Archived Closing the fitting rooms?

[sher]

My store staffs it open to close and breaks must be covered. If there not covering it all the time then who answers the phones? makes no since to me to not have someone back there to me sounds like the management isn't managing there staff well. At my store it is part of the minimum staff they have to have. it gets priority over any floor positions.

Tsc/hr is operator in my store. Almost two years ago they stopped scheduling them all day. So softlines TMs/FR TMs had to learn to do the phones. So we cover the gaps in the hr schedule and we cover their breaks. I honestly don't understand how operators in other stores are able to do phones and fitting room full time everyday. Like we wouldn't finish anything ever if we did that. Sometimes I have to leave the fr to help phone guests because the floor isn't staffed well enough or everyone's on register or there's no SL sales floor people or just no one I'd responding. Then if I'm on the phone I just wave people in the fitting room because what is my other choice? I think having fitting room do phones is dumb unless your store is low volume/low returns or like don't get many clothing shoppers. If we have enough people on the floor, someone covers the fr breaks. If we don't, oh well, not my fault. Why was it scheduled like that? One day I was doing phoned because our tsc person switched over to signing (still in the office but now we're supposed to cover phones when they're signing) and I tried to get fr coverage and there was no SL tm around. I had to call the hr lady to cover phones lol. They just sort the signs. They can do that and answer phones. But I have to hang things, fold things, bring them to different baskets, check the fitting rooms, then if I'm doing one of those tasks, I have to run back to the phone to answer it. It's all bullshit.

And I dont even think phone guests are as important as the ones in front of me 99% of the time. Because who knows if they're even really gonna come in? I know the person in front of me could possibly decide against something based on how I treat them. The phone guest?

 

[sher]

Other than occasional breaks, we have fr coverage from 9am to 10pm. On sundays its 9-9... And on occasion they come in when the store opens, but usually if thy come in that early, there's not much actual fr work to do so maybe some reshop gets done in rtw before they get back into fr tasks.

Edit: those of you who have to do fr and zone have shit scheduling people, because from the sound of it, your fr workload isn't low enough to not have someone in the fr.

 

[Triscuit]

My store staffs it open to close and breaks must be covered. If there not covering it all the time then who answers the phones? makes no since to me to not have someone back there to me sounds like the management isn't managing there staff well. At my store it is part of the minimum staff they have to have. it gets priority over any floor positions.

Guest services answers the phone when no one is at the fitting room. And you do realize not all stores are the same? You probably are higher volume than my store and are granted more payroll hours. Fitting room is low priority at my store, I wish it was higher because a lot of stuff does get stolen at the fitting room, but thats just how it is.

 

[RXninja]

We have an opening and closing fitting room operator. Unfortunately, they don't schedule the opener until 9:30 or 10 in the morning. One morning I was scheduled to open it, and I found 7 tags/empty packages hidden in the fitting rooms. And I know theft happens at night because they put the phone on night ring at 7pm and the fr/op has to zone all of mens and activewear.

 

[Phoenix26]

How does it cause theft? You can't be serious. It's an area without cameras, of course it causes theft. There's one person frequently that is in charge of zone and the fitting room. You have to zone, and physically cannot check everyone that goes in.

At My Store the Fitting Room Does Zone as well but only in areas in proximity of the fitting room. We are expected to still check all guests going into the fitting room as well. If you can't multi task then you wont last long at the Fitting Room in my store as you need to be ale to check in and out guests while answering the phone and zoning the surrounding area. Its not an easy job and isn't for everyone. Those who don't check in and out each guest get coached as either APTL watches it not being done on the camera or the look back over the Tapes when its slow and notice. either way in my store not checking guests in and out off the fitting room and limiting them to 6 items is a sure way to e out of a job.
I personally didn't find it hard at all and I had no trouble getting my work load done in a higher volume store, Though I like to keep busy.

And I dont even think phone guests are as important as the ones in front of me 99% of the time. Because who knows if they're even really gonna come in? I know the person in front of me could possibly decide against something based on how I treat them. The phone guest?

