Archived Flexible Fulfillment? Anyone launch yet?? Deets!

[lifewithtarget]

Looks like our store has slowly rolled it out, as when I was grabbing reshop today, the service desk team member was dealing with a flexible fulfillment order. The idea is fine and all, but for someone like me, I got trained at guest services a month ago, and then I don't get shift after that until a week from now so I don't get any experience with this flexible fulfillment. I have a shift a week from now, can anyone explain to me the process as a service desk team member?

 

[missionimpossible]

Any I you guys get alerts when a pick is available? We (Backroom) have to check our PDAs every hour to see if we have orders

We weren't getting updates the first couple of days but we are now.

 

[pharmtechno]

Started last 10/17. Probably about 5 orders.

I did the last two. Pretty easy. The only thing I hate is they included clothes to the list.

Our clothing count is often off or the clothing is completely misplaced... What are we supposed to do if the item can't be found? Refund the guest? That's the only thing I can think of, considering that they've already paid for the item online. You can't exactly offer a substitute. And what happened if a guest just never bothers to pick the order up? Sooner or later, it'll happen.

Noooo no no. Payment is set up online, but it isn't finalized until they're in the store.

 

[cihyfthedoor]

Rollout is Halloween. Had the little training discussion yesterday. I f***ing knew this was going to be a backroom f***ing process. That f***ing figures. My team already has a boatload of sh** to do everyday that we don't have time for. Are they f***ing kidding us with this? The process is 90% backroom and NATURALLY, we get no extra hours for it. AND one of my poor guys has to run around with an EXTRA pda AND a printer with him all day.

F***ing yay. Then there's the whole having to have all the not-picked-up stuff backstocked by 9AM thing. Great. Because, you know, we're just standing around with our thumbs up our a**es all morning waiting for something to happen. We aren't pulling a dozen huge EXFs, research batches, who knows how many last minute salesplanners, etc. all morning or anything. Nope. Not at all.

f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing F***.

I can't WAIT to see about 5 orders drop right in the middle of a mid-December 12PM CAF. OH yeah.

 

[boredguy]

Rollout is Halloween. Had the little training discussion yesterday. I f***ing knew this was going to be a backroom f***ing process. That f***ing figures. My team already has a boatload of sh** to do everyday that we don't have time for. Are they f***ing kidding us with this? The process is 90% backroom and NATURALLY, we get no extra hours for it. AND one of my poor guys has to run around with an EXTRA pda AND a printer with him all day.

F***ing yay. Then there's the whole having to have all the not-picked-up stuff backstocked by 9AM thing. Great. Because, you know, we're just standing around with our thumbs up our a**es all morning waiting for something to happen. We aren't pulling a dozen huge EXFs, research batches, who knows how many last minute salesplanners, etc. all morning or anything. Nope. Not at all.

f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing F***.

I can't WAIT to see about 5 orders drop right in the middle of a mid-December 12PM CAF. OH yeah.

I feel your pain.

 

[redeye58]

f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing F***.

....but tell us how you REALLY feel....

 

[ElectronicsAndSuch]

We've only had a few people (not including team members) place orders so far this week.. It works fine for small, simple stuff. My only complaint so far is that we don't have the ipad mini mounted to the desk, we just keep it in the locked drawer. From my perspective, It'd look much better if it was mounted to the service desk rather than just floating around.

Ours is Mounted.

 

[littlebluej]

Dunno when it rolls out at my store but we have the little iPad hub set up at guest service already.
I think it is totally stupid to roll this out 4th quarter when the store (backroom and guest service especially) is absolutely swamped.
I think it's a good idea and good service to offer. But why not introduce it in the 1st quarter when the store is dead and we can adjust? And have more hours? And it can help create a bump in sales (cause of course sales always suck January-April and we never make sales ever and the management always complains).

 

[mrknownothing]

Dunno when it rolls out at my store but we have the little iPad hub set up at guest service already.
I think it is totally stupid to roll this out 4th quarter when the store (backroom and guest service especially) is absolutely swamped.
I think it's a good idea and good service to offer. But why not introduce it in the 1st quarter when the store is dead and we can adjust? And have more hours? And it can help create a bump in sales (cause of course sales always suck January-April and we never make sales ever and the management always complains).

That's why it has been rolled out softly. It will be advertised after the holidays are over.

 

[commiecorvus]

I saw the financial news for my local station doing a report on this today.
What I found amusing was how they emphasized how many other businesses were already doing it and the "let's wait and see" attitude from the reporter when asked if it was going to help Targets business.

 

[sher]

A soft rollout? Those giant stand up cardboard display things at the entrances are a soft rollout? Or do other stores not have that?

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

We rollout with ours on the 29th. Should be fun, we get our new pdas the day before. Will be a bit odd though, our store no longer has a "guest services" so the guest is going to checklanes either way and that will be after their brief stop in guest services because no one can read.

 

[konk]

I used the FF printer to print a location label. Barcode came out fine so I stuck it on the location and finished my pull. Came back about an hour later and the printer had printed a shitload of labels since it didn't all fit on one. Oops.

