Archived Integrated Guest Service?

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I searched and searched, but came up with nothing...

Has anyone else "lucked out" and changed over to "Integrated Guest Service" during their remodel?

Basically, the Guest Service Desk no longer exists... the Guest Service position no longer exists... and there are a number of registers (manned by any available cashier) used for returns and exchanges, as well as cashing guests out at the same time. Poorly thought-out, poorly designed, and a HUGE headache for team members and guests.
 
This has been going on for awhile. We have a store in the district that has this set-up and i shop there quite often as it's closer to my house than my store. It seems to work very well for them once they got adjusted to it. I've worked a shift there and i thought it worked well for a ULV store.
 
There was a topic on this Over a year back... It's mostly for ULV stores.

Also guest service is not a position for any store. All cashiers/service desk TMs are designated in max as Guest Service TM, which refers to the workcenter not the area.
 
We have got it as part of our remodel and we are not ultra low volume. It looks much nicer than our old guest service and it isn't terrible. From a guest perspective, it always looks like there's at least one express lane open. The GSTL/GSA can watch guest service and the lanes without having to walk away from the lanes. There are a few cons though:

1. People wanting to do returns now have to wait behind other guests just making purchases.
2. The lanes do not specify that they are express lanes or anything since technically Target no longer has express lanes. Guests with a basket(s) full of stuff will check out there where there is little counter space and no belt.
3. Pair number one and number two and you have some annoyed guests.
4. Guest service no longer has down time to zone one spot, check the bathrooms, do defectives, help guests with registries, or anything else they would normally do.
5. There's not much room behind it so returns fill up fairly fast and if you have a large item you basically have to go get it then or it looks junky. Think domestics.

Our guest service tms and GSTLs/GSAs don't care for it much, but now that it's been a few months we are getting used to it. The guests don't seem to mind it too terribly, but the wait for returns is usually longer. Although we did have a sign that said something to the effect of "Why wait to do returns? Go ahead and do your shopping and then do your returns and checkout at the same time!"

And our Guest Service TMs are now scheduled under cashierin per best practice. There are still only a few TMs that consistently work IGS, but I guess since it's also considered a normal lane HQ wants the hours to come out of the cashier workcenter.
 
There was a topic on this Over a year back... It's mostly for ULV stores.

Also guest service is not a position for any store. All cashiers/service desk TMs are designated in max as Guest Service TM, which refers to the workcenter not the area.

Job title is same, but primary workcenter is a different story ;)
 
Our store is just starting our remodel.
We're not ULV and our GS desk is going to be moving.
Looks like there's going to be a lot of adjusting....from the GS move, the change in set-up of SSS, and (I'm guessing) having to ring-out items that need to be weighed.
I don't know if we'll be getting a lot of new cashiers or if we veterans will have to work faster and longer shifts.

I'm thinking that getting guests to sign-up for RCs will be much more difficult....

While I'm excited for the remodel, I'm not too excited for some of the changes that we'll see at the front end.
 
Our store is just starting our remodel.
We're not ULV and our GS desk is going to be moving.
Looks like there's going to be a lot of adjusting....from the GS move, the change in set-up of SSS, and (I'm guessing) having to ring-out items that need to be weighed.
I don't know if we'll be getting a lot of new cashiers or if we veterans will have to work faster and longer shifts.

I'm thinking that getting guests to sign-up for RCs will be much more difficult....

While I'm excited for the remodel, I'm not too excited for some of the changes that we'll see at the front end.

Are you remodeling to become a super or a pfresh? Pfresh doesn't have to weigh anything.
 
pfresh.

No weighing? Are the fruits and vegetables all prepackaged?

I'd hoped that the change w/ our GS area they'd knock out the express lanes. I'm beginning to think that these awful set-ups will remain.

How do you handle re-shop? Won't the carts for putting re-shop in be a thing of the past?

Will all cashiers now be trained to do all the GS stuff? Oh no....I'm just realizing that if all cashiers are trained, so will all the TMs who can come for back-up....a nightmare in the making!
 
pfresh.

No weighing? Are the fruits and vegetables all prepackaged?

Some are, like carrots and potatoes, but individual items like bananas are sold by the each. You type in the PLU and key the quantity. Most eaches will have a PLU sticker on them, but at my store, each register has a cheat sheet with all the PLU codes.

All meat packages are weighed and barcoded by the P-Fresh team ahead of time, so each one is ready to scan at the lanes.
 
We still have the same tms working the guest service lanes. It's not a bad idea thought to have several tms trained for guest service. The more cross trained your team is the better.
 
Here are (some) of my issues:
We are NOT an ULV store.

Hiding everything behind a wall-supplies, carts, label printers- is extremely inefficient. Guests know we work there, it's not a big secret that returns and damages are taken care of at the Service Desk.

Our guests all insist- not prefer, but insist- on checking out thru the IGS lanes, like it's a privilege... So there is always a line of 5 or 6 or more guests at IGS, even when there are 3 or 4 available registers. And try- just try- to suggest picking one of those 3 or 4 available registers. It's the same answer, every time: "IT SAYS AAAAAAAND CHECK-OUT ON THE SIGNS"

And as for the "saving" of hours, seriously? We need LESS people working on the Front End?

