Fired for red cards?

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Warning! I have alot to say and yes, this is a rant. So I've been a cashier at spot since October and I started out really good with red cards and whatnot but recently I've been in this horrible drought. It's to the point where I literally am shocked when people say yea ( which hasn't been in a about a week) I'm getting hounded every shift I work about it which I kind of understand. I know it's apart of my job but it's just really frustrating when every single shift I'm getting this speech like I don't understand the significance of the red cards and it just makes the rest of the day that much not unbearable. It just feels like they are telling me " if you dont get one today you're out" I literally ask every single guest ( yes. every. one.) they either say no, cut me off, already have one, don't speak English, or don't have a check or want credit. Idk what else I can do but I'm sick of going to work and being threatened all the time. I like my job and I need the money for school so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Just try your best, but in short no they cannot outright fire you unless you are in under 90 days. They'll need to first coach you a couple times, then write you up for a warning, coach you again, then write you up for a final warning, give you 30 days to improve, then they could fire you possibly, but you'd know about it well in advance. The whole process is usually spread out over several months at the least.

Unless you've signed a coaching document I'd say you're in the clear right now. If they fire you without going by the book, you could sue for unemployment.
 
Here we go again. It seems like this comes up about once a month. They cannot fire you for not getting redcards. They can only fire you, or coach you, for not asking the guest. Am I wrong?

How sad is it that it has come to this?
 
Here we go again. It seems like this comes up about once a month. They cannot fire you for not getting redcards. They can only fire you, or coach you, for not asking the guest. Am I wrong?

How sad is it that it has come to this?

Well they can coach you if you are consistently red on conversion/don't get any, but its a long and slow process. It depends on the GSTL/ETL-GE, some will use punishment, some won't. I think its only applicable to people who have cashier as their primary workcenter. It IS in the core roles, so technically it is coachable under performance.
 
Just try your best, but in short no they cannot outright fire you unless you are in under 90 days. They'll need to first coach you a couple times, then write you up for a warning, coach you again, then write you up for a final warning, give you 30 days to improve, then they could fire you possibly, but you'd know about it well in advance. The whole process is usually spread out over several months at the least.

Unless you've signed a coaching document I'd say you're in the clear right now. If they fire you without going by the book, you could sue for unemployment.

We cannot coach based solely on a metric... The metric is a red flag that we should be looking into WHY that person is not getting Redcards! So when we talk about coaching on Redcards you can generally spot them not asking every guest OR not asking in a way that would get them Redcards (such as only saying what the prompt says)... You should basically have a two part script that asks two basic questions... 1) Do you have a Redcard or going to be using one? and 2) Did you know its a debit card? You can phrase those however you want imo, but as long as they are both there!

Also if you were going to get fired for this it would take forever and you would have to suck hardcore to not catch on... Honestly getting green conversion doesn't take that many Redcards and if they talked to you enough to put you on a CA or Final for it, that would probably mean they caught you not asking multiple times or you didn't listen to a word they said on how to improve...
 
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I know one guy in electronics never gets red cards he is still there. Great Team member gets service plans great with guests but never gets redcards so no I don't think they can fire you sure they can coach you saying you haven't gotten a redcard but fire you over a redcard nah....
 
Its the TL's that make is seem like they are going to get you fired for not getting redcards... Glad I jumped shipped to AP and got out of that mess..
 
My team is leading the district. Everyone wants to know how we do it.

Simple.

I talk to them once, say "Hey this is our goal for the day. How many do you think you could get?"

Then, I don't bother them again. I know they aren't going to open one every single day. I know there are a lot of factors that go into getting RedCards.

If my team thinks "Oh God I have to sell this **** or I'm getting written up" they aren't going to put their all into it.

My team knows that as long as they are asking, I won't hound them to get more. If they do open one, I congratulate them and thank them. I don't go "Awesome. Get me 4 more."
 
ok... on the one side, they can fire you for anything. people will tell you that "oh, you're not getting red cards as a cashier, that's fine... it's metrics... blah blah blah.
they'll just label it as something else and fire you if they really want to. my point---if they want you gone, they will do it one way or another. they don't have to have redcards as a reason.
but honestly, i wouldn't worry about it. chances are, your leaders suck and don't know how to positively motivate a team. so to make up for their shortcomings, they resort to threats. just make sure you're asking each guest and enjoy your job. when i was a cashier and our stl got threat happy, i would just smile and "thank you so much for that positive motivation. i'll be sure to write you a great team card!" and kept smiling. he didn't know how to take it, or if i was serious, and after a couple of times he stopped making the threats (to me anyway). don't sweat the small stuff.
 
