Have you ever wandered through a retail store and thought what in gods name are those people doing? They circle certain patches of product like vultures, they try to ring up every sale no matter how long the line, they avoid returns like the plague and see fitting rooms as the door way to hell. It's a little bit hysterical to watch them. Especially at holiday rush hour and double fun if you have a friend willing to sit with you and ad lib them all.
Well Corset is easing back into blogging so let's do a break down of the things I said before. If you see an associate circling product, it's for a couple reasons. With the exceptions of places like Wal-Mart, in retail it's a big no no to sit behind your register and wait for a customer. They want you to be active. What does that mean? Active means you approach every customer and push selling by striking up conversation and 'wardrobing' in every possible way. Now wardrobing is just a silly way off adding on extras the customer might not have thought of. Like You want a shower curtain so obviously you need new bath mats, matching towels, a new tooth brush holder, soap dispenser, bath room curtains, etc. If it can be remotely connected to what the customer is buying, they want it to be suggested in a cute little, did you know kind of way. Or the associate is lazy, it's so they appear busy and the manager or guys behind the camera in loss prevention don't call down and remind you that if you don't want to do it their way, there is someone out there willing to replace you.
Now if the associate is expected to be wooing customers on such a personal level then why do they try to ring up every person who even attempts to enter a check out zone? I bet you know this one. Sales goals. Even if you don't get paid commission the company wants to know that you are pulling your weight. They do this by setting sales goals and if you don't consistently meet a certain percentage of that goal, you go on probation because obviously if you are doing it right, you will be meeting the goal. Every transaction is added up and you can track your goal during the day, an example. If you work an 8hr shift, in some places that means you will have a sales goal of roughly $2500. This brings us to returns.
I find this aspect of the system poorly set up because in my opinion it leads to customer neglect. Just as every sale you ring up brings you closer to the magic number, every return you ring, subtracts from it. So if you are providing good customer service by helping the person everyone else treats like a leper, you're shooting yourself in the foot at the same time.
This brings us to the fitting rooms! Now granted many places don't have these but a lot do, or some equivalent where customers pile merchandise without care to let you find out where its home once was. In my example we shall use the fitting room. When trying to find the right pair of jeans or the right top for the whatever occasion, it's not uncommon for people to pick up and set down over ten items. While good for you your looking for something in particular, the sales associate is loosing progress trying to put it all back. For every moment that an associate is having to return merchandise to a shelf, another associate is taking their sales. Not only that but it's quite a lot of work. If you're staring down a pile of jeans from ten brands and companies and that's only one side of the fitting room AND it's not even noon yet if you try to tackle that, you'll be at it for a while. Now remember, you have 8 hours to sell $2500 worth of merchandise. Now subtract the Three hours you are spending being a good human being and putting things back where they belong. So if you want to be a decent human being and help out with the fitting room you are really trying to sell $500 worth of stuff an hour in a place where most of the purchases are going to be $50-100 total. Now that doesn't sound to hard until you remember you are competing with five other people to get those sales.
Retail can be a bit cut throat. I can't imagine what those poor men and women in commission sales have to go through.
Having been on both sides of the counter,
Corset signing off.
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