 

[mrknownothing]

We rollout with ours on the 29th. Should be fun, we get our new pdas the day before. Will be a bit odd though, our store no longer has a "guest services" so the guest is going to checklanes either way and that will be after their brief stop in guest services because no one can read.

And I thought iGS was bad BEFORE Flexible Fulfillment...

 

[m5579]

When I first heard about Flexible Fulfillment I felt that it was going to be a complete failure. After my training was completed though i felt more at ease because most of my questions were answered and the problems i saw that could arise from it were put to rest. We launched ours about two and a half weeks ago and we have gotten around 7 a week. Most of the picks have only been for 1 item. I have done both parts of FF the backroom picking and the guest service pick up of the items. both are very simple the hardest part is when you have to pick an item that doesnt have a backroom location such as an article of clothing. the fortunate thing though is when in the ap you can see a picture of the item you need and you can go up to someone who is more familiar with that area and help find the item you need(every piece of clothing in softlines). Overall though it has been a easy process and i am hoping for it to stay like that.

 

[BackroomDayside]

Rollout is Halloween. Had the little training discussion yesterday. I f***ing knew this was going to be a backroom f***ing process. That f***ing figures. My team already has a boatload of sh** to do everyday that we don't have time for. Are they f***ing kidding us with this? The process is 90% backroom and NATURALLY, we get no extra hours for it. AND one of my poor guys has to run around with an EXTRA pda AND a printer with him all day.

F***ing yay. Then there's the whole having to have all the not-picked-up stuff backstocked by 9AM thing. Great. Because, you know, we're just standing around with our thumbs up our a**es all morning waiting for something to happen. We aren't pulling a dozen huge EXFs, research batches, who knows how many last minute salesplanners, etc. all morning or anything. Nope. Not at all.

f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing F***.

I can't WAIT to see about 5 orders drop right in the middle of a mid-December 12PM CAF. OH yeah.

Please be my team lead.. LOL

I agree, it sucks, and My LPDA Signs me out every like 5minutes telling me I can't receive alerts, it does it for everyone, can't be f***ed to keep toggling over and checking all the time. I just tell all ETL's that they have to let me know when one drops in because my PDA isn't working, they say ok. and hardly ever do they read their PDA when alerts drop off... then they try to blame me..

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

I agree, it sucks, and My LPDA Signs me out every like 5minutes telling me I can't receive alerts, it does it for everyone, can't be f***ed to keep toggling over and checking all the time. I just tell all ETL's that they have to let me know when one drops in because my PDA isn't working, they say ok. and hardly ever do they read their PDA when alerts drop off... then they try to blame me..

That stupid logout is happening at my store as well and we haven't even started FF yet. Good times ahead!

 

[konk]

I had a parking lot shopper yesterday, which is fine. Order your item from outside and pick it up at guest service. However, I don't need the LOD telling me on the walkie as soon as I get the alert. This is just like "who's got that call button?" after the 30 second call.

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

I had a parking lot shopper yesterday, which is fine. Order your item from outside and pick it up at guest service. However, I don't need the LOD telling me on the walkie as soon as I get the alert. This is just like "who's got that call button?" after the 30 second call.

The LOD is telling you because the pda's currently have an issue where they will log you out of alerts but not the pda itself.

 

[Kroneru]

How do you setup a flexible fulfillment from the Target website? Can't seem to find that option in checkout and such.

 

[doxie71]

How do you setup a flexible fulfillment from the Target website? Can't seem to find that option in checkout and such.

There are certain products that when you click on them will say "eligible for in store pickup" and if you add to cart, you can select to pick it up. That's the only way I've figured it out so far.

 

[Kroneru]

There are certain products that when you click on them will say "eligible for in store pickup" and if you add to cart, you can select to pick it up. That's the only way I've figured it out so far.

Now I see, the item I picked has that option shaded out. Thanks.

 

[gun runner]

Rolled out in our store this month. Thankfully it's rarely used thus far. Agree with all of the above. The last thing we needed was another task for the backroom team. Having to head to the sales floor to grab shoes and bras really is how I'd like to spend my valuable time.

I imagine the list of items eligible is rather limited at this time. I can't imagine having to track down a larger order in a number of locations in the backroom and on the sales floor. I mean, there's guests out there I might have to talk to. Yikes!

As for the extra PDA, my pants sag with keys, walkie, etc already. I found it best to leave it in a two tier with the printer and just check it every 30 min. If I miss something our ETL will remind us when he gets an alert.

 

[Kroneru]

One flexible fulfillment in particular last night was a first for me. No sales floor or backroom location, just... go forth and find it. Thank goodness it had a picture and there was a reliable soft-lines TM who knew exactly where the item was.

 

[lifewithtarget]

Does anyone know what a Service Desk team member does as far as Flexible Fulfillment goes. I got trained a little over a month ago before it rolled out and I haven't gotten any shifts since then till now.