Archived Fitting Room is insane

[sprinklesontop]

So many things said here seem mad unrealistic to me.

Waking every guest to their room isn't even plausible in my store. You'll be walking over and then the phone rings and 6 people come in and say "can I just go in? Do I need a number??" So you can't make them wait so you can walk and chit chat them.

Then if you go get different sizes for one guest, who walks the few that came in while you were gone? Then you get back and the phone's ringing, then guests come out and some come in all at once... When do you fix the hangers, sort the gs cart, fold stuff? Then on a busy holiday shift the phone is ringing back to back with "what are your hours today calls lol. Then someone wants to know if another store has the size in stock that you don't have... And more guests come. And on and on and on and on. My store was toying with this thing where they scheduled so 2 people were FR during busier hours (they labeled the second person GE because they were supposed to do the guest facing tasks) but the TLs kept stealing them to work on the floor. It could've been helpful though

Your fr has to always be slow for one person to do all of this and keep up with it. I'd love to keep the guests feeling special and attended to, but they can't buy things if we're letting unsorted carts build up. There were times this summer where we had carts in the double digits in the backroom waiting to be sorted lol. No one could buy that stuff... But the guests felt special so yay.

Ahem.... Yes.... Your store sounds a bit busier than mine. And, I feel for you ! Ugh ! I hear your concerns loud and clear...... my Team had similar concerns of their own as we adopted this new "strategy". It is a huge culture shock to change the "status quo" of the Fr. HUGE. (flinging arms out wide HUGE)
The first thing we changed was the way we handled phone calls. In fact we quit "handling" phone calls.... and handed them over to the appropriate dept. ( We're just the "operator".... not everyone's receptionist ) That was an enormous time-saver !!!!! ( and we use a cordless phone almost always.... so we can walk/talk at the same time)
Periodically we do have a "waiting line" for the FR. We have to move things along quickly...probably a little less "small talk" at those times. We overlap the FR on weekends..... The extra GE FR 2 TM is there to support the FR 1 TM in any way necessary. If we pull our GE FR 2 to zone or help w/ go-backs, it's still within range of the FR. Sometimes she sorts a cart just "outside" the FR, so she's still Guest-facing. IMO.... your Leadership is doing you a huge dis-service by taking your GE FR 2 TM "away".
Speaking to the double-digit cart situation.... we've had "huddles" ( and I despise huddles) in the backroom before store opening to address them. Cuz, you're absolutely right----- you can't sell that merch if it's not on the floor !
I'm probably a little freakishly protective of our A&A dept and my Team....... if ANY of them are feeling "overwhelmed" with their workload, incl the FR..... I will stop whatever I'm working on to assist. I can't do this ALL the time... but just to get thru the slump. Respect: I give it and I get it.
We had some tough times adapting to this change..... not gonna lie. It was down-right UGLY at times. BUT.... and it's a BIG BUT ..... once we established the new strategy, and truly "believed" in it....... my Team is soooooo much happier ! And our Guests are diggin' it ! My Team ROCKS !

 

[FredPanda3]

I work in a super high volume store, we are never not busy. We always have a line of at least 5 people every morning waiting at the doors before we open.

Our fitting room is insane. I've been both softlines/hardlines for the past year but lately they've been super short staffed at the fitting room (I can see why everyone's been leaving now) so they moved me back there permanently. We have one opener and one closer. Their rule is we must come completely clean of reshop at the end of our shift. This is such a stupid rule considering how they have us run the fitting room. It is only me doing reshop. I am responsible for answering the phones which ring every 2 mins, getting the reshop from guest service (our cart back there gets full every 20 mins) and all the clothes that everyone tries on at the fitting room If I just leave the fitting room for 2 minutes I will come back and the rooms will be FULL off clothing laying on the floor. 70% of the time I'm not back there, I'm running around the store doing reshop, and looking for items around the store for guest on the phone (because when I try to transfer nobody ever takes the calls so I have to do it). The rooms are always full of clothing and tags. Always. Since I'm basically never back there the guest get to do whatever they want, steal whatever they want, be however messy they want in there, and they sure do take advantage of it.
How can the LODS expect me to come clean at the end of each of shift like this?
Not to mention they also want me zoning men's and sleep/hosiery/activewear when I close cause we only have 2-3 softlines closers. I constantly tell the lods we need one person just doing reshop and someone staying at FR. They never care. Especially our Stl, he sucks. I seriously want to quit but I need the money.
How do the LODS at your store run the fitting room and what are their expectations there?

