Service & Engagement Drive Up Time

[idkwhattodo]

No. It's a simple not taking that beat to read that you have everything.. It pisses me off to no end that I have to spend time picking all the items and you guys can't be bothered to make sure the guest gets the items they paid for.

This. My front end ETL and our one TL automatically blames any accuracy error on flex. Nope, not usually. Yes, sometimes it’s a flex fault, but you can usually find a pattern and address it with that TM (like substituting or saying the item is there when it’s not to avoid INFs). Most problems tare guest service carelessness.

This had me so heated a few months ago I talked to my ETL about (“hey. this is a front end problem!”) and to the Flex TL (“hey. this is what I see my GS team doing, so I truly don’t believe you guys are at fault.”).

 

[Bosch]

maybe if flex team did their jobs and followed the process my team wouldn't have accuracy errors =]

You get pictures of what you are supposed to have with numbers of items do you not check?

We should be on it. But again you guys are the double check on it. You have the task of being able to read a list and check off all the items on that list, that you pulled them all to take out to the guest. You don't get to not use your brain cause the other TM didn't. Nope doesn't work that way. Sure they stow'd three cases of soda with one label, you don't get to say "fuck it, one label one case" when the system says you need three.

 

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No. It's a simple not taking that beat to read that you have everything.. It pisses me off to no end that I have to spend time picking all the items and you guys can't be bothered to make sure the guest gets the items they paid for.

While yes, I agree that some of our GSTMs are not taking the time to check bags for accuracy, lately we have had a problem with items missing from bags, bags not being labeled, and orders not being in the correct hold location.

 

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At the end of the day I think more training is due for both sides of the OPU process in my store.

 

[DBZ]

You get pictures of what you are supposed to have with numbers of items do you not check?

We should be on it. But again you guys are the double check on it. You have the task of being able to read a list and check off all the items on that list, that you pulled them all to take out to the guest. You don't get to not use your brain cause the other TM didn't. Nope doesn't work that way. Sure they stow'd three cases of soda with one label, you don't get to say "fuck it, one label one case" when the system says you need three.

I check. Not all the time obviously. Today, I had a DU that was "one bag" but in actuality it was 1 bag plus a potty seat, a giant box of little kid legos, a toy truck and a box of diapers. The things were spread out over 3 different shelves. We were really busy at the time and I only noticed because the "wrong item" was sitting in the hold location I was looking for. If the bag was there, I might have grabbed it and not noticed the rest.

I've also found things like chicken in a hold location for normal stuff and dairy in a dry hold location.

Both GS and Flex make plenty of mistakes. I know I have given the wrong order to the wrong person twice.

 

[Bosch]

While yes, I agree that some of our GSTMs are not taking the time to check bags for accuracy, lately we have had a problem with items missing from bags, bags not being labeled, and orders not being in the correct hold location.

Agreed. I have seen some style peeps and newbies just fuck up orders. When we stopped having real training and having people who came from the backroom or salesfloor who pulled batches or back stocked for real things got really sloppy. And no one really seems to give a fuck about the next person that has to deal with the mess. And leadership doesn't seem to give a fuck either..

 

[seasonaldude]

maybe if flex team did their jobs and followed the process my team wouldn't have accuracy errors =]

Nah. I've adopted one portion of our hold area as my space. No one else stows orders there unless there is nowhere else to put things. It's my space. I stow everything correctly everytime. Everyone at GS knows this. This happened yesterday:

1) I watched a DU TM come in and scan 5 bags in 3 different wacos, which was the entire order. She then proceeded to only grab 4 of the bags to take to the guest.

2) I watched a GSTM scan everything in a bulk space and put it all in her cart. The problem with that was that there was a $400 dollar vacuum in the space that didn't go with the order she was processing. Fortunately, I was aware of that and was in the area to watch or a guest would have gotten a nice, free vacuum.

Bullseye only knows what shit they do when I'm not there to watch.

 

[tracemick8824]

I asked to get trained on fulfillment because I thought it would help me understand and empathize with the fulfillment team. After months of asking, I finally just signed up for a shift on the swap board and made them train me. It was only 1 shift so I only know the basics but it did make me appreciate the fulfillment teams job more.

The TMs on fulfillment who have jumped in to help with Drive Up are also the ones who I think are best at fulfillment. They know we, theoretically, only have so much time to find an order and bring it out to the guest so they are careful about labeling bags and items and putting them in the correct hold areas and that’s very much appreciated.

I wish we trained better on primary jobs and I wish there was more cross training because seeing how everything works together can give insight into your own job. There aren’t leaders who make this a priority because, even before Covid, we are too busy putting out fires and doing things the old way rather than improving processes. Also, I don’t think they care as long as things are getting done.