In my district that wouldn't be smart as The District Manager has been known to call the store on a cell and pose as a customer or potential job applicant just to see how the store handles calls and how long it takes to get the info he is calling about.

 

[sher]

In my district that wouldn't be smart as The District Manager has been known to call the store on a cell and pose as a customer or potential job applicant just to see how the store handles calls and how long it takes to get the info he is calling about.

My DTL calls as well, but she just says "it's [Cruella]" no games. She's never gonna be disappointed with me (I'm not a humble person lol. Sorry), but I BET she's been disappointed by the people I transfer her to because they never answer the phone. I still think the phone guest is less important. That doesn't mean I'm not answering the phone. It means I'm answering the phone while feeling like it sucks that I'm less available to the guest in front of me. Especially considering last year's changes to the fr role asked that we get the people in the rooms different sizes and colors if they ask. I never said anything to lead you to believe that I wouldn't answer the phone in a professional manner. I answer the phone with a smile on my face (I swear you can hear a smile over the phone) and if I'm annoyed, I pass that on to the walkie lol, because it's rarely the guest who annoys me. It's the ahole not answering the phone... Or not acknowledging me when I transfer their call. That is also how I always end up going out on the floor to search for things. I refuse to let someone bounce more than 3 times. I bounced like 6 times waiting on an lod once and I was mid-cuss when she picked up. I hate when I'm calling out and fitting room has the calls. When hr has the phone if an lod isn't picking up it doesn't matter because hr can put it in whatever system it goes in.

 

[dannyy315]

I don't think I've used a fitting room in 5 years, and that was to try on a suit.

 

[dannyy315]

I just order stuff online. I know exactly what size fits me and I know everything will be brand new.

 

[sher]

Omg. There was an incident today and our stl essentially said there are no rules to fight club fitting room... Unless you suspect something lol.

 

[Deli Ninja]

Omg. There was an incident today and our stl essentially said there are no rules to fight club fitting room... Unless you suspect something lol.

Well then I would tell the STL to change my name to "Paranoid" because I will constantly be suspecting something! 😉

 

[SFSFun]

I just order stuff online. I know exactly what size fits me and I know everything will be brand new.

Unless you order from target.com and it gets routed to a Ship from Store location...

 

[Patty]

I am always looking for fitting room tips. How do you sort carts, hang, fold, put away, answer phoneswhile vibing with guests, oversee the fr, and put everything away bc salesfloor can't. They are zoning. How do you handle the lack of room when youve filled 3 zs ? Plus there are usually 4 carts of totally unsorted reshop when I get there. I need some practical advice. I am on the run for 8 hrs . There is no such thing as a second bresk for a 1.30 to 10 shift in our store. Softlines and esp fr in our store is a zoo and Everyone in SF works very hard.
Any tips you can suggeest would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sher]

Well then I would tell the STL to change my name to "Paranoid" because I will constantly be suspecting something! 😉

I almost never follow the FR rules, personally. I'm not gonna argue with these people. Management is gonna side with the guest. That's what happened with that little incident (which I had no parts in... I was just in the area). I'm not gonna stress over something no one else cares about. I tell them about rules and if the guest argues, I give in. I do it the way I said on page 1 (I just fixed some swype-os in that post, so now it makes sense lol) and I'm still low theft compared to the piles of tags everyone else has.

 

[sher]

I am always looking for fitting room tips. How do you sort carts, hang, fold, put away, answer phoneswhile vibing with guests, oversee the fr, and put everything away bc salesfloor can't. They are zoning. How do you handle the lack of room when youve filled 3 zs ? Plus there are usually 4 carts of totally unsorted reshop when I get there. I need some practical advice. I am on the run for 8 hrs . There is no such thing as a second bresk for a 1.30 to 10 shift in our store. Softlines and esp fr in our store is a zoo and Everyone in SF works very hard.
Any tips you can suggeest would be greatly appreciated.