If you read through my long rant, thanks!!

Lately it seems like the FRO has had a lot of expectations tacked on that just aren't reasonable to expect of one person. At my store, they just started these new rules that are the complete opposite. We can't leave the FR at all because they want us to be a presence to go get people sizes/converse/suggestive sell different outfits. Literally they want us to be visible by guests at all times, greeting every guest that walks in, but then say they want us to go get sizes, other clothing pieces to suggest, even in Men's, and we also have to pick up our reshop. That leaves the zone a constant mess and a constant build up of reshop. However, there's no expectation of the zone/reshop getting done anymore so there's that. Also, district managers have been doing the whole "posing as guests to test out guest service" and our FR reviews have been consistently "awful" because they aren't being greeted and there's been no "selling" done by the FRO. If the company doesn't want to give out hours for two people in RTW they should not have these expectations. I actually asked my ETL SL what happens if the FRO happens to be gone for a minute and then the district managers come for their service visit, she had no answer and the TL that heard me had to come up with some bs answer.

 

[Ahem]

@Jenna120 I got out of that place lol. I do it essentially how you're describing. The issue is leadership is expecting for it to go differently. I think they don't have a concept of how much time the work takes.

@sprinklesontop as of about 2 weeks ago, we don't answer phones anymore. HR doesn't and we cover their breaks and any gaps in the schedule. Every time I've worked fr since, it's been during a schedule gap lol. I have the best luck. Your store send better at getting a system in place and getting everyone cooperating. My store fr tms are walking in and at least once a week there's been some sort of process or rule change. Sometimes it's a small thing like where we can put the sorted rtw... Or what we're putting it on but basically every time you finally get comfortable and find a routine, you have to figure it out again. We're not even getting a FR GE anymore because they're just using whatever schedule mytime spits out. No human interaction with the sl schedules at the moment. It's been an interesting journey

 

[R2d2]

Yeah, I know its not best practice. But what do you do on a day like this for example: 3 tms are scheduled for a day shift. Two come in at 8 and one at 11 (a special needs tm). There is a truck to be pushed and someone needs to work price change. There is a lot of reshop hanging around the fitting room needing to be sorted and then of course put away. One tm worked truck (and did not finish). The second worked price change nearly all day and covered phones for the HRTM's breaks. The special needs tm worked on a bit of already-sorted reshop. When myself and another closing tm arrived at 3pm, the second tm only just got done pc and moved over to start working on the fitting room. I don't know what else could have been done differently.

You are understafed.... we are those hours from other areas that tou are doing now [price change, backroom, flow, ]????

 

[Doglover89]

You are understafed.... we are those hours from other areas that tou are doing now [price change, backroom, flow, ]????

Too many hours and not enough people to fill them I suppose. Honestly, i don't think hours are being allocated in the best way. I'm trying my best to get out of here.

 

[sprinklesontop]

Too many hours and not enough people to fill them I suppose. Honestly, i don't think hours are being allocated in the best way. I'm trying my best to get out of here.

Doglover 89, you can come work w/ me ! You are such a trooper !!!! It sounds as though YOU come to work everyday; giving your BEST effort.... and you leave feeling defeated. And yet... you manage to get up the next day, come into work, and still give your BEST effort ( and then leave feeling defeated). Groundhog's Day !!!
I hope for your sake.... things will change ! It sounds as though you are the backbone to the A&A Team ! They'd be in a horrible jam if you left.

 

[Doglover89]

Doglover 89, you can come work w/ me !

Aww thanks. I do come to work everyday and try to do my best. I really am defeated. My ETL gave me the opportunity to get out of SL before we started the whole E2E thing and I'm kicking myself for not taking her up on the offer. I hope I don't sound obnoxious, but I'm different than most of our tms. I have worked all over the store and I understand the hows and whys of things sometimes more than even my TLs do. The problems as I see it in my store are certain leaders, hours/scheduling, and the need to train brand new tms on stuff that can be a bit difficult to learn for even experienced tms (pricing, POGs/adjancencies, backstocking, etc.)

 

[Flow Warrior]

I work in a super high volume store, we are never not busy. We always have a line of at least 5 people every morning waiting at the doors before we open.

