Archived Service Ambassador?

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So apparently there's a new-ish "position" at our store called the Service Ambassador. This person stays from 10am-7pm and basically spends their entire shift asking people CIHYFS & "vibing" with guests. I still don't know too much about it, but I was wondering if anyone else is familiar with this/has a SA at their store. I usually cashier, but I was scheduled as the SA for one day next week & I'm a little confused about what I'm supposed to be doing? I've never worked on the sales floor before, as I'm always cashiering or helping out at the service desk. Any advice/insight would be appreciated!
 
We had one at our store during the remodel and it was the most ridiculous and useless waste of payroll I have ever seen. The person is not allowed to backup cashier, zone, reshop or push any product. My store is ULV, so we don't have nearly the guest traffic to warrant such a position. It basically turned into the team member making laps of the store asking the same guests over and over which got several negative survey comments.
 
Thanks for the input...I'm really not looking forward to it, because as it is we already have guests complaining at the store & on surveys that they are annoyed by all the CIHYFS's. I honestly don't see the point of this position as these extra hours could be really helpful in a number of areas around the store.
 
I would honestly like to see pictures of a guest comment that says "Your salespeople are too helpful. I got asked CIHYFS too many times during my visit." As much as it annoys some guests, I find it hard to believe that any one is really complaining about CIHYFS. We ask CIHYFS and greet/talk to/acknowledge guests a lot in my store and I've yet to see a single survey that says " OMFG quit asking me if I need help!?!?!"
 
I would honestly like to see pictures of a guest comment that says "Your salespeople are too helpful. I got asked CIHYFS too many times during my visit." As much as it annoys some guests, I find it hard to believe that any one is really complaining about CIHYFS. We ask CIHYFS and greet/talk to/acknowledge guests a lot in my store and I've yet to see a single survey that says " OMFG quit asking me if I need help!?!?!"

Our comments were something to the effect of "why do you have one person walking in circles following me?" When you have a store as small as mine is, especially during remodel when foot traffic cratered, it was really noticeable when one person was just walking around. The guests were annoyed and felt smothered, especially considering the fact that the idiot they scheduled to do it didn't understand not to keep asking the same guest over and over again.
 
Acknowledge/ask a guest. Once is enough. If the tm happened across them and looked lost or confused, then it's probably time to offer help. That tm needs to be coached to not smother guests like that. That seems like common sense. But not saying a word to guests ever isn't going to make things better either.
 
I would honestly like to see pictures of a guest comment that says "Your salespeople are too helpful. I got asked CIHYFS too many times during my visit." As much as it annoys some guests, I find it hard to believe that any one is really complaining about CIHYFS. We ask CIHYFS and greet/talk to/acknowledge guests a lot in my store and I've yet to see a single survey that says " OMFG quit asking me if I need help!?!?!"

I don't have any reason to lie about that, haha. I do know why we ask guests if they're finding everything alright & many are appreciative. However, at least a few times a week I get a guest grumbling through checkout about being asked CIHYFS 4 times in 15 minutes by multiple team members. I'd be annoyed too, because if I have a question for an employee, I'll ask. I like to shop in peace. And I have definitely seen multiple survey comments telling us literally to "stop making your employees ask every guest if they need help."
 
Acknowledge/ask a guest. Once is enough. If the tm happened across them and looked lost or confused, then it's probably time to offer help. That tm needs to be coached to not smother guests like that. That seems like common sense. But not saying a word to guests ever isn't going to make things better either.

No one is saying we shouldn't service guests, the point is that having a position whose sole responsibility is to walk around and guest service people is just a waste of time and payroll.
 
I don't have any reason to lie about that, haha. I do know why we ask guests if they're finding everything alright & many are appreciative. However, at least a few times a week I get a guest grumbling through checkout about being asked CIHYFS 4 times in 15 minutes by multiple team members. I'd be annoyed too, because if I have a question for an employee, I'll ask. I like to shop in peace. And I have definitely seen multiple survey comments telling us literally to "stop making your employees ask every guest if they need help."

I think those kinds of guests need to get the stick out of their butt. Its not like I go around hunting people down to guest service. I always happen upon at least 1 person who seems super irritated at me per shift when I ask them if they need help with anything as they come into the aisle im zoning or as I am passing by with one of my pfresh pulls. All people need to do is say a few words and be on their way instead of being grumpy as all heck
 
Sorry. I mean no offense by my posts. I'm not calling anyone a liar, but in the 6 years I've worked for red, I've never once seen a comment that complains about being asked if they need help too much. In that same time frame I've had one guest visibly get annoyed that I asked them if they were finding everything all right.

I guess I'm just getting very tired of the constant bitching that pervades this forum. Not the bitching itself, but more that the bitching is always in reference to the same things. I'm torn because there is such a wealth of knowledge here and, as of late, I tend to avoid the TTOG and TTOTM threads which are 90% bitching. Maybe I just need to take some time away from here.
 
Sorry. I mean no offense by my posts. I'm not calling anyone a liar, but in the 6 years I've worked for red, I've never once seen a comment that complains about being asked if they need help too much. In that same time frame I've had one guest visibly get annoyed that I asked them if they were finding everything all right.

