Look, for my experience, it was only a couple of months of being at Target that every single shift for two or three months would be FRO, then I'd get a single non FRO shift, and then I was back to exclusive FRO. Got a new ETL a few months before I left, my schedule was crazy for about a month, and then more often than not I was carrying the phone. I guess they liked my phone skills, it certainly wasn't my fitting room organization skills.
So I've been there. I've been in the trenches. I carried the phone more in those 2 1/2 years than most people in the old softlines.
And it ain't a big fucking deal. They have a million questions, transfer. They have a million questions and the other person is busy, tell them to call back. They have simple return questions, just answer them. They want a high demand item, no we don't have it/yeah we have a couple but we can't hold it, I suggest you come in quickly before they are gone.
Not that hard. And again personal experience, I preferred it to when I had to handle a call while simultaneously typing a 50 page legal contract. That last is a brain twister and hope attention to detail and multi-tasking prevents errors. Talking about a toaster while having a non-verbal exchange through smiles with a physical guest waiting for help is nothing. And there's a lovely little button called "hold". Whether you genuinely need them to hold, whether you are just tired of the blah blah for a second and want to bang the phone hard before picking the line back up with a smile, they aren't going to know. You can put them on hold until you can get the need met (whether theirs or yours). You can put them on hold while you help the guest in your face.
Phones are not a big deal. They are nowhere near as big of a deal as people make them out to be. I have some hearing loss, I struggle to hear people on the phone, and even with that, it's not a big deal.