OP, I'll give you a "script", but try and make it your own. I find when I try to say the same thing every time, I don't get as many. My advice to you is to pretty much start by pushing the debit card. If the guest is interested, but doesn't have a check or seems uncomfortable with linking the card to their checking account, mention the credit ( and you can add "You know, you can pay this off at Guest Services right now with a check, cash, or a debit card, used as debit, so you don't have to worry about any bills or interest rates").

Ok, back to the debit card, get the main points out before you mention its any type of card. Mention, the 5% and no interest rate right off the bat. "Do you want to save 5% every day with no interest rate or fees?" This really is one of the best cards around. Trust me, if a guest used our card instead of their silly airline miles rewards card, and simply set aside their 5% savings, it would take them a lot less time to save up for that trip to Florida...Well assuming they only ever shop at Target. Oh, you can get 5% cash back with your Discover card? How about you just keep your 5%? Isn't that better?

This next one is just a little pet peeve of mine. When you do get a guest to sign up for a card, make sure they know all the benefits before they get through the application. Make sure you tell them about Take Charge of Education, specifically, or else, they will simply hit "NO" when asked on the application if they are interested. That is another really cool thing about our card and it will keep them coming back. Guests will choose Target simply because it helps their kids' schools. They won't necessarily head about the program elsewhere. You are the sales person. You have to sell the card and all of its benefits. That will help drive sales and more sales=more hours.
 
Chances are if your store is like mine, and other stores you have one cashier who consistently gets redcards more than anyone else. Find out what that person is doing and copy it. Easy as that.
 
Chances are if your store is like mine, and other stores you have one cashier who consistently gets redcards more than anyone else. Find out what that person is doing and copy it. Easy as that.

so true! we have a couple of cashiers that are so awesome with redcards that we pair people up with them and 9 times out of 10 those cashiers get better at getting redcards too. If i see someone struggling with their conversion i try and find out why before it becomes a huge issues.

Have i ever coached or termed someone for redcards? Yep, sure have! BUT it wasn't because their score was red it was because they weren't asking, had a terrible attitude regarding redcards, and wouldn't change their ways even after additional training, suggestions, and coachings.

So just make sure you are asking. if you don't ask you aren't going to get any cards. Set yourself a daily goal, have a positive attitude, and see what happens!
 
"That will help drive sales and more sales=more hours. "

Lol.... I'm amazed anyone still believes this sh** line. They've been using it for the past 15 years at least. Funny how same store sales are up year over year, yet hours go down every year.

I'm not talking year-to-year, I truthfully have never compared February's hours from 2012 to February 2013 or anything. I have absolutely seen flex payroll used when hours are up. The flex payroll hours are used (typically) for guest driven work centers like cashier and sales floor. If we have a rough month, I have seen how slim hours are the following month. It may not always be fair, but yes, more payroll does = more hours. You're an idiot if you don't see it. Hours are down in Jan and Feb, but up in March....why might that be? Oh right. Sales.
 
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I seriously can't get a red card to save my life lately. I think we're a bit to good at pushing them for now almost everyone I ask has one? And the rest just don't want one.

I know they're telling us every guest we help on the floor we need to mention the red card. I just don't see how to bring that conversation up. I could see in electronic or with bigger priced items around the store, but when I'm helping someone with a few items I'm not going to bring up the red card for them to save the sales tax. Plus you can only hound someone so much, it feels like the opposite of the vibe.
 
Don't call them Red Cards. Call them Target Debit cards. Sell those.

I was listening to one of our top performers sell a card while I was replacing stickers on the guest service counter. She has a made up personal story. She starts the conversation like this; "Oh, I hope you have a Target debit card! I just got mine last week and I have already saved $10! When I told my husband, he was like, Oh no! NOT another credit card! I told him that this wasn't a credit card, it comes right out of our checking, no interest or fees, just 5% saving every time I shop at Target! " She got a card & the person behind the guest she was chatting with got one too.

What a pro! I complimented her on her salesmanship and she said she has made up a dozen ways to bring it up in friendly conversation and she said she never pushes for the credit card, she will ask if they want the credit card once she has the commitment from the guest to spend the time getting the debit card.
 
I'm electronics/bikes/sales floor. For a while i did really good getting redcards in electronics and they started pulling me off the floor and putting me on a register for my scheduled shifts... same amount of hours... so i said **** that ****, and went back to old ways of occasional redcard, and i wasnt scheduled front end so much anymore! I hate the front end so if not pushing redcards is what I have to do to avoid it, then I will K8 it every time haha
 
January thru April or so is always horrible for sales, payroll, and redcards.