Our fitting room is insane. I've been both softlines/hardlines for the past year but lately they've been super short staffed at the fitting room (I can see why everyone's been leaving now) so they moved me back there permanently. We have one opener and one closer. Their rule is we must come completely clean of reshop at the end of our shift. This is such a stupid rule considering how they have us run the fitting room. It is only me doing reshop. I am responsible for answering the phones which ring every 2 mins, getting the reshop from guest service (our cart back there gets full every 20 mins) and all the clothes that everyone tries on at the fitting room If I just leave the fitting room for 2 minutes I will come back and the rooms will be FULL off clothing laying on the floor. 70% of the time I'm not back there, I'm running around the store doing reshop, and looking for items around the store for guest on the phone (because when I try to transfer nobody ever takes the calls so I have to do it). The rooms are always full of clothing and tags. Always. Since I'm basically never back there the guest get to do whatever they want, steal whatever they want, be however messy they want in there, and they sure do take advantage of it.
How can the LODS expect me to come clean at the end of each of shift like this?
Not to mention they also want me zoning men's and sleep/hosiery/activewear when I close cause we only have 2-3 softlines closers. I constantly tell the lods we need one person just doing reshop and someone staying at FR. They never care. Especially our Stl, he sucks. I seriously want to quit but I need the money.
How do the LODS at your store run the fitting room and what are their expectations there?

If you read through my long rant, thanks!!

But is it this level of insanity?

 

[Flow Warrior]

Our AP doesn't care. I find it crazy how they allow nobody to stay back there during my lunch/breaks. You what happens when not a single team member is at the fitting room for 30+ minutes? I come back and each fitting room is loaded with clothing on the floor, a bunch of tags under the seats and on top of the mirror. Whenever I ask if someone could stay back there during my lunch to avoid this, their response is "we don't have enough people, and they need to work on their zones" omg drives me CRAZY. I feel like my target must be the only one this idiotic.

Solution: Support hotline tell them what you told us with names. Suddenly, Your AP-ETL and the rest of the leadership will care. Very much

 

[Flow Warrior]

Also, any store leadership that just lets MyTime auto generate the schedule without adjustment needs to not be leadership any more. MyTime needs to be adjusted for guest flow and issues.

I suspect that A&A isnt getting the hours they need and VMETL is a fool but thats me.

 

[laineyluxx]

But is it this level of insanity?

It is. That's why every time they hire a new FRTM they're gone within a month. Kid you not.
I'm only still there because this target is 5 mins from my house and I'm a college student that needs the money.

 

[R2d2]

I hope I don't sound obnoxious, but I'm different than most of our tms. I have worked all over the store and I understand the hows and whys of things sometimes more than even my TLs do. The problems as I see it in my store are certain leaders, hours/scheduling, and the need to train brand new tms on stuff that can be a bit difficult to learn for even experienced tms (pricing, POGs/adjancencies, backstocking, etc.)[/QUOTE]
When you got the job done but others got the pay... really goood pay .
I like my job but some leaders...

 

[Frontlanegirl]

I hope I don't sound obnoxious, but I'm different than most of our tms. I have worked all over the store and I understand the hows and whys of things sometimes more than even my TLs do. The problems as I see it in my store are certain leaders, hours/scheduling, and the need to train brand new tms on stuff that can be a bit difficult to learn for even experienced tms (pricing, POGs/adjancencies, backstocking, etc.)

When you got the job done but others got the pay... really goood pay .
I like my job but some leaders...[/QUOTE]
This is an overall Target issue. Bad planning, not enough hours for the team members to do their jobs, and no hours to train someone correctly.

 

[Ahem]

Also, any store leadership that just lets MyTime auto generate the schedule without adjustment needs to not be leadership any more. MyTime needs to be adjusted for guest flow and issues.

I agree. I think some of our new leadership came up with this idea. We have so many new tms and none of them received what most of us who've been there long term would consider adequate training. Mytime doesn't know this and keeps scheduling all new people in sl and then they have to just figure it out because no one is there to guide them. And it's scheduling salesfloor people as cashiers before it puts cashiers into those cashier shifts. So all the cashiers are complaining about their hours and salesfloor people are complaining about too many cashier shifts.

Thennnn when our vml or sltl assigns tasks, they forget departments (we bring it up) or they prioritize busy work. One day she had this guy hanging folded clearance for the entirety of a long shift and 2 departments were being ignored completely. That clearance rack looked nice for maybe a few days

 

[beachlover]

I'm relatively new to Spot so will ask a few questions that might be out of bounds. I've worked Fitting Room several times these past few months. First question is, why doesn't Spot have voice mail for HR? Our HR is recruiting like crazy and conducting orientations. They get a bunch of calls everyday. Why not let the operator transfer the pertinent calls, like "I'm returning Sally in HR's call" to VM after one unanswered transfer, rather than transfer, transfer again and then either take a paper message (while phones are ringing and people want to try on clothes) or ask the caller to call back with no assurance that HR will be available.

