Archived GSTL/GSA question about Red Cards

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xxTheDudexx

Front of Store Attendant
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Apr 19, 2012
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As some of you may know I recently was asked by my GSTL to take on the role of GSA. I was okay with it at first. But now....

I'm getting hounded about getting Red Cards because we are, or were last in our district for conversion. The hammer is coming down on the LOD's, then LOD's are coming down on the GSTL's, and me and our other GSA.

If I am on a register, I ask every single guest. EVERYONE. Before the security breach I'd get 5 or 6 a day when I was just a cashier on a short shift. My conversion used to be over 9% every week. How is it that the company can place this heavy burden on us when we did nothing wrong?

Now, for our entire store (we are ULV), we get 1 or 2 a day on a bad day, between 5 and 7 on a great day. We never meet our goals. Instead of feeling happy about my recent promotion, I'm now starting to get worried about it. I try my best to fire up the cashiers and get them to try and get red cards, but there is just so much of a lack of incentive.

We draw from a hat. They get free popcorn from Food Ave. A free soda maybe. And 1 in maybe 25 gets a free 5 dollar gift card.

Can I get corrective action against me for not meeting goals? I try my best to drive the red cards, even my team leaders do. They're just so hard to get now at our store. Beyond frustrating.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds like my store. So far I've yet to get a formal coaching or CA related to it, although I do get the LODs/my Sr GSTL hounding me about it quite a bit. Our 16 year old cashiers don't have a stellar conversion rate though. Seems like as long as they're asking they don't blame me for guests saying no. Our conversion is carried by one cashier.
 
Offer some good incentives. Ask your ETL-GE/HR how much you can tap into the 529 account for prizes. We gave away crock pots, video games, books, sbux/cafe meals, etc. We did that for 2-3 months and eventually cashiers started getting tons of redcards w/o any prizes.
 
Our store is giving away a gift card a week - $25 I think.

It isn't an incentive to me... I'll ask when the prompt appears or it's a big transaction. I hate being harassed as a customer. Hate it. I do talk up the debit card, pointing out it isn't a debit card but really an e-check card, so someone might benefit from that work later.

Right now I'm trying to get the friggin lines down because we have no cashiers... I dread someone saying yes most of the time right now. What am I going to do with the 10 people behind them?
 
When conversion is going well, GSAing only sucks a bit. When conversion is not going well, then GSAing really sucks. I hate, hate, hate the idea of getting the praise/criticism for how my cashiers do on my shift. I only have so much control...especially if they really are asking everyone. For a while last summer, they were making us record in a binder every day how many REDCards we got on each shift, the conversion, etc. so they could see patterns and figure out if who they could point fingers at...when you only GSA a couple of times a week, that meant one shift could pretty much sink you.

You have my sympathy. My best advice is to use the time you aren't on lanes/getting carts (because we all know that's what ULV GSAs do a lot of) to make sure your cashiers are asking on your shifts. They will stop asking for certain people if they know they can get away with it. Then you can either have a friendly pep talk with them to remind them to keep asking or escalate it to the LOD if they still won't do it.
 
All you can do as a GSA is motivate the cashiers to ask. Give them added tips and ideas to prompt the card. Then report to the GSTL when a cashier is not fully promoting the card.
 
Dude,

As a GSA you will be expected to maintain a personal conversion (if you cashier), so make sure you are at least Green as much as possible.

However, I don't think they can directly hold you responsible for Team Metrics as a Team Member, but your GSTLs might put some pressure on you.

I suggest trying to find some incentives for people getting REDCards (we used our 549 account a lot, my new store seems to as well), but rewards don't always have to be $$$, you can do stuff like "Extra 5 minute breaks", or "Pick your lane", etc. Just some of the easy to brainstorm ideas, sure you can think of more :)

Yes it is hard to get results, just start out by maintaining a good peer relationship with the other cashiers. It was so much easier for me to motivate Cashiers where mutual respect was present -- the ones that don't respect you (there will always be some), will sometimes just glare at you when you ask, and yeah that can suck D:
 
Review your own redcard pitch. Does it flow easily off the tongue? Sound at least a little sincere?
Next, listen to your cashiers off to the side. Is theirs a smooth pitch or do they seem to rattle it off without emotion?
One of our GSTLs has a pitch for the "worried about the hack" guests: she assures them that the breach was closed, that we weren't the only ones hacked in the past months but we ARE going to be the first rolling out chip-encrypted cards next year ahead of the deadline.
When folks at my counter groused about the breach, I asked them if they stopped shopping at Sears, Michael's, TJMaxx, Neiman's, etc., that we were only one in a string of breaches but that we'll be the first in rolling out the new cards next year.
They harrumph a little but it shuts them up.
 
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