Sounds good on paper.
For me it's more like 9 out 10 all they say is hi back. In a 8 hour shift I only tell like 10 people where stuff is and only walk them to the item if there looking confused or it's an aisle or 2 away.
That's why I see great customer service begin with having merchandise on the shelf and not in the backroom because if it is on the shelf, more likely they will find what they are looking for and less likely to bother you. I'm here to ask me if you need anything but me continuing to focus on stocking is me telling you to make the effort to look for what you need before asking me. It's not rocket science. That's why we have street numbers and item names hanging up to guide. That's that.
TL’s/ETL’s: Let's say you ask Bob to do a task a day for 2 weeks and none of the tasks get done bc he was busy helping customers.
Don't get me wrong. I get customer service but at some point it becomes a time management issue when none of the tasks given are being done.
What would this coaching conversation sound like and what would be your response if Bob says "I was giving great customer service and you can't coach me for that."
TL’s/ETL’s: Let's say you ask Bob to do a task a day for 2 weeks and none of the tasks get done bc he was busy helping customers.
Don't get me wrong. I get customer service but at some point it becomes a time management issue when none of the tasks given are being done.
What would this coaching conversation sound like and what would be your response if Bob says "I was giving great customer service and you can't coach me for that."
“ok Steve I’ll follow up with you in 10 minutes since that’s when you said you’ll be done. When following up they either finished and that’s the goal, or they didn’t and you can coach them stating, “Steve you said you would finish so and so task committing to that time frame of being done and you didn’t finish”
And that actually works.?Something I do that I find works well with It even works with cashiers and redcards. “Hey cashier how many redcards are you going to try and get today?” And let them set their own goal rather than setting a pace for them.
The only issue I take with that is perhaps the TM doesn't know what a realistic goal is for the task at hand. If a leader EVER asks me that I'm not giving them a specific number. My ETL set a "Goal" today to finish FDC freight at 10am... we finished around 10:45am.
This is the same ETL that dropped 9 pulls for Freezer that equaled 900 eaches today. She never asked for when I was gonna get done, just "how's it going?"
"Oh, it's good, I'm freezing my ass off pulling 900 eaches"
"Hahahahah yeah, I feel that... let me know when you're done."
I never finished it. This ETL immediately after we finished freight decided to go through and audit, drop pulls in the form of POGs(why she did, I have no idea, but we weren't setting anything!!!), and then we still had our halves to take and last 15's and I just can't understand why I had to do that. I left the closing TM with maybe 20 DPCIs left to pull but still, I still pulled 240 tasks prior to that with all of the POGs combined into one task. I didn't get to any of these pulls until about 1:30 just because I had my half to take, milk and eggs to fill, zone to do, audit to scan, pull, and work... 1 o'clock pulls at the same time.
I've never had an issue with this particular ETL but this weekend she piled on the work load tenfold more than normal. Every single department I heard complain.
It feels like I'm just venting about my shitty weekend with my Sr. ETL, but the point I think I'm trying to get at is sometimes goals are just unrealistic to finish in a specific said time-period. Yeah, hold workers accountable if he or she said, but if it's worth it, you should always give your input on their time frame set for themselves. "I can get it done before 10:30" and then you say "okay, sounds good, if anything just get it done before 11am." and then check back in after a while and see where they're at so they at least feel a bit pressed knowing you're going to be back before 11am to check progress.
My Sr. ETL also does that thing where she says "Okay, I'll let you do your task" and then she come's waddling back five minutes later "Hey howzit going?!" and it's like "I've probably literally made a very small amount of progress since you last came 5-10 minutes ago"
The reason why I like my team leader so much(other than I feel like I can actually be talkative to the guy now) is because he doesn't really micro-manage your ass the entire day and doesn't really make you work your ass off with 9 pulls immediately after freight while Zone, audit, and breaks still need to be done lol with 1 o'clock pulls right on our tails. He's really chill, and I think he's a great leader because he still manages the expectation of "we need to get shit done" and it does because he makes things realistic. If he wants to drop a man-caf, he lets the team know, gets their input, and drops according to expectation, and not immediately drop 75% of expected sales lol.
Top performers? How do you reward your top performers?Like I said it mostly works with my top performers because realistically they do their jobs everyday and they know how long it’ll take them. I don’t let them get carried away with ridiculous times (1 cart of push or go backs an hour). But ultimately I know if they worked hard and made the effort or if they were just messing around chatting with other team members. And in the end they are just goals and sometimes they do change depending on the business. I feel more accomplished finishing a goal I set for myself than one my etl sets for me, but maybe that’s just me.
And on the topic of pulls and manuals if I ever drop one that’s huge I’m definitely in the back pulling it. Reminds me of one of my etls “hey how’s it going? Oh ok cool.” Then proceeds to drop grc2 and will call asking someone to pull it.
There are some I have to micro manage and I dislike it but if I didn’t it wouldn’t get done. But i also ask the entire team if they need something to let me know right away and I always make time no matter how far I stretch myself. And even if some team members don’t like me for how much I follow up. They recognize I do it for a reason and that I’ll make time for them and always find an answer if I don’t have one.
I would disagree. The question is 'What is the task being assigned' If its zone all of essentials, yes that can be done swifty and deserves a coaching if failed. However, if its do 27 full repacks of freight without a device in a 4 hour shift thats the busiest without others near him then no, it means your the problem as you are overloading him.Sounds like Bob is lazy AF, GTFO Bob.
Ok, at 5pm on a busy day in a 70 million store with the aisle unzoned can you push a full uboat if guests are asking you questions very 3 minutes? No you cant. If its dead and spotless, then yes.@Planosss , you hit the nail on the head. I would have included the number of boxes that were on the Uboat to drive the point home of taking three hours to push cereal is unacceptable or whatever the task was.
I disagree. My store you are expected to ask EVERYONE if they nneed assistance. We coach if you don't. Are comp is up 10% over last year.I see a lot of that. Asking people constantly reveals you are a loafer and it is your time to shine. Like you are working but nothing gets done.