I DON'T put reshop away if I'm in the fitting room unless I've finished everything else. The guests can browse your z racks. It being on a z is better than it being balled up in a cart. Take your second break. Period. I've begun pushing racks apart and putting z racks between them. Sometimes we take them to the backroom. Don't worry about the work that doesn't get finished. Do what you can do.

My work mantra is "if they wanted anything to be finished, they'd schedule more people and we would have more hours (and they would stop adding responsibilities to our plates)." I say some variation of that so often that this post right here is the thing that would give me away if anyone from my store (in SL) read this site. Seriously, though, you can fine tune your processes constantly, but it doesn't sound like it's plausible that one person can finish all of what you have in your fitting room no matter how efficient you are.

I prioritize the guests both in front of me and on the phone. Then with the carts, I take big stuff, boxes, packaged items out first. As I'm doing that I'm grabbing all the folding and putting it over the side of the cart or in the seat part. Then I fold, quickly, not perfectly. Then I'm usually able to combine carts so they take up less space. I know no one likes the carts where everything needs to be hung. They are such dense carts. But I do it if they're taking up mad space. Then if I'm actually able to keep up with those carts, I'll grab a bunch of items that use the same size hangers, pile them up, grab a stack of the hangers and hang. Lately I can't do that because there are so many people trying on all the things and buying the tiniest portion of what they tried on. So after I combine all the unsorted carts that were on the side, I try to keep up with whatever people are trying on. Keyword being "try"

 

[Patty]

Thank you very much!!!!

 

[calimero]

Unsorted cart :
First , I get the boxes ( shoes , infant toys etc )and put them on 3 tier cart . then , I fish for whatever is already on a hanger and put them on zracks , pulling out the empty hangers too.
Then , I go for the swim , and lay them flat on desk , and sort them as I go ,by sizes .when I have enough , I grab the hangers and start clipping them and putting th away on zrack .
I keep the folded for last !
And repeat that a dozen times during shift !

 

[sher]

^ I sort the swim by brand and color when I put them on the z, but that goes out the window when I'm swamped.

Also I realized there could be some confusion in part of what I wrote. When I do the hanging and pile the stuff (neatly) that uses the same "sized" hanger, I meant like kids hangers vs toddler hangers, etc... And I'll do swim together. I should save the folding for last... Save the best for last or whatever, but I'm always hoping my replacement will get there before I get too into the hanging lol.

 

[NeoDarikona]

1, that ain't ever happening as long as Softlines drives huge margins.

2, the company markets heavily towards women who generally purchase more clothes then man.

3, the company buys cheaply from China which means poorer quality control so a size M for one line will not necessarily carry over for another line. Women will try on various sizes from several lines BECAUSE OF THIS. I want to add that as someone who has lost substantial amount of weight, that I'm noticing how inconsistent the fit is even in the same color line for a MSC t-shirt. I had to try on four different shirts of the same color and size to find one that actually felt right and looked right.

4, if you've never had fitted clothing then you do not even remotely understand the substantial difference well fitted clothing feel and look. It's night and day, and for heavy set people it can make or break how good you look both professionally and casually. High end clothing stores are very popular for this because of better fit and in house fitting. The fitting room is the closest thing Target has to covering this gap as a discount retailer.

5, Target is willing to cut hours in the FR simply because of the margin on their clothes. There are many reasonings involved on whether or not extra hours are given there, and depends heavily on shortage, SL sales, store sales, etc. My local city Target is a low C volume and yet has constant FR coverage due to shortage concern and sales in RTW. Another Target is a very high volume store in HL but has less SL supports. YMMV on FR coverage. My old store was in the top 100 for RTW in the company. Right now they have an attendant there from opening to close with double coverage during Friday through Sunday during the afternoon. They are processing 20 carts every morning and 15 Z racks of reshop, and barely catching up.

 

[Patty]

Hello ladies, thanks for all the excellent info and tips. Now that I have a plan I feel much better. I just krpt tryi g to go faster and faster and i not only got less efficient, my anxiety upset other people. I would have left after30 days. Tbr is Targets best hr asset by Far!!!