Archived How Target Should Sell Red Cards

[Kartman]

Selling red cards doesn't bother me one bit, but I hate making the other customers wait while the guest fills out the form. Listen up, corporate, this is how it should be done...

The TM asks the guest if they have our red card. When they say no, as you tell them about the savings and free shipping, you hand them a form for them to COMPLETE AT HOME, online or snail mail. On that form should be the TM's name or a code so they could get credit for pushing the application. Of course, this would require the TM to prepare in advance a few of those forms, but big deal.

How can this not be a good idea?

Thoughts?

 

[FormerTM]

The only downside is that I think you'd lose the pressure/ momentum if the impulse factor... Guests would toss it or accept it to be polite and the applications would never be seen again? In some cases it'd work. Some people would appreciate the lower pressure.
I think they need to stop making such a big deal wen someone signs up for one- I think it makes it sound like we have to trick the guests Into it when they announce someone signing up for one on the walkie. It feels cheap and weird.

 

[FormerTM]

There's something so whoreish and desperate about big t and their redcards...

 

[RedMan]

We already have those forms for mail in debit applications. Or suggest that the guest fill out the application for debit or credit online. There's a spot on the debit form for your TM number. But I don't think it really counts toward your personal conversion. If the guest's zip code is near your store, your stores conversion is improved, though.

 

[Kartman]

.
I think they need to stop making such a big deal wen someone signs up for one- I think it makes it sound like we have to trick the guests Into it when they announce someone signing up for one on the walkie. It feels cheap and weird.

I don't like how the guests can hear it blasting over the walkie. Receiving praise for successful suggestive selling isn't something a guest should be hearing. And besides, most cashiers aren't even wearing a walkie.

 

[FormerTM]

Exactly. It seems weird.

 

[Kartman]

There's something so whoreish and desperate about big t and their redcards...

I can understand them wanting to push their card: I don't really mind doing it. I just don't see the sense in slowing down the line. Just think if you sold 3 or 4 in a row! You'd have the slowest register in the store! And I sure hate to be that 5th person waiting on all this! Just think if that 5th (or 6th or 7th!) person was gonna use their red card... they might become a tad miffed.

 

[Nauzhror]

The line issue IMO is a non-issue. GSA/TL should be speedweaving and moving the guests to faster lines when a cashier is doing redcard apps.

Your suggestion also doesn't enable the guest to save 5% right then on that purchase, which is often a major selling point.

It also wouldn't enable them to have a temporary card before the permanent one arrived in the mail.

 

[FormerTM]

Yeah- I guess it just annoys me as a customer and it definitely stressed me as a tm. MY idea for selling them is that at the transactions end, the register first gives the red card total- then the non red card total. Then the impact is in the actual savings. Plus it's less pushy and canned sounding.

 

[The Dude Abides]

The line issue IMO is a non-issue. GSA/TL should be speedweaving and moving the guests to faster lines when a cashier is doing redcaps apps.

This is funny because you are implying we have other lines available to move them to.

 

[Nauzhror]

The line issue IMO is a non-issue. GSA/TL should be speedweaving and moving the guests to faster lines when a cashier is doing redcaps apps.

This is funny because you are implying we have other lines available to move them to.

We certainly do at my store. Between food ave (for small purchases), service desk, etc. I've never had an issue where a redcard clogged up lines badly.

It might be more of an issue in a lower volume store though that has fewer cashiers. I just created a list of our cashiers off the top of my head, and came up with 20, without counting food ave or starbucks people that also occasionally get cashier shifts.

 

[FormerTM]

Queue the begging and pleading for backup!

 

[Kartman]

The line issue IMO is a non-issue. GSA/TL should be speedweaving and moving the guests to faster lines when a cashier is doing redcaps apps.

This is funny because you are implying we have other lines available to move them to.

And what if several cashiers were doing as asked, and were ALSO selling cards to guests? Where would you speedweave them to?

The line issue IS an issue.

 

[The Dude Abides]

The line issue IMO is a non-issue. GSA/TL should be speedweaving and moving the guests to faster lines when a cashier is doing redcaps apps.

This is funny because you are implying we have other lines available to move them to.

We certainly do at my store. Between food ave (for small purchases), service desk, etc. I've never had an issue where a redcard clogged up lines badly.

It might be more of an issue in a lower volume store though that has fewer cashiers. I just created a list of our cashiers off the top of my head, and came up with 20, without counting food ave or starbucks people that also occasionally get cashier shifts.

My store usually has one-three cashiers at any given time with one of them being behind IGS. Starbucks/Food Ave is too far away from the lanes to send anyone to. One red card app can completely backup the front lanes especially if it's an older guest applying. Calling for backup is useless because the LOD just asks why I'm not on a lane. Then when I call for backup they get mad because I'm on a lane instead of "speedweaving" these guests to magical registers that are apparently staffed by fairies and ghosts.

 

[commiecorvus]

I so want to drop this thread into the Red card thread but the poll would default to the front and it would be a mess.

Can we if at all possible not start new threads on the subject, pretty please with sugar on top?

 

[Nauzhror]

No, that's an imaginary issue.