 

[Anelmi]

^^ i think every GSTM (in my store we do GS, DU and OPU) should work a sales floor shift and a flex shift to get an appreciation for how the other work centers operate. Having done a lot of cross training, I can better understand how calling for backup isnt quite as simple as just shouting out a request over the walkie.

 

[sunnydays]

Nah. I've adopted one portion of our hold area as my space. No one else stows orders there unless there is nowhere else to put things. It's my space. I stow everything correctly everytime. Everyone at GS knows this. This happened yesterday:

1) I watched a DU TM come in and scan 5 bags in 3 different wacos, which was the entire order. She then proceeded to only grab 4 of the bags to take to the guest.

2) I watched a GSTM scan everything in a bulk space and put it all in her cart. The problem with that was that there was a $400 dollar vacuum in the space that didn't go with the order she was processing. Fortunately, I was aware of that and was in the area to watch or a guest would have gotten a nice, free vacuum.

Bullseye only knows what shit they do when I'm not there to watch.

sure would be nice if any of the fulfillment TMs at my store would be even half as competent as you are, i say as i look at phantom items in hold and bulk items mislocated and eggs in the freezer and seven bags located under one label and a team lead who isn’t interested in following up when i coach his team!

 

[xxTheDudexx]

We've actually been pretty fortunate. It's kind of a nightmare right now with all the new team members coming into the mix under the holiday pressure and limited training on the fly. But that's to be expected and up until about a month ago we were doing great.

We've been first in our district with drive up times and accuracy since we started. I don't think we've been dethroned yet. I mean once in a while yeah there's a hickup, but it's pretty rare for us.

We just have a really good team, cooperation between all of us, leadership, and excellent communication. When it gets busy we can predict and read each other. We just move like a well oiled machine. Everyone helps and we have our own system we've designed to help us stay organized. Even when we had to go to the back room to pull cooler and freezer orders (before they finally thank God installed ours up front now) we were able to stay green most of the time. We also learned a trick to get the guest to change their mind on their apps and say they'd come back later and then redo it which reset our timers for us if they didn't give us any warnings which helped our times stay low.

I'd pull orders if I was in the back room to throw trash or I'd be bringing in a row of carts and I'd go straight to flex to pull orders or run a waiting order out if I saw our drive up TM outside already with another Guest. Guest service TMs, Drive Up, me the front of store attendant, our SE ETL and self checkout all help. We all cover each other if someone can take an order out before I can I'll go cover their spot while they grab it whoever is available. It just works for us. Amazingly.

Our Flex team is also really good and thorough. They all place their stickers in the same locations and we have completely separate hold locations for flats and full carts on larger orders to save us time picking.

We made a communication book we keep up front and write down suggestions for our TL in flex to address if we notice labels aren't put on right, or things aren't bagged right. If helps him with new TMs who might need some pointers or reminders until they get it down.

 

[tracemick8824]

We've actually been pretty fortunate. It's kind of a nightmare right now with all the new team members coming into the mix under the holiday pressure and limited training on the fly. But that's to be expected and up until about a month ago we were doing great.

We've been first in our district with drive up times and accuracy since we started. I don't think we've been dethroned yet. I mean once in a while yeah there's a hickup, but it's pretty rare for us.

We just have a really good team, cooperation between all of us, leadership, and excellent communication. When it gets busy we can predict and read each other. We just move like a well oiled machine. Everyone helps and we have our own system we've designed to help us stay organized. Even when we had to go to the back room to pull cooler and freezer orders (before they finally thank God installed ours up front now) we were able to stay green most of the time. We also learned a trick to get the guest to change their mind on their apps and say they'd come back later and then redo it which reset our timers for us if they didn't give us any warnings which helped our times stay low.

I'd pull orders if I was in the back room to throw trash or I'd be bringing in a row of carts and I'd go straight to flex to pull orders or run a waiting order out if I saw our drive up TM outside already with another Guest. Guest service TMs, Drive Up, me the front of store attendant, our SE ETL and self checkout all help. We all cover each other if someone can take an order out before I can I'll go cover their spot while they grab it whoever is available. It just works for us. Amazingly.

Our Flex team is also really good and thorough. They all place their stickers in the same locations and we have completely separate hold locations for flats and full carts on larger orders to save us time picking.

We made a communication book we keep up front and write down suggestions for our TL in flex to address if we notice labels aren't put on right, or things aren't bagged right. If helps him with new TMs who might need some pointers or reminders until they get it down.

“They all place their stickers in the same locations...” I mean, everything you said is what I wish our store would do but I would love if fulfillment could put the stickers in a standard place instead of finding them on the bottom of the bag or on the inside.

 

[Jaxtone]

We always ask guest politely to restart time for us, that way we dont miss the goal time.

