Archived New GSTL Tips

[001275]

Hi All,
I'm a newly promoted GSTL. I have been with Spot since August and I'm only 18. Here is the problem, all of the executives are behind me 100 percent in what ever it want to change but I am getting dirty looks from my pharmacy team members I used to work with and also other sales floor tms. Any tips on how to kind of smooth the waters out? And also any GSTL tips in general?

 

[paidtosmile]

Hi All,
I'm a newly promoted GSTL. I have been with Spot since August and I'm only 18. Here is the problem, all of the executives are behind me 100 percent in what ever it want to change but I am getting dirty looks from my pharmacy team members I used to work with and also other sales floor tms. Any tips on how to kind of smooth the waters out? And also any GSTL tips in general?

It's always hard for team members to accept one of their peers as a new leader in the building, they'll get used to it 🙂

 

[IhaveaDream]

When you see dirty looks coach them for not being fun or friendly. They will learn quick to not give you dirty looks.

 

[spoilers]

My GSTL went through a similar situation, she was an external hire who was chosen over a few employees. She tried to win everyone over by being overly sweet and bubbly, but you could tell it was forced and that she was uncomfortable. She started settling in and being real, but still her pleasant self, and people respect her more! Just remember you're doing your job, it's not their job for a reason. As for salesfloor TMs, recognize them when they help you out and everything will be just fine. It all smooths over in the end, it just takes some people a little bit to adjust. Good luck!!!

 

[oaktree]

Welcome to the GSTL world @001275 !! I made the transition from TM to TL too, and the best advice I got was to continue to be the friendly, helpful and hardworking TM you have been (that's how you got promoted I'm sure). Anyone who has an attitude will realize that you haven't changed who you are as a person. Honestly, worst thing you could do is what @IhaveaDream said. Lay low on coachings at the beginning, because it will come off as a power trip and you will lose the team's respect. Pretty simply put, don't change up your routine too much and maximize your visibility so that the team knows you are there for them.

GSTL tips? Biggest thing I can tell you is to listen to your team and make sure that you include them in overall store communication. As far as actually running the lanes goes, best practice knows what they are talking about with a lot of stuff. Speedweaving is your friend and will save you a lot of trouble. Don't overuse apology coupons. Get to know your team on a personal level if you don't already, because that is how you will earn their trust and gain some slack for when you make mistakes, because you will make mistakes. If you aren't really proficient with Guest Services, learn it. Also, find someone in your store who is familiar with fixing the registers because you can save a lot of time if you know the simple tests you can run on them before calling them in, and how exactly to put it (EX: stripey receipts that won't scan? call and say you have "print quality issues" and that you need a replacement printer). Feel free to start a conversation thing with me for more advice or specific questions. Been running the lanes for 3 years (though I am sure others have for much much longer) at a high volume store so I have probably run into most situations you will come across. 🙂

 

[001275]

Thanks for the feedback! Question, how hard is it to get your cashiers to help you drive metrics ? I am in a high volume target if that matters.

 

[oaktree]

*warning, I write essay length posts, but I promise its worth reading!! 😉*

It is a definite challenge for sure. If it were easy, conversion goals would be much higher. There are many factors that can increase the difficulty, but from talking to other GSTLs, I've decided that it totally depends on the TM and your market. For me, my market is a highly well of area where people are highly protective of their credit scores and mileage cards rule king. This makes things difficult for our cashiers to even start making pitches, let alone actually signing someone up. Hopefully your market is not quite as affluent! If it is, just remember that our card has the power to beat other cards based on not necessarily the amount of money back, though even then it really is one of the best out there, but on the of her brnefits it offers. HELLO extra return days, free shipping, TCOE, pharmacy rewards, extra no receipt returns!! Figure out what makes your market tick and rotate your pitches to focus on that benefit.
I have some TMs who are superstars and some who don't give a damn about conversion. Here's where your talent management skills have to sharpen. As I said above, lay off on coaching for a month at minimum, and then bring that online slowly and carefully, especially given your age and that you came from another workcenter. The trick to getting your TMs to be interested in conversion is to help them understand the whys if how conversion helps them. It drives guest loyalty: people with redcards buy more per trip and make more trips than nonusers. The more someone shops in our stores, the more familiar they are with our layouts and they are able to find things on their own, they learn how our promos work, they build rapport with your TMs so they experience your store in a m ore positive light- all of these things will drive a positive shopping experience ans should increase your guest survey results. The higher the survey results, the higher the VIBE score, the higher the VIBE score, the higher your AE score, which means more money for raises. Hopefully you don't have to lean on the raises logic too much, but it's a nice one to have in your back pocket. 😛 It also makes your job easier: people know which cards their returns are on, making the process go faster and then your SDTMs need less backup help, have kore time to focus on processes, and your guests feel happier because your lines move quickly and they are able to get full refunds for their items. The redcard helps guests when the item is past 120 days/was a gift because it gives them over $70 of refunds when you slide it on the "must exchange or call for override" after pressing K1. That is an impressive list and I haven't even given you all the whys!
But you might be thinking "ok, thanks for the laundry list, but I want to know how I get this info to my team!!" That's a tricky thing to do because it is notoriously difficult to get communication to cashiers and our store is still working on a great delivery model. However, you can start with something simple and fun. One of the ways you can help deliver your message globally is to take the store copy of the grid that is in your ESC (if you guys do this) and write a "did you know... [insert fact about redcard]" This gives the whole team something to learn, without making it feel heavy, and if you keep it consistent to one day a week when you open, the team will start looking forward to your notes and trust me, they will remind you to put them up if you forget!