You're not going to have numerous cashiers have a guest say yes in a two minute time span.

If your store gets 20 redcards a day (and I seriously doubt it does, I'm highballing to an extreme) the chances of you having a redcard signup at any given time is 1 in 21 (assuming a 14 hour day 8 AM - 10 PM). The chances of having two at once is 1 in 441. this might happen once or twice during a day if you average 20 redcards per day. The chance of three at once though is 1 in 9,261. This should happen at most 2-3 times a month.

Now, recalculate for a more likely average of 10 redcards per day.

1 in 42 chance of one signup at any given time, 1 in 1,764 of two simultaneous signups (this might happen 2-3 times a week), 1 in 72,324 chance of three simultaneous signups (this might happen 3-4 times a year).

It's not an issue. We're talking about adding an average wait time of 1 minute per 77 guests throughout the day. That's less than an extra second in line on average.

Mathematical proabibility says it isn't a real concern in any measurable way that truly matters in the grand scheme.

This does admittedly assume there are other lanes to move guests to, as opposed to a hypothetical scenario where there's only one lane open, but even then it should only add 2-3 minutes to the wait time unless the guest takes forever to fill out the info, but IMO that's the exception, not the norm.

 

[Nauzhror]

My store usually has one-three cashiers at any given time with one of them being behind IGS. Starbucks/Food Ave is too far away from the lanes to send anyone to. One red card app can completely backup the front lanes especially if it's an older guest applying. Calling for backup is useless because the LOD just asks why I'm not on a lane. Then when I call for backup they get mad because I'm on a lane instead of "speedweaving" these guests to magical registers that are apparently staffed by fairies and ghosts.

We often have one cashier between 8 AM and 8:30, and then again from 9:30-close, but typically we have far more than that so it hasn't ever been an issue with redcards.

But my store also responds for backup much better than it sounds like yours does. The LOD never expects me to get on a lane instead of calling for backup. The only time they will even allow me to hop onto a lane is if they are coming up to watch the lanes, otherwise them seeing me on a register is going to lead to me getting told to get my ass off the register.

 

[daninnj]

The waiting issue is worse when someone put all their items on the belt (I'm talking about a full grocery shopping) and the person in front of them starts applying. No amount of speedweaving or other open lanes can solve that. And yes, the wait is frustrating even if it's two minutes.

 

[FlowChick]

The line issue IMO is a non-issue. GSA/TL should be speedweaving and moving the guests to faster lines when a cashier is doing redcaps apps.

This is funny because you are implying we have other lines available to move them to.

And what if several cashiers were doing as asked, and were ALSO selling cards to guests? Where would you speedweave them to?

The line issue IS an issue.

Even self checkout is a hot mess.

 

[pfreshdude]

The line issue IMO is a non-issue. GSA/TL should be speedweaving and moving the guests to faster lines when a cashier is doing redcard apps.

Your suggestion also doesn't enable the guest to save 5% right then on that purchase, which is often a major selling point.

It also wouldn't enable them to have a temporary card before the permanent one arrived in the mail.

You are assuming that the frontlanes are actually staffed and the GSA/TL isnt off having to cover Guest Services, Cash office, Photo, Food Ave or out grabbing carts. Its actually not too bad during fourth quarter but when hours get hacked and slashed the front end is a brutal beast. I remember one day we LITERALLY had 4-5 cashiers on the schedule for the ENTIRE day..the WHOLE day..thats all we had..and with no cart attendant and only 1 guest service

 

[odie]

As a Hank Hill kinda man, I know that would be effective, except for that whole team member reference code part. They shouldn't push it so hard to begin with. If they were a specialty store, maybe, and that's a big maybe, I could see that working. Spot is a general merchandise store though, so that's less viable. People don't want to be hassled to sign up for ANY kind of card that ties directly to their finances, whether it's debit or credit, every time the shop. I won't lie, the idea behind the red card makes sense, and it's fair, but getting the end consumer to see that it makes sense is a whole different ballgame. The expectation that all cashiers should push them on all consumers, and further that at least one consumer should sign up for one, per day, has got to stop. It really all started as a fringe move for the company to save that extra bit of money on debit purchases during the recession. I won't say the recession is over, but I will say this whole red card push has been a failure overall. It might have caused a significant amount of people to get one, but there's a greater amount of people that don't want to keep up with store cards, especially when they either tie into their bank accounts, OR are store credit cards. That greater amount is turned off by being hassled, and many will take their business elsewhere to avoid being hassled.

 

[Kartman]

I so want to drop this thread into the Red card thread but the poll would default to the front and it would be a mess.

Can we if at all possible not start new threads on the subject, pretty please with sugar on top?

This thread isn't so much about red cards as it is about how to go about selling them.

It's threadworthy.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Not really, unless you watch & maintain it every day.

 

[Kartman]

Maintain it?

The derp is up with that?

If you don't like the topic of a thread, don't open it.

 

[commiecorvus]

He's talking about people who start new threads every day and move on.
I'm not saying that's what you're doing but when the board gets cluttered it makes it hard for people to follow up on conversations or to offer help.
Keeping topics together and maintaining threads when you start them is how a board stays healthy.