[/end rant]
 
Our front end is mid-remodel.

I work over at Guest Services sometimes. If I'm cashiering then guests think that they can come to me to do their returns. I've been able to do even exchanges. But what happens if a Guest comes to my register to return a broken item...and also has other things to check out. How would I handle this? Being that they know that I can do GS they'll expect me to be able to help them out. Where does that leave me in this?

In our store things are set with returns & check outs....making it look like a guest can return & check out at any lane. How do we handle that?
1) Guest has broken item to return.......if guest goes to a regular check-out lane....does the cashier "do the return" and then check out the guests other items?
OR
2) Guest has broken item to return.......guest goes to a regular check-out lane.......does the cashier ring out the items and then send the guest over to "the guest service area" so the return can be done?

If 2) is how we're supposed to handle it then does this guest have to go over inline to a GSA or GSTL? Who will then finish the return?
 
I would offer to ring up their purchases, but all returns and exchanges should be done at the service desk. So either they can get back in line at lanes one through three now, or they can get back in line later. You can fix a mistake, but just for consistency, all actual returns need to happen at igs. Those are supposed to be the only lanes that's have the lane light that says returns and checkout.
 
I could see this IGS working at my store IF they switch spot section with GS. This would make it possible to have just one cashier on at open working at 1,2,3 freeing up those other cashier hours for mid morning and later in the day. We could still set up return carts the same way and maybe have easier removal of them.
 
The thing I'm most worried about it Black Friday. Even working a top speed, with a finite amount of registers you can only ring so many sales per hour. Most remodel stores lose 4 or more registers. And now guest service doubles as lanes. Not entirely sure how that's gonna work. Until this year every Black Friday has had the two registers in electronics and the 18 up front with the four at guest service doing returns, sorting, and fixing mistakes. This year we will have two in electronics, 14 lanes (including the 3 at igs) and no guest service registers. Unless we get some kind of mobile checkout/payment system remodels with IGS are going to have longer average wait times compared to previous Black Fridays.
 
^ This is what we're hoping for. But, a system that actually works. And I hope they don't roll something like this out later than the early summer. Give us time to get used to it, and give yourselves time to fix bugs!
 
We're in the middle of our IGS remodel. It is kind of rough.

We don't have planograms for setting up the GS area (this is the least of our worries.)

Our new guest service counter is not even at our store. It isn't expected to arrive for another two weeks.

One of the express lanes has been removed.....the others remain since the new counter isn't there.

Our express lanes that are now being used as GS don't have lights on them because the lights & power poles got tossed out since the new counter was supposed to be there.....

The two GSTLs are having a difficult time because they both need things to be organized....and things aren't....not yet.

The new set-up for reshop and returns is completely inconvenient....no more just turning around to put returns in their carts....now we've got to walk behind a wall to put things in carts.

We've not had our front check lanes re-set....candy or magazines or gum.

We've run out of register tape....

Guests are completely confused.

Our photo lab and the guest registry kiosks are back at the "old guest service" area. Can't wait to see how photo is going to work..............

Restroom check-ups seem to be difficult to do.

Half of our area is still waiting for new fixtures.

Hopefully things will get better.....it will take time, but it sure would be helpful if our front end re-model wasn't half done and now in a waiting mode until "stuff" comes in.

We need patience and a fast fix-up for our new area.

Please keep my store in your thoughts....we need all the prayers we can get!!
 
The funniest part is watching my GSTLs being all out of whack because nothing is organized!
 
What goes in the huge empty space left where the old desk was?
It's depends on corp decision. It's either an extension of mini seasonal, target mobile spot, extension of sporting goods clothing, someother set pog and I have even seen a store get a Starbucks in the location where guest service use to be.
 
Other possibilities include a beach shop (Warmer climate store coastal stores mostly), a consolidated kiosk area, or an additional stockroom. With the Integrated Guest Service transition manual it has the Vacated Guest Service strategies.
 
What goes in the huge empty space left where the old desk was?

At my store they are making it "Fan Central." They've moved our pro teams sportswear there.

Of course, the hiring Kiosk, the guest registries, and the photo lab are over there too. Not at all convenient to where GS is now located.
 
I've been off for a couple of days, but before I left we had all of the new numbers/lights at all of the registers.

Our gift registries were off for a few days......that was not good.
Our photo lab was closed, too.

We now only have 2 guest registries and only one of them is working.
Photo lab is mostly up and running....notice I said "mostly".

They've put in new tiles and have waxed them.

They painted two areas RED.....one area is near the bathrooms....and it is overwhelmingly RED!!! The other area was a hallway to our 239 area. That looks very nice.

Oh, we've got another delay on the new guest service counter....hopefully we have it by mid-May.

Magazine and candy locations are different. Trying to push candy the other day was hard because we kept forgetting to check one area.

Our alarm system has been moved to our new area....and the roof hatch door keeps getting set off!

Still no planogram for the GS set-up. There's stuff that we're supposed to have in our new REDbox area that hasn't arrived yet.....so still a little confusing.
 
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