 

[azure]

My store has 40 drive up spots. We have 4 preppers, 1-2 organizers, and 4-6 runners. We have 6 different hold areas. Our average time is 2:30. We are always able to keep our time under 2 minutes until 4 which is when we have our massive rush. We work really efficiently there are just so many. I’m not joking when I say we have 40 spots. We literally have a whole row just for drive ups. About 4 drive ups get messed up a day. We don’t miss bags. Normally an item wasn’t in the bag. Every week around one order gets given to the wrong guest somehow. Having someone who just keeps everything organized really helps.

 

[Anelmi]

^^ that is crazy. You have separate TMs to prep and organize and run? Your store must be huge/rolling in payroll.

 

[seasonaldude]

Holy shit! We have 6 drive up spots and didn't expand at all for Black Friday. We also had the most OPU units picked on Black Friday in our group. Our Drive Up team would kill for even 10 spots, but 40! Damn!

 

[redeye58]

We have 24 drive up spots but today people were even parking in the striped off areas & circling the lot.
An empty spot could easily trigger a lethal game of Chicken.

 

[Snarf]

no, because as a lead its obvious when it happens and then i have to coach that team member

I don't work at the front anymore, but could what I do potentially hurt someone? I know we need to have a low time so for my online orders I will select them as drive up even if I'm picking in the store. Not only does it help the score, but it helps me by not having to wait in line at gs or pull up my vehicle to a drive up spot. I just go to the staging area and tell the tm I have a drive up and get it processed in store.

 

[Nauzhror]

Our average drive up time for the year is 2.48. Beginning of the pandemic was rough and GS messed up so many orders, we said “accuracy over time.” Then suddenly our ETL was like, “you all suck. you need to be better or you won’t be scheduled at GS.” she wrote people up for having times over 2 minutes and we even started a book with each drive up over 2 minutes with our rationale as to why it was over 2 minutes, which took more of our time.

Even with our coolers/ freezers in the back (no longer in the back now) of the store our ETL threatened to write up our only useful TL and a bunch of TMs. Yesterday, we were so understaffed at the desk. One on drive up, one at the desk while our bad TL was in TSC and our ETL was in the office ignoring our calls for help, it was a mess. Every drive up I took out was over 10 minutes. We aren’t the highest volume store in our district (close to the top, but not the biggest), but we consistently have the most drive ups. I took out 79 drive ups yesterday and that was with finally getting more people in. 2 minutes is just impossible.

Our time is pretty bad, but don't think quite this bad. It's rarely under 2 minutes though unless we have our best TM's doing it all day.

 

[Nauzhror]

Automatic write up at all stores in my district

If the guest complains maybe. Which is super, super, unlikely.

 

[dabug]

You mean your drive up people aren’t literally laying on the ground in the OPU area avoiding any of their responsibilities? I want to transfer!

 

[MrT]

^^ i think every GSTM (in my store we do GS, DU and OPU) should work a sales floor shift and a flex shift to get an appreciation for how the other work centers operate. Having done a lot of cross training, I can better understand how calling for backup isnt quite as simple as just shouting out a request over the walkie.

I have never worked at guest service but they can be really overloaded with work at busy times, especially since drive up increased, and they dont get as much support as they deserve. When i had nearly double or triple my forecast for opu i cam call gm, style, beauty, or anyone really and get help to get my orders done. Imho it is not them that need to appreciate the sales floor or fulfillment team it is the other way around. They know what we go through but i agree id like everyone to cross train in as much areas as possible to just understand each other but that won't happen unless you have been there for a long time.

 

[idkwhattodo]

just wanted to share that our drive up time was above 3 minutes today lmaooo

 

[DBZ]

just wanted to share that our drive up time was above 3 minutes today lmaooo

You get your asses kicked or what? How many orders did you have stowed at the peak? How many arrived and arriving? I was off and missed the madness

 

[idkwhattodo]

You get your asses kicked or what? How many orders did you have stowed at the peak? How many arrived and arriving? I was off and missed the madness

Over 600 orders total, so our hold areas are overflowing. We have so much in the backroom, which we have to go run and grab ourselves, which obviously kills the time.

For 2 hours straight (4:30-6:30), we had at least 12 guest arrived and 10 arriving, but half our guests didn’t even give a notice. At one point we had 21 people arrived and not enough drive up parking spots. There was only 2 of us doing drive ups during this time with one at the incredibly long line at the desk. The 2 of us taking out were also the ones pulling the orders because so short-staffed.

During the morning/ afternoon, they had 5 people total at GS with 3 on drive ups/ 2 at the desk and the drive up time was like 2:50, which I don’t know how it was that bad with both TLs in the building and our ETL around. So at least me and the other kid can’t be the ones to blame when the morning, which actually had proper/ decent staffing had the time so high already. Around 4 to 6:30 is usually our peak time, but we do NOT schedule like it is at all.