Archived Service Loop

[Reneeisxena]

I was just wondering if every store is doing this? Plus, for the ones who are, is it just the sales floor tms or do the front end do them too. At our store everyone, except Starbucks, does one when they first punch in and right after their half.

 

[StaticSun]

??

 

[Ask Alexandria]

If you mean like asking every guest in a TMs area if they can help them find something? If so, yes. They're called 'service blitzes' at my store. They are also hourly.

 

[Reneeisxena]

I guess I should have explained. A Service Loop is when each tm does a trip around the store asking every guest they see CIHYFS. This is something we only started a couple weeks ago. At the beginning of your shift and right after your half you do the loop around the store. At first it was just for sales floor people, but they have included cashiers and the whole front end. It can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to 15 minutes or longer if you have to help several guests. As someone who's mainly cashier I really enjoy it. It gets me out from behind the register and kind of makes the day go faster.

 

[redeye58]

Yeh, they call 'em blitzes at my store too.
One of the TLs says it's supposed to make it look like there's more TMs on the floor than there really are. lol

 

[Bullseye Flow TM]

This is the first I've heard of this. Don't know if it's started in my store or not. IMO this would get on a guest's nerves if they are asked CIHYFS by ten different TMs. I've had guests in the past during the holidays complain because I was the 4th or 5th person to ask that question.

 

[Mr Quickart]

We started doing something similar a couple weeks ago. We call them HUSH walks which stands for Heads Up Say Hi. This is done by the sales floor hourly right after the indyme lady says that a restroom check is needed and is called out by the GSTL. When they are called out we have our team members call out what areas they are covering in order to avoid 10 different TMs all asking them CIHYFS? We are going through a remodel and our service scores were suffering. We have seen a great improvement in those scores since we implemented these.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

its a pain, when you are shorthanded.

 

[daninnj]

This has come and gone at our store many times. When I first started in '08 every hour they would sat "It is now top of the hour. Please stop what you're doing and ask your guests 'CIHYFS?' Thank you for your support." Then it disappeared. A year later it came back and fizzled. Four months ago it came back but I never hear it now. Some straight-out-of-college ETL is gonna come in and say "Hey!!! Here's a great idea I learned at business college!!" and it's gonna start again only to fizzle out.

 

[redeye58]

Some straight-out-of-college ETL is gonna come in and say "Hey!!! Here's a great idea I learned at business college!!" and it's gonna start again only to fizzle out.

At least until you all beat him senseless with a walkie & PDA....

 

[ptl]

Awesome idea. Send the cashiers (who, on the whole, probably aren't as familiar with the sales floor) out to walk the racetrack and help guests, while the sales floor team members go up front to hop on registers because of the resultant backup. Yep, definitely gonna improve the level of service.

 

[MrGSTLman]

I'm not the craziest about this because realistically -- we SHOULD be doing this on a regular basis. Why should we designate 15 minutes at the top of the hour (or however each respective store does it) to ask every guest CIHYFS if it is something that, if we can change all of our mindsets, can be done regularly. We are a very "tasky" store, as I am sure we all are, and if we can break away from our tasks, or simply stick our heads up, we can give off the impression we want to help guests.

Backstory: I come from a store that has done this endlessly and it NEVER worked...

 

[Reneeisxena]

The last couple of days we've been both very busy and shorthanded. (imagine that:wacko So our GSAs haven't been sending the cashiers on the service loop. I also think that it's stupid. We're suppose to be asking CIHYFS to all guests anyway. You know they use to send out corporate spies to make sure we were asking. If you asked one of these people you would get a $25 gift card and kudos from the execs. Maybe they should do that instead of stupid service loops!