Archived Surprise visits

[cobycord]

so the past few weeks my stores been having surprise visits from my DTL. I know a surprise visit isn't anything new but these surprise visits are FREQUENT. just last week she had an hour and a half long conference call with my ETLs and STL then out of the blue she walked into the store as soon as it was over. Come to find out she had been having the entire conference call in her car then walked in just to see I guess if they were lying about anything. Then TODAY my GTL walks in with his entire crew asking us and the TLs questions about things around the store and the staffing needs. Is this normal or is something going on behind the scenes that nobody knows about.....yet.

 

[balthrop]

you are about to get a new STL and possibly an entirely new leadership team. not saying but still it is a bit odd. the DTL and GTL are doing some serious fishing.

 

[FiestyPlano]

I would say something is sketchy going on...1. I have never had a conference call and 2. My dtl and gtl have barely spoken to any of our tl's unless it does them good

 

[callmetaylor]

We started having frequent visits about 2mos before our STL left. Weekly visits continued for some time and have now dropped off considerably- our DTL came for the first time in a few weeks the other day.

But I remember the panic that rushed through the store during visits before my old STL left...and then the looooooong and thorough tours our ETLs would give the DTL, explaining in depth the changes they were making after the STL was booted.


So yea...probably best to prepare yourself for big changes. It's not a definite, but it totally sounds like what happened in my store before our STL left

 

[Panda13]

DTL should make surprise visits too all stores. They never on announced visits see what is really going on as ETLs are running around fixing things that should be done right without a visit

 

[signingminion]

We get dtl visits like all the time. Gtl was in this week though. We're a big focus store and nothing is getting better...hoping they can the stl. Wish the etl-ge could get lumped in, it might catch the etl-log instead.

 

[cobycord]

Yeah I understand about the DTL surprise visits but the GTL popping up out of the blue when he lives 3hrs or so away with an entire posse of Group ETLs is definitely weird to me.....and like I said the surprise visits from the DTL when she lives an hour away is kinda sketchy too. Sometimes she'll come in regular clothes just so no one recognizes her.

 

[signingminion]

Yeah I understand about the DTL surprise visits but the GTL popping up out of the blue when he lives 3hrs or so away with an entire posse of Group ETLs is definitely weird to me.....and like I said the surprise visits from the DTL when she lives an hour away is kinda sketchy too. Sometimes she'll come in regular clothes just so no one recognizes her.

You sure it was surprise? Or just not communicated well?

 

[Joejoe12]

most likely they are about to can your STL and possibly all of the etls. Or it could be that your store is comping very well and they want to see how, about two years ago this happend in kit store DTL would stop by with kit anyone know sometimes he would just talk the floor ask tms or tls some questions and leave wouldn't even wanna talk to the LOD other times to was the group leader or one of the bps or market leaders. After about 4 months are STL hr Etl and Ap STL were all fired

 

[cobycord]

You sure it was surprise? Or just not communicated well?

It was more than surprise cause my ETL-LOG almost shit himself when I told him who I think walked in our store. Plus usually when we here the GTL is even THINKING about coming to our district our ETLs are here till practically close making sure everything is the way it's supposed to be.

 

[signingminion]

It was more than surprise cause my ETL-LOG almost shit himself when I told him who I think walked in our store. Plus usually when we here the GTL is even THINKING about coming to our district our ETLs are here till practically close making sure everything is the way it's supposed to be.

Poor thing. Hopefully it works out for those who deserve it.

 

[cobycord]

I Dont know who is on the block honestly. I love my STL and she's never done anything wrong in my eyes but from the words through the grapevine everyone says she's completely changed the store and is running it into the ground. Plus we have pretty much an entirely new ETL team so I dunno what's up.

 

[redeye58]

Sounds like the vultures are circling.

 

[On6]

Surprise visits should happen more often in my opinion.

 

[SFSFun]

I could see frequent surprise visits if the DTL lived nearby... But talking on the phone for over an hour and immediately going into the store afterwards is a sure sign he/she is trying to catch someone in a lie.

As everyone else has said, they are probably getting ready to fire the STL, and these visits are just to provide examples of the STL doing things "wrong."

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

We had a 2-3 week timeframe where the dtl and/or hrbp came in every 2-3 days. The store looked like shit and my idiot Stl was cutting hours instead of adding. We were in year 5 of a constant decline in sales. 4 of those with this Stl.

Nothing happened to her unfortunately. Except the dtl approved the stl to promote someone on the bench to tl so she could help fix the store.

Didn't happen. Store still looks like shit. And now we are making sales because of ff. But the Stl is so stupid she says it's because of all our hard work. And that tl is now gone.

 

[tomthy]

My store had a surprise visit from our DTL today. Noticed some of the ETLs and my HR-ETL had really red eyes as if they had been crying. Starting to worry me, I like those ETLs.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

My store had a surprise visit from our DTL today. Noticed some of the ETLs and my HR-ETL had really red eyes as if they had been crying. Starting to worry me, I like those ETLs.

That's scary.

 

[Coqui]

My DTL came on Wednesday and was talking to all of us. He even came to Starbucks and started asking me about sales and my focuses then spoke to me about a major visit by the CFO that our store will be expecting.

 

[NitroKing2110]

My DTL came on Wednesday and was talking to all of us. He even came to Starbucks and started asking me about sales and my focuses then spoke to me about a major visit by the CFO that our store will be expecting.

Your store may soon see an "unexpected increase" in hours to prepare for this.

 

[Coqui]

Your store may soon see an "unexpected increase" in hours to prepare for this.

I'm sure, it's part of best practice (sarcasm)

 

[redeye58]

Don't forget the font.

 

[Stubio]

How often do they visit your store? At ours the RTL and DTL visit usually twice a month, I can never tell if it's a surprise visit or not.

 

[BullseyeBabe]

Our DTL and I-don't-know-who-else showed up unannounced today. Some of the TLs thought it was an April Fool's Day joke when they heard who was in the bldg. lol

 

[KingBear]

Our DTL arrived the other day as a surprise visit and all of the higher-ups did their "stop everything and follow their path" thing and then she (apparently) goes "so who's been checking FFs? Because I placed one two hours ago and it's still not ready. And that's why I'm here, because you guys have one of the worst fulfillment metrics in the entire nation."

So now our FF iPad has a 30 minute timer on constant loop and we need to mute it and remind the LOD or backroom to check for any FFs in the PDA whenever it goes off. Hysterical. Embarrassing. Target.