if they would be willing to check to make sure they're all functioning correctly thanks for the tip! Today we were bailing water for a little while with light SF scheduling so when I did call for backups there was maybe 1 or 2 salesfloor tm's to backup lol. Kudos to our LOD/ETL Logistics for not only backing up in electronics for a while but also calling out to make sure someone answered when I called for backup or break coverage today in electronics. I seriously hope our ETL-Logistics does stick around for longer than the typical 18-month training the out of college execs seem to get at our store with us being ULV.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

3 ways to fix/check routers or antennas:
1. Reset the routers at control room
2. Walk around the areas of the store & look for weak signal. Ours was in electronics stockroom & sf. We got a new booster & works great. Using the PDA/lpda, there some tiny green bars that show your signal strength. It will turn yellow when signal is weak. Watch it & that help you find the weaknesses.
3. Look on workbench for ideas
4. Avoid calling helpless desk first. Try above.

 

[mrknownothing]

4. Avoid calling helpless desk first. Try above.

Nice!

 

[Darikona]

You will need to partner with the Salesfloor TLs and ETL to encourage backup responses. A lot of guests will just be happy knowing that we are aware they are there waiting and trying to get someone to help them. Just remember who was waiting first and direct salesfloor Team members to that guest asap.

 

[mrknownothing]

I just talked to one of our hardlines team leads who is an overseer of electronics and she told me that they will start scheduling more mids to help out with guest service

I wish my store would do this. I hear the "additional cashiers to electronics" indyme almost as much as the one for the lanes lately. And I've been overhearing our ETLs on the walkie demanding responses quite a bit too. Wouldn't you think the ETLs would take the hint and schedule more TMs back there?