Ask every single person. Always try to sell the benefits. 5% every transaction and Pharmacy Rewards are the big ones. Push the card a little extra (but don't be pushy) when the guests are buying $50 or more. Give them the amount they will save with the card.

And remind them that there is the Debit RedCard as well.
 
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Actual conversation with a guest yesterday:

Me (checking them out): do you have a target Redcard?
Her: yes
Me: great!
Her (looking at me suspiciously): why is that great?
Me: because you save five percent off on all transactions when you use it.
Her: oh, I didn't know that. I guess I should activate it some time so I can use it.
Me: .........
 
When I have a guest who has a RC and is using it I will tell the guest (when the receipt prints) how much they saved today.....and (sometimes) when time allows I'll tell them how much they've saved since January. I tell the guest loud enough so that the next guest in line can hear about the savings....and that can lead to the next guest getting a RC.

Sometimes when a guest has used the RC & the next guest answers the RC question with a "no" I'll ask them if they'd like to save 5% just like the person in front of them did. (sometimes you get a "yes", but not often)

The more you mention a RC to a guest then eventually they'll remember to bring in a check or finally say "yes!"

I've begun to ask RC holders if they are signed up for "Take charge of education"....if they aren't or don't know about it, then tell them about it and point out the list of schools at your register who have already gotten money from the RC. Talking about "TCOE" sometimes helps the next guest to ask about the RC.

I know that I've gotten tired of asking people about the RC...often I will wait to see if the guest is paying with a credit card/debit card...and if it's not a Target RC...then I ask. If it is a RC....then I can ask about "TCOE" or comment that they're already saving the 5% at the store....or ask if they know about the free shipping & 5% on-line savings.

I've also found that if another guest in line has a RC and the guest who is checking out isn't sure about the RC that the second guest will often tell guest #1 how great the RC is. You can't get a better endorsement than one guest talking to another.

As long as you are asking and making an honest effort to get a RC then there's not much that leadership can say to you about not getting RC. If you ask....they say "No"....you've done all you can.
 
I get this one a lot:

h1D60857A
 
Man don't even get me started on that. I've been threatened with "talking to's" more than once just during cashier shifts I've picked up, and I'm not even a cashier. Increasing the conversion rate standards at a time when a lot of consumers just took a pay cut was a good idea in theory, as it should be more appealing to them as a cost saving option, but in practice, they're so worried about being bamboozled after already taking a pay hit that the minute you bring it up, the answer is a resounding "NOPE!", and I've tried talking it up in multiple ways. I feel like this was just a really lame attempt to muster up brand loyalty, but they didn't fully commit, and now it's backfiring and they're blaming the lowest level employees. All of the red card signing doesn't effectively convey the message. Even the nifty red card shirts don't, and I was one of the people that thought they actually would, but 99% of guests don't even read those. What they ought to have done is run some PSAs on T.V., have the CEO explain he's committed to helping families save money in these hard times, and then briefly explain the red card concept. People seem to be increasingly resistant to the low level employees pushing for cards because they're going to assume we'll tell them whatever we think they want to hear just so we can get them to sign up. If they see it on T.V. though, from a higher level exec, they may be more open minded about it.
 
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Man don't even get me started on that. I've been threatened with "talking to's" more than once just during cashier shifts I've picked up, and I'm not even a cashier. Increasing the conversion rate standards at a time when a lot of consumers just took a pay cut was a good idea in theory, as it should be more appealing to them as a cost saving option, but in practice, they're so worried about being bamboozled after already taking a pay hit that the minute you bring it up, the answer is a resounding "NOPE!", and I've tried talking it up in multiple ways. I feel like this was just a really lame attempt to muster up brand loyalty, but they didn't fully commit, and now it's backfiring and they're blaming the lowest level employees. All of the red card signing doesn't effectively convey the message. Even the nifty red card shirts don't, and I was one of the people that thought they actually would, but 99% of guest don't even read those. What they ought to have done is run some PSA's on T.V., have the CEO explain he's committed to helping families save money in these hard times, and then briefly explain the red card concept. People seem to be increasingly resistant to the low level employees pushing for cards because they're going to assume we'll tell them whatever we think they want to hear just so we can get them to sign up. If they see it on T.V. though, from a higher level exec, they may be more open minded about it.

Lol you think greg actually gives a **** about the customers? Great joke.

******* line aside, that is a very good idea and an excellent point you make. Such would definently drive more money wise guests to apply for them.
 
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