I guess I'm just getting very tired of the constant bitching that pervades this forum. Not the bitching itself, but more that the bitching is always in reference to the same things. I'm torn because there is such a wealth of knowledge here and, as of late, I tend to avoid the TTOG and TTOTM threads which are 90% bitching. Maybe I just need to take some time away from here.

No offense taken. I didn't mean for this thread to be about complaining or bitching at all, and I don't really think it is? I simply asked for insight on a new position at my store so that I'm able to do my best this week during my shift as the SA, even if I find the position somewhat unnecessary. I wanted to see if other stores had this position & whatnot. That's all...
 
In relation to this post which I didnt even touch on. We had one of these during remodel and it was ok since they were able to assist guests with where product was moving to and just general service things which freed everyone else up to do other tasks.
 
Well, I may have just ended up posting my thoughts here after catching up on the forum what I've missed the past few days.

Anyway, to answer your question...the service ambassador sounds like a waste of payroll. Part of every tm's core roles is to provide great guest service. So unless your entire team is helping guests and your guest experience score is still abysmal, there's just really not a need for a "service ambassador." We were supposed to have CIHYFS tms during our remodel. They were only supposed to help guests, but we didn't use that role. Out guest service score stayed green for most of remodel. It dropped to yellow for a few weeks when we had really big weeks (HBA, when all of domestics/furniture/home decor reset).
 
I can think of one thing the 'service ambassador would be handy for is the self important types who want a personal shopper or the lonely types who really just want somebody to talk to.
If you have a TM who can drop everything and do nothing but hang out with those kind of people, it would allow the other TMs a chance to get their work done.
 
We used to have a TM who held a similar role. She was mainly a cashier, but she would be scheduled in market on weekend afternoons just to assist guests.
 
As a guest I do not want to be bothered over and over again like when they used to do so kind guest walk at a certain hour. You would have eveybody just walking a lap around the store asking CIHYFS. So in a a couple of min you would have 4 people ask you the same thing and then never see anybody again until check out. That is just annoying. None of this would be needed if the store was just staffed. All those wrecked end caps, wrong signs, empty locations, and messy aisle could also be fixed and you would have people around when a guest needed something. You know the way Target used to be when it was a company on the way up.
 
I've been told by ETLs on several occasions that they would love to have guests complaining about being asked "CIHYFS?" too much.
We've never had that position at my store but it sounds like a good idea, when there are only 2 people scheduled for all of hardlines (one of whom has to stay at/near the boat) & they have to stay on task to complete the pulls/zone/reshops.
I wonder how the performance of the service ambassador will be measured.
 
I've been told by ETLs on several occasions that they would love to have guests complaining about being asked "CIHYFS?" too much.
We've never had that position at my store but it sounds like a good idea, when there are only 2 people scheduled for all of hardlines (one of whom has to stay at/near the boat) & they have to stay on task to complete the pulls/zone/reshops.
I wonder how the performance of the service ambassador will be measured.
RedCards perhaps? Or maybe something on the survey...
 
They took my idea! I really think it would allow TMs to focus more on their tasks and give guests a better experience. However it'll be ruined as this person will become the default backup cashier and will spend 80% of their shift at the lanes.
 
I would honestly like to see pictures of a guest comment that says "Your salespeople are too helpful. I got asked CIHYFS too many times during my visit." As much as it annoys some guests, I find it hard to believe that any one is really complaining about CIHYFS. We ask CIHYFS and greet/talk to/acknowledge guests a lot in my store and I've yet to see a single survey that says " OMFG quit asking me if I need help!?!?!"
I have actually seen at our store a quest comment that ran along the lines of

"I would like to thank you for letting your sales people leave me alone while I shop".

I laughed, but couldn't help think it was from a Target Team member
 
I hear guests complain quite a good bit about getting "guest serviced" too much. It isn't rare, and I've worked or supported at a ton of different stores.
 
I thin
I would honestly like to see pictures of a guest comment that says "Your salespeople are too helpful. I got asked CIHYFS too many times during my visit." As much as it annoys some guests, I find it hard to believe that any one is really complaining about CIHYFS. We ask CIHYFS and greet/talk to/acknowledge guests a lot in my store and I've yet to see a single survey that says " OMFG quit asking me if I need help!?!?!"

I was a sales consultant at ULV OfficeMax for a year, we got this all the time. Our general manager and assistant store manager required that we service a guest the minute they walk in, and we know what all of our guests are shopping for, the feedback we received was "your sales people are too annoying, i just want to shop!"
 
We have had multiple guests complain about being asked too much...the comments were along the lines of "if I need help, I'll ask someone", kind of along the lines of "don't call me, I'll call you" ;)
 
One of the things that led me to change the phrasing of cihyfs? to "Are you finding everything you need?" (which means if they don't need your help they say yes instead of you having to NO all day) was a woman who shrieked, "I one more person asks me that, I'm going to barf!".

I didn't get many of those but it just takes one.
 
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