Archived Random visits?

[BaristaChick16]

Are random visits normal?

I've been with the company for almost 6 years now and I have always been told in advance when we are getting a visit.
I was in the back room today and overheard a TL telling a TM that people from corporate were at the store and they needed to "get it together."
There was a line at guest service all morning but somehow when they showed up, a walkie call was made by my ETL to get backup over there asap.
My STL was walking around smiling but it was blatantly obvious he was internally freaking out.
My GSTL came up to warn me that "people from headquarters" were going to "swing by" so I should "make sure to smile."

In all this time, I've never seen them just show up. To be honest... I loved it. ASANTS, but my store needs a wake up call so I hope that the visit will do something. Probably not but it's worth the hope...

Is this normal and I've just never experienced it?

 

[soyaxo]

Random visits mean something is up. Planned visits are, well, planned. Sometimes they have surprise visits to see the store on a non-planned day, but based on the information, I kind of doubt that’s the case for your store.

 

[Kartman]

It bodes no well, that's for sure.

 

[LearningTree]

Honestly it depends on your store and your DTL. At my store, not only are we the DTL's favorite store but we're also closest to his house so we have many random visits. At least twice a week and sometimes I'm only given a heads up as someone's spotted him in the parking lot. We also pilot most of the new ventures they try out so we have frequent visits from BPs to see how it's going.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

We get frequent surprise visits from our DTL since he lives nearby and will often do his shopping. They’re not always visits on a full scale but you still better make sure you’re doing your best because they’re always working. We also get a surprise GVP visit once or twice a year but for any super important visit we get a heads up. If you get surprise visits often by important people it’s not usually a good thing.

 

[Yetive]

It is the new "normal." Service visits from district or group level people are happening most weeks--hence everyone being told to smile instead of zone or push.

 

[Noiinteam]

They are also making undercover visits. Hats and jackets, no red and khaki.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

My gvp’s sister lives near my store & another store. He always drops in shorts & flip flops. Lod, you know who is here. He walks the whole store & then goes to gstl or gsa & say hi..

 

[Dog]

we had a visit recently that was two days long. It was pretty exhausting seeing leadership run around like chickens with their heads cut off since I was working both days. Visits are weird because I’m not entirely sure what’s expected regarding what things we can’t do vs. we normally do. Apparently we do a lot of things on a normal day that are no no’s from higher ups

Surprise visits we do get sometimes, my GSTL will come up to me and say we have “secret shoppers” in the store

 

[Saul Goodman]

Every visit should be a surprise visit. Announcing their doing a visit 24+ hours out so you have plenty of time to clean up this or that, what's the point of the visit then? Come randomly and see how the store is ran day to day.

I love hearing when there's a random visit going on. Good, go check out all the lods standing around talking and doing nothing.

 

[Kartman]

Not talking... statusing!

Importants Target stuffs!

 

[BullseyeBlues]

Our DTL pops in on at least biweekly basis since we’re often a guinea pig for changes in the area. Group leader apparently did a surprise visit last week along with the HRBP and now some of the messier TMs have leadership on them to clean up their act in more senses than one. HRBP has secret shopped multiple times and nobody greeted them. (Hilariously, both were my normal days off. I’m known for greeting everyone.). However there’s almost no one to greet the guests and ask CIHYFS these days so go figure.

 

[signingminion]

We're currently on the shit list... one or two anticipated visits a week. Then up to three not anticipated visits from regular or not people. Add in modernisation walk with dtl, pmtbp, etc... it's everyday. And nothing is getting better. I'm waiting for them to start dropping like flies...

 

[unknown]

The fire tunnel is 99% jammed unless we get a visit from someone above the stl or steritech. Then they stash it in the fixture room. We got a violation for that being too cluttered that day.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

Yup, those undercover visits don't go too well.

 

[SallyHoover]

Apparently my store got notice about an hour before a corporate visit today. They called 2 hardlines and 1 softlines to pretend to be cashiers and called 1 HR team members to work the registers at guest services to make it seem like we were way better staffed then we really are. I think they called team members at home to replace the ones called from the floor.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Apparently my store got notice about an hour before a corporate visit today. They called 2 hardlines and 1 softlines to pretend to be cashiers and called 1 HR team members to work the registers at guest services to make it seem like we were way better staffed then we really are. I think they called team members at home to replace the ones called from the floor.

Funny how fast they can find hours when there’s a visit...

 

[very salty mocha]

Our store used to be a hot mess a couple of years ago but we made huge strides. Our dtl loves us but our gvp wants our dtl in stores that need help. So we barely get to see our dtl now a days lol