One sure fire way that is better than everything I have said to get your team interested? Be good at it yourself. Put in effort yourself. Share your successful pitches, share your almost got them to sign up pitches, share your absolute fail pitches. Be accessible, and be personable- show you care even on the roughest, toughest day. This applies to anything you encounter honestly, because your team will take their attitude cues from you.

 

[ExpertTL]

Honestly, as a GSTL it is tough now. I was GSTL just recently for several years before moving to the sales floor.

The biggest sales driver is conversion, conversion, conversion. In the eyes of many leaders, you can forget about your other wins and strengths as you are not succeeding unless conversion is green so make that a #1 priority. It's also what most new in role (and existing) GSTLs struggle with. Our store is not perfect or always hugely exceeding conversion goals, but after the breach we are slowly getting back to consistently green. Managing talent will get you a long way--I think it's essential to explain their role with front end processes, clarify any questions and stress why it's important, consistently observe the team, be consistent and fair in coaching (i.e. don't just pick on a few TMs that are 0% on conversion and target them), and give recognition when due. When I try to coach I try to do less of what I call "bad dog coaching" where sometimes leaders just rant off a list of problems with the TM, and they just sit there and take it. I try to go through where we are at with the TM (i.e. is this a new TM that needs guidance, or someone that is a veteran TM that has had many seek to understand conversations and now just needs to have the expectation and consequences set and be brutally honest) and ultimately let them know this conversation is because you want them to succeed and you know they can do amazing things (even if you don't believe that...sometimes I have been surprised).

As you are new in role, I recommend like another poster suggested to do a month of observing, asking questions, and getting to relate to the team. You have the added challenge (as did I) with going from peer to supervisor and dealing with that. Sometimes, it's unavoidable to be completely honest. What I found helped me deal with those situations was to simply make sure that you focus on doing best practice (or whatever your store does) in regards to all aspects of GSTL, and that helped me be confident that I knew what I was doing. If a TM questions you, or does not give you respect, you should be able to pull them aside offstage and discuss it. These conversations should be open ended, allow the TM to tell YOU what their issue is and you simply just listen to their story. After you let them kinda vent, then give your perspective and ultimately ask if there's anything you can do to help them and show that you just want to move forward as a team. Also showing understanding of how big leadership changes can affect team member's attitudes and showing them that you empathize (especially if your store has made a lot of big changes recently) goes a long way. With that said, at the end of the day you have to illustrate that you are the leader, and that whatever behavior they did was not acceptable and what needs to change going forward. It helped me during these early conversations to have a seasoned TL sit in with you and give you feedback after on how you handled it.

Sorry if this is not very organized feedback, but these are just things off the top of my head that helped me when I first became a TL, but I promise it will get better! Good luck 🙂

 

[Retail Girl]

I'm a GSA, and at the end of the day, I couldn't care less about conversion. But I drive it and pretend that I care and do the best I can because it's my job. But our team drives it because we are all behind our GSTL and want to do great things for him. Be the kind of leader that where you go, people will want to follow you, even if it's a journey they have no interest in taking. When people want to follow you, then the results will come.

 

[spoilers]

Oh thought of a little tip... When my GSTL is called for a change request, she goes to each cashier (all two-four of us lol) and asks us to check if we're low on change. Not sure if this is standard, but if you did this once an hour/every 2, it could save some much needed time for other things.
Agree with the poster above about learning service desk. Any new SD TMs will look to you at closing for questions, and knowing how to do a thorough closing is important.

But can we talk about this for just one sec???

The redcard helps guests when the item is past 120 days/was a gift because it gives them over $70 of refunds when you slide it on the "must exchange or call for override" after pressing K1.

How does this work? Does it give them a larger limit? Does it work for all no receipt returns in general?

 

[oaktree]

Yeah, it does. It is honestly one of my favorite tricks and I only learned it on accident one time, so of you have nwver heard of it, I'm not surprised. I've only ever seen it mentioned in one company email bavl when the free shipping was rolled out.
What happens is the system can see the purchase history of the card, so it won't work well newly issued cards.
For those of us redcard users, we can get up to 5% extra back in no receipt returns. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to track how much of that has been used, so I don't ever ever promise the guest it will help! Just remember it helps in the proccessing of NRR, so it will still come back on a giftcard (unless you use the GSTL emergency override code, and who knows how long that will be useful). 🙂

 

[spoilers]

@oaktree Thanks!!! That's good to know, I've had a few NRRs for around $70 before tax...the guest realizes that and throws a fit, so that would be helpful if my gstl isn't nearby

 

[bullseyerista]

Don't care about what anyone else thinks. The primary goal is the guest. You want a fast, fun, and friendly checkout experience for the guest each and every time they come to target. Don't let anyone get in the way of that. 🙂

 

[oaktree]

Yeah. It's pretty cool and quite useful. I'm a big fan of finding ways to use/trick the system to do what I want. Plus our store rocks a policy of "only the STL says no" unless it's a policy based on law (IDs required for alcohol, etc), so you have to get creative to come up with solutions sometimes.

