Archived Taking over Target Mobile

[AJH212]

3 stores in my area lost mobile. So far, we have had a number of guests come in complaining about it. I felt terrible for our Mobile rep. The level of hostility from the guests was unacceptable. It's going to be a rough 4th quarter if Target can't find a way of supporting the electronics departments.

 

[Flow Warrior]

3 stores in my area lost mobile. So far, we have had a number of guests come in complaining about it. I felt terrible for our Mobile rep. The level of hostility from the guests was unacceptable. It's going to be a rough 4th quarter if Target can't find a way of supporting the electronics departments.

You saw the video of the Vegas fire testing. That is exactly what black friday will look like.

 

[Shopgirl3]

The guy that used to work in electronics got moved to push domestics. Now, they have one or two ppl in electronics to push the truck only and do the Target Mobile. Our STL made it clear that's their only duty. Other ppl working sales floor pushes reshop and other things that they are responsible for.

 

[qmosqueen]

 

[MrElectronics]

Hey, I'm a mobile rep here with some advice. Mobile is a tough, time consuming job. I'd get your mobile rep's contact info, or the rep closest to you, so you can ask questions, because it's certainly something that takes time to learn. I know I'd do that for my team, or any of my local teams. There's a lot of little nuances that make the job tough, and I know most reps want to help as much as possible.

I was told by our previous mobile rep that had been at the store for years, that they were not allowed to train us what so ever on mobile, even though he said he didn't mind if I myself had a question about something. I want give this thread some life because our electronics department is struggling with mobile, at times there is only 1 of us there. Electronics, toys, seasonal, automotive, luggage, entertainment and sometimes infant hardlines was way more than enough to do truck, keep up with reshop and manage to zone all by the end of the night with sometimes only 1 person, god forbid LOD asks you to do something outside of those tasks. We are slowly picking up on the entire mobile process by ourselves, literally ZERO help from any form of leadership, even our electronics TL hasn't been there since the whole mobile process started. STL is literally of zero help, any LOD on duty that was called if a problem arose they would walk over to the kiosk with the most nervous look on their face and when prompting them with a question, their response generally makes me instantly regret wasting my time calling them over.

 

[tholmes]

Couple of tips for the stores doing mobile and struggling: one, there should be a former Marketsource/tech District lead assigned as outreach for your store. Get their contact information from either a TL or ETL. They tend to be more than happy to answer questions and are often more available to assist and more knowledgeable than a former Target Tech.

Two, see about getting the backing of a Hardlines TL or literally any available TL if possible. The more TLs or TMs you have that will go to bat for just how much workload you have, the more likely something will change. In an extreme case, that can be getting the entire team on hardlines to see that you need help by talking to them. It's gets hard to ignore after a while.

Three, communicate even if the leaders don't give a hoot. Every time you start an activation, call it out over walkie so they can get a feel for how busy you are. The more they get to hear you're doing an activation the more likely they'll start to understand.

Four, if you can't get anyone to help you guys out, work with each other in electronics to get stuff done in pieces. Focus on getting to each part of your zone at least twice a week and figure out a workload rotation that works to help up the efficiency of electronics.

I hope this helps!

 

[signingminion]

Our district marketsource guy told all the remaining tech to not field or answer questions from other stores tm. He wants to watch us fail to prove a point. It's been difficult and we can't sustain this at the rate we are going. Not with the payroll they give.

 

[daemon]

I can totally understand that if market source is no longer on the payroll for a store then they should not have to offer assistance to team members. This should instead be part of a target based team intended to take over the roll.

 

[MrElectronics]

I wanted to bring this thread back to light again, I have officially almost had it. I have been at target for a little over 3 years, have had multiple awards given to me over that time and in my first year I held the highest amount of REDcards for the store while working in electronics. I have begun looking for another job and been having interviews. The mobile department is literally CRUSHING the soul of our electronics team slowly. Our TL for electronics is totally clueless on the whole process, he hasn't even taken the training for mobile. Since he is also over POG, he only works in electronics maybe once a week and other times he is off on leave. Some days I feel like I am literally the only one that cares back there and it is super disheartening because I used to absolutely love my job. At first mobile wasn't bad, we were keeping up with truck, maintaining zone and sometimes even able to get some auditing in. Now, we are usually at least 1 truck behind on push, always at least 1 vehicle of back stock that sits in the electronics stockroom, pulls are constantly stacking up, keepers are pouring over on 2 vehicles that have been parked in the boat for like a month now and for some ungodly reason they threw toys zone back onto us and we are also responsible for toys, sporting goods, luggage, seasonal and mini seasonal reshop. I plan to have a talk with my STL AGAIN about the process, we cannot continue at this rate going into Q4. Everything was going smooth when hardlines was in charge of toys zone/reshop, but for some reason their brilliant idea was to make it the responsibility of the electronics closer. Now at very minimum at least 1-2 hours a night is dedicated to toys when I could be pushing electronics truck, working on back stock or doing the audit, there are so many other things I could be working on than freaking toy's zone.