The above post about getting other departments to take calls is ...... a dream. Probably half of the calls to the transfer line initially go unanswered by the department and bounce back. If the guest is annoyed (who wouldn't be), then I give "the guest with market questions is still on the line" walkie message, which, of course, makes me the most popular operator in market. And even then, if the LOD is busy and doesn't pester market, that might not get the call answered. I do my best to answer 90% of the calls about products in store on the phone, but sometimes the guest wants someone on the floor to confirm that we still have xxx item in the dollar area or on a shelf or put an item on hold. I'm not picking on market, most departments in my store are slow to answer calls. Guest services doesn't answer the phone if they are with a guest so if it's busy, those calls go unanswered. My last resort is to find a Softlines TM to go to another department to help out. I wish Target would designate someone to answer calls that the operator can't during peak times, but that is probably a pipe dream or have the departments understand that phone calls are a priority. The phone is the only time I've had a guest yell at me, and it's happened more than once because I didn't have the answer and couldn't get someone who knew the answer to take the call. It makes for a long shift.......

Fetching items in different sizes only happens when it's quiet and if the guest wants an item that's in a department adjacent to the FR. If this is best practice, we will need many more TM's.

 

[Annon]

I work in a super high volume store, we are never not busy. We always have a line of at least 5 people every morning waiting at the doors before we open.

Our fitting room is insane. I've been both softlines/hardlines for the past year but lately they've been super short staffed at the fitting room (I can see why everyone's been leaving now) so they moved me back there permanently. We have one opener and one closer. Their rule is we must come completely clean of reshop at the end of our shift. This is such a stupid rule considering how they have us run the fitting room. It is only me doing reshop. I am responsible for answering the phones which ring every 2 mins, getting the reshop from guest service (our cart back there gets full every 20 mins) and all the clothes that everyone tries on at the fitting room If I just leave the fitting room for 2 minutes I will come back and the rooms will be FULL off clothing laying on the floor. 70% of the time I'm not back there, I'm running around the store doing reshop, and looking for items around the store for guest on the phone (because when I try to transfer nobody ever takes the calls so I have to do it). The rooms are always full of clothing and tags. Always. Since I'm basically never back there the guest get to do whatever they want, steal whatever they want, be however messy they want in there, and they sure do take advantage of it.
How can the LODS expect me to come clean at the end of each of shift like this?
Not to mention they also want me zoning men's and sleep/hosiery/activewear when I close cause we only have 2-3 softlines closers. I constantly tell the lods we need one person just doing reshop and someone staying at FR. They never care. Especially our Stl, he sucks. I seriously want to quit but I need the money.
How do the LODS at your store run the fitting room and what are their expectations there?

If you read through my long rant, thanks!!

Same with my target it sucks. I was never told before hand that I would have to constantly be answering and tranfering phone calls..

 

[Blackhawks54]

HR is helping us with phones this quarter. Hopefully that’s for all stores but ASANTS

 

[HRZone]

HR is helping us with phones this quarter. Hopefully that’s for all stores but ASANTS

Ours is thanksgiving week only but yeah they want the phones off stage more than normal.

 

[rainy2009]

The thing I really hate about FRO is just answering the phone calls... My store is probably considered high volume but the last two times I was put at fitting room I kinda ended up with nothing to sort few hours earlier before we closed. One thing very helpful about walking guests to the room is probably making them more likely to bring things they tried on back to you, some guests hang or fold them when they came out, some even offer to reshop them for me lol

 

[Kartman]

Guys just don't do that shit. Go figure.

 

[Doglover89]

the last two times I was put at fitting room I kinda ended up with nothing to sort few hours earlier before we closed.

This is good. It gives you more opportunity to put reshop out and assist with the zone at night. As we say at my store, there's always something to be done in softlines.

 

[sprinklesontop]

This is good. It gives you more opportunity to put reshop out and assist with the zone at night. As we say at my store, there's always something to be done in softlines.

Our saying is, " If you're just "standing around talking"..... you're doing something wrong." Not our most motivational speech; but it hits home.