Hey @001275, been doing thinking for you, and what I decided everything can be boiled down to is "be the boss you want". Would you want a boss who says things nicely? Asks for input? Is willing to do the not-so-fun jobs every once in awhile? When you go to do something, be it asking for back-up our delivering tough feedback, just think about how you would want to be treated and you will probably do just fine. Yeah, you want to be seen as a leader, but that doesn't mean being a jerk, and it certainly doesn't mean barking out commands.

Last bit of advice for the day is to really figure out what your strengths and opps are. Then go to town on improving your opps and using your strengths to improve your workcenter.

 

[lynn9779]

Hi All,
I'm a newly promoted GSTL. I have been with Spot since August and I'm only 18. Here is the problem, all of the executives are behind me 100 percent in what ever it want to change but I am getting dirty looks from my pharmacy team members I used to work with and also other sales floor tms. Any tips on how to kind of smooth the waters out? And also any GSTL tips in general?

1. Don't worry about your former peers giving you dirty looks. Treat them respect, do your job, and they'll get over it. If it becomes a true problem (I was a TM-to-TL promotion and had issues with former peers spreading rumors about me) then go to your ETL or HR about it, but don't sink to their level. As a leader there will always be people that don't like you - the trick is to just ignore them.

2. Don't expect your team members to do anything that you won't do yourself. That means gathering carts from the lot, cleaning up a mess in the bathroom, etc. You don't need to do these things on a regular basis but if the need arises and your team sees you pitch in without hesitation they will have so much more respect for you.

3. Never underestimate the power of recognition. Conversion is a BIG DEAL so when a TM is succeeding, make sure they know that you are noticing. Know how your individual TMs prefer to be recognized, whether it be at huddle in front of everyone or something a little more personal like a card.

4. Don't settle for the "leftovers" on your team. The TLs in my store had a tendency to just schedule inadequate TMs as cashiers instead of dealing with coaching them in their own work-center. This is bullshit and I haven't allowed for it since taking over the front end. Cashiers may not be paid much but their the last impression our guests have of the store and they're your best shot at Green conversion. I hold all my cashiers to the same high standard and refuse to schedule anyone that isn't willing to live up to those standards.

 

[paidtosmile]

Hi All,
I'm a newly promoted GSTL. I have been with Spot since August and I'm only 18. Here is the problem, all of the executives are behind me 100 percent in what ever it want to change but I am getting dirty looks from my pharmacy team members I used to work with and also other sales floor tms. Any tips on how to kind of smooth the waters out? And also any GSTL tips in general?

1. Don't worry about your former peers giving you dirty looks. Treat them respect, do your job, and they'll get over it. If it becomes a true problem (I was a TM-to-TL promotion and had issues with former peers spreading rumors about me) then go to your ETL or HR about it, but don't sink to their level. As a leader there will always be people that don't like you - the trick is to just ignore them.

2. Don't expect your team members to do anything that you won't do yourself. That means gathering carts from the lot, cleaning up a mess in the bathroom, etc. You don't need to do these things on a regular basis but if the need arises and your team sees you pitch in without hesitation they will have so much more respect for you.

3. Never underestimate the power of recognition. Conversion is a BIG DEAL so when a TM is succeeding, make sure they know that you are noticing. Know how your individual TMs prefer to be recognized, whether it be at huddle in front of everyone or something a little more personal like a card.

4. Don't settle for the "leftovers" on your team. The TLs in my store had a tendency to just schedule inadequate TMs as cashiers instead of dealing with coaching them in their own work-center. This is bullshit and I haven't allowed for it since taking over the front end. Cashiers may not be paid much but their the last impression our guests have of the store and they're your best shot at Green conversion. I hold all my cashiers to the same high standard and refuse to schedule anyone that isn't willing to live up to those standards.

THIS. Honestly the best advice for any team lead regardless of the situation.

 

[bullseyekindaguy]

-Get to know Best Practices and policies like the back of your hand. As someone said earlier, learn the guest service desk registers immediately. Learn any and all works rounds to make things right for the guest. There is a great guide on here that explains these... Especially tricks on non-receipted returns and post voids

-When coaching, be fair and consistent. Don't coach one person for not asking about redcard, then not coach another for doing the same thing. Set the expectation with your team. Starting out, use seek to understands.... Then coach

-learn about your team. Don't get involved with work talk immediately... I try to spend the first 5 minutes of my team's shift talking about non-work stuff.... It makes you look human and it goes a long way!! Bonus points if you can actually remember facts about them. Try to learn one thing about your team a day.

-when doing an override or "making it right" you have a team member that gets mad that you didn't trust their judgement or feel that you sided with the guest and ignored policy.. Remind them that making things right is also company policy and explain your decisions and the WHY behind it... Hopefully, they'll use your example for future situations.