Anyone have anymore words of support or wisdom before I completely have a meltdown and quit Spot. I really do love my job but we aren't even in Q4 and the department is crashing and burning. Part of me wishes they would just go ahead and make me Electronics TL and give me some pull around there to get things done and the other part of me just says to leave and watch them crash and burn.

 

[GoodyNN]

Anyone have anymore words of support or wisdom

Start popping popcorn. Sounds like this is gonna be a real show. Sorry you're dealing with it.

 

[tholmes]

Anyone have anymore words of support or wisdom before I completely have a meltdown and quit Spot. I really do love my job but we aren't even in Q4 and the department is crashing and burning. Part of me wishes they would just go ahead and make me Electronics TL and give me some pull around there to get things done and the other part of me just says to leave and watch them crash and burn.

First piece of advice: being TL isn't all it might be chalked up to be in the way of having sway or changing things. If anything it'll stress you out more if you can't get the support of any other leads in the building.

Second piece: one way to at least get them to notice is to consistently ask for help when you need it. If they can pretend to ignore the problems, they will, so don't give them the chance.
Third piece: one thing at a time, one task at a time. Start by spending a bit more time on the stuff that has piled up in the boat, I find a clean workspace helps. Also get the other electronics people on board with that if possible, reason with them however you need to.
Fourth piece: if your electronics TL can't/won't help you, try to reach out to a different TL that will. This isn't easy by any means, but get TLs in your corner about it one by one and you can get some more momentum in favor of your cause.
Fifth piece: once you punch out, it's no longer your problem. The less you stress about work once you leave, the better. And if it's still a mess when you come back, just tackle things one task at a time as much as you can.

Hope this helps!

 

[Black Sheep 214]

First piece of advice: being TL isn't all it might be chalked up to be in the way of having sway or changing things. If anything it'll stress you out more if you can't get the support of any other leads in the building.

This! Being a TL is no picnic, and not only will you not be able to get done what needs to be done, or have any say or authority over what gets done, but you will have all of the responsibility for getting everything done, and you will likely get the blame for everything that happens in your workcenter whether you deserve it or not. That’s the TL’s lot in life now: all of the responsibility and very little authority; none of the credit, but all of the blame. Not worth it, in my opinion. ASANTS, but in my experience, it’s not the other TLs you need to worry about, it’s the ETLs, particularly your own. The difference in pay is not worth the added stress and crap that is heaped on you. Every. F-ing. Day. I would not wish being a TL at “modernized” Target on my worst enemy.🙄🤬

 

[MrElectronics]

Just an update, I went into work today, I took care of the 2 vehicles that have been chilling in the boat for some time now, I can finally move around back there, making progress! I told my LOD that I would rather not work on toys for the night and focus my attention to the over piling pallets of truck for electronics, that was a huge help, I knocked down 2 pallets down to half a pallet while still stopping to help guests and dealing with mobile. Plus on top of all that, my STL is setting me up an interview for Sales floor ETL at a neighboring store, finally one of the rare but good days at Spot.

 

[buliSBI]

Its just going to be that one time a phone breaks in a TM hands or minutes don't get applied to a pre-paid phone.

 

[wantaphone]

This is all Target's fault. I don't know what they were thinking. At my previous store they havent sold a phone since i left at the beginning of August. I don't know what they plan on doing for Black Friday. The whole we're sorry we dont know how to activate phones spiel they're currently peddling to guests isnt going to cut it.

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

This is all Target's fault. I don't know what they were thinking. At my previous store they havent sold a phone since i left at the beginning of August. I don't know what they plan on doing for Black Friday. The whole we're sorry we dont know how to activate phones spiel they're currently peddling to guests isnt going to cut it.

Why aren’t they trained? About 5 of our tms were trained in wvtivating phones. At lease 3 shifts with marketsource target Mobil before they were done. And now we’ve hired the head guy as a target tm. He works mids. 10-6:30 or 11-7:30.
We sell/activate phones all day.

 

[MrElectronics]

I may be getting out of electronics and getting what I asked for, I have an interview setup for Salesfloor TL at another Target, definitely going to have to weigh my options but I won't be too bummed if it falls through, I am currently in school for my bachelor's anyway.