Archived Change to Fitting Room Proceedures?

[jayhawkmom]

Has anyone heard of changes to how we run the fitting room? I heard a rumor that we will no longer have anyone scheduled for fitting room shift. We will all be on the floor. Once we find a guest who wants to try on an item we take them back to the FR and stay with them until they are done - immediately returning any unwanted items to their location. Increase sales I get however how about the other 50 people that wandering in without assistance? I heard that sorting abandons/returns will go up to guest services along with the phone...Anyone heard any of this?

 

[BullseyeStyle]

I'm imagining this at my store and I don't see how it would work. At least not the phone. Our store gets so many calls a day we need a dedicated operator at the fitting room with the Cisco phone. So I would assume this is probably going to be an ASANTS thing.

 

[PM2NO]

My store moved away from having someone at Fitting Room within the last couple years as any calls are done with a cordless phone or having HRTM take calls.

 

[countingsheep]

When e2e first started s couple people mentioned this is how they were doing it. Frankly it blows up our shortage door not having a fm back there. Right now our floor tms have the portable and the only thin fr does is sort reshop and guest service they arent even allowed to leave the desk area.

 

[Fix It]

Nah lol. My store will have the operator/receptionist walk guests to specific fitting rooms though because it “deters theft”. The vast majority of stores operators/receptionist are staged at the fitting rooms.

Side note: who calls them operators, and who calls them receptionists? My store is split like 60/40 for receptionist.

 

[BullseyeStyle]

Side note: who calls them operators, and who calls them receptionists? My store is split like 60/40 for receptionist.

My store is split between operator/fitting room/the operator's name.

 

[mystique199]

We've been doing this for a couple months.... ugh. Each a&a tm takes a shift in the fr. Usually 2 hours. Have to walk guests to their room, and put unwanted items away immediately

 

[soyaxo]

This is a more intense version of what we do at Dillard's. Our customers have free roam to the fitting room bays, but we are usually supposed to make it clear we're available to find other sizes. Working in Big And Tall means I have 2 separate fitting room bays, over a dozen individual rooms in a high volume store. Even with me constantly being in my area, I can't even assist every customer as much as I would like.

This made me remember the weird changes my old store did at the end of this past year. I thought it was a company-wide -- So, basically around November we had this change to where no one was schedule for fitting rooms, just like OP. The difference is that we each had a 2 hour period where we had to stand at the fitting room and provide guest service (no chair, but because of pregnant/injured TMs we had a supportive floor pad req'd out by our VM when he was a VMTL). This was a disaster, because so many people were so wreckless and careless with the fitting rooms and didn't bother checking in with guests because they were more interested in being on their phones Snapchatting or watching videos. I loved being the designated operator. I could be responsible for all my own tasks and make sure they got done. I feel like it should have just stayed that way. It's Target, and I liked it a lot better then because it was more positively unique.

 

[HRZone]

Our fitting room person doesn't handle phones anymore. The other softlines tms share the cordless. The fitting room person sorts, and guest services at the door.

 

[wiredharpoon]

They might be running a test at some stores to see how it goes but honestly it will be most likely blocked by ap.

 

[goingto4]

Ohh no no no that sounds like the worst case scenario, not having a team member present at the desk. I don't mind having team members rotate if they are comfortable hand checking, but giving guests free roam of the rooms is an awful idea. I do think walking guests back and writing their name on the door is really creepy; thankfully TMs don't do that unless the DTL is watching.

Our shortage dropped significantly when we were finally able to lock our doors. I haven't had the chance to run numbers since the locks came off but the amount of tags and non-clothing empty packages has gone back up and now with swim set I can only imagine the shortage.

 

[RhettB]

Nobody scheduled there, but shift tagged as FR to be there.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

So, no more writing names on the fitting room door?

 

[IWishIKnew]

I worked the FR when I worked for Target the first time, lo these many years ago, and they were going back & forth on fitting attendant vs. not, with the argument being that higher-end stores don't supervise the fitting rooms very closely but WalMart practically follows you in (exaggerating, but you get the idea) and Target would rather be seen as closer to the former than the latter. Guests feel more comfortable when they don't feel like they're being assumed to be criminals and that creates a more positive guest experience. Or something like that.

Realistically, though, all retail stores see theft and, it just depends on how likely it is that amount you can charge, the amount people will spend, and the number of people coming in will outweigh the shrinkage. If your store saw a drop in sales after they started locking the FR that was greater than what was being lost in shrinkage, well..

 

[HRZone]

 

[HRZone]

Is your store a bag ban store?

I wouldn't post a survey from my store and outmyself, now the surveys default to showing the whole company.

My last store had a bag ban this one is not.

I posted this to suggest maybe having no one at the fitting room is a bad idea.

 

[sprinklesontop]

As of now, we alternate the A&A Team at the FR every 45 min - 1 hr; preferably at the beginning of their shift. I've worked in small "junior" specialty stores where there isn't a "designated" FR person..... and the sales team controls the FR as they assist their customers. This process works in a specialty store because the volume/customer traffic is significantly lower. In addition, I've worked in a large department store, where there isn't a "designated" FR person, but there's also small "satellite" register (check out) desk right near each FR. This process works for them, because the team member at the register can control the FR between customers.
Here at Target...... I strongly feel the FRs need to be "manned" all day. It makes for great service ( which is the direction we're heading), keeps the FR "Brand", and it controls shortage without a doubt.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

View attachment 4428

So the employees get slammed because of Target's decisions.

 

[redeye58]

So the employees get slammed because of Target's decisions.

'Tis the Target way.

 

[FredPanda3]

I haven't heard anything about that, that just seems like going from one extreme to the other to "you can't leave the FR at all" to no one being there at all. The only difference I have noticed is that Fitting Room is not scheduled separately anymore, now they are scheduled as soft lines, but with "FR" in the little abbreviations of their shift.