Archived Vibe Walks?

[BRTJ]

Are all stores doing "Vibe Walks?" They sound like a terrible idea. As the closing backroom team member they want me to go walk the sales floor for 30 minutes (8pm-830pm then take my thirty from 830-9pm) just asking guests if they need any help. Do they really expect us to be able to finish everything we are supposed to do after they take away a good chunk of our time. Everyone who has worked in the backroom knows that every minute counts back there. It's not like we are a low volume store either. We are occasionally the top Target globally. And on top of the silly Vibe Walk, Flexible Fulfillment starts next week. I can not seem to wrap my head around how much work they expect the BR to do without giving us anymore hours. Time to abandon ship?

 

[StrohGolem]

My store does them for an hour, in which no work is to be done. It's pretty obnoxious

 

[beardless]

We call it "Power Hour," which is supposedly the busiest time of the day. We're supposed to walk around and just ask CIHYFS to people. I'm sure it makes guests consider going to other stores when they can't even shop without every TL and TM in the building aggressively asking if they need help.

 

[looseseal]

I can only imagine what's going through the guests' mind when we do this, especially during "power hour". I'd imagine it's a lot like encountering a swarm of aggressively peppy, red-and-khaki-clad robots, because I know that's how I feel when I do it. The worst was when they made everyone go around the horn on the walkie and call out a vibe moment they had each hour...

 

[nolongerspecial]

"Power Hour" is such a waste of time. We've already gotten several complaints from guests.

 

[RedDog]

So for one hour you have in your face annoying service and then no guest service the rest of the time. Thats sounds like a great plan. Maybe, and here is a crazy idea, they should staff the stores well enough that guest service all the time.

 

[Backroom81]

Haven't heard of this and it sounds like something I would tell my team to ignore. There is too much work to be done to waste time bothering every guest we see. Eye contact, a smile, and a quick greeting (good morning) is more than enough to make yourself available.

Maintaining actual presence on the sales floor instead of keeping everyone on the lanes would do wonders for guest service.

 

[StrohGolem]

We've tried ignoring it, every TL seems to be in the store for that hour (and all non-closing ones clock out as soon as it ends) and anytime one of them sees us doing any actual work they tells us to leave it where it is "because it will still be there in an hour" and don't leave us alone until we actually do walk away from it.

 

[commiecorvus]

This is one of those 'magic bullets' that Spot rolls out every time they notice that the guest comments are resoundingly focused on how much the guest assistance sucks balls.
We went through this a couple of years ago, when they first started doing major restructuring (read cuts) to deal with the money they were pumping into Canada (sorry guys).

Instead of an hour we had to do it for 15 minutes at the top of every hour.
This meant that if you were on the floor, no matter what you were doing (including flow -which was fun for the ESL folk), you had to drop it and go ask every guest you could find CIHYFS.

The sad part was this started at 10:00 a.m. when there was often very few people in the store and they would all get hit a half dozen times.
It was no surprise that at the top of the hour just about everyone found a reason to be working in the back.

Does it work?
Spot would rather use it than give the stores enough hours to put enough people on the floor so maybe it does.
Smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors.

tldr: old news, spot would rather fake then give the hours to make it.

 

[anathema]

Just start yelling across the store, it's more efficient and you can finish faster.

'MAAM! CAN I HELP YOU FIND SOMETHING?'

Seriously though, awful. Flow is already crippled and requires other workcenters to help finish. What good is helping someone find something if the shelves are empty anyway?

 

[FlipFlopFloridian]

Cant remember what our store is calling it but On every half hour from about mid morning till about 5-6 pm when this is called we walk around our area for a few minutes and ask if any guest need help. It usually only takes a few minutes to go through our department then we are back on our way to doing whatever it was we were doing.

 

[ISign]

lol, sounds almost like Lowe's "Impact hours" except its not just a few hours... it (at my old store anyways) was from 10-3 or 5... Wasn't supposed to downstock (no BR at Lowe's everything is stored above the typical reach level) no 'zoning' strictly helping customers.. But some departments would be slow and it would be a waste... I'm no longer sales floor in my new position so I don't think they really push that at my current store, however with Target I think if they're going to have that approach they need to do something that we call "Blue Vest" a team leader should (maybe even ETL's since Lowe's have more department managers than Target TL's) take an hour some time in the day to walk the floor helping customers only. If they have a customer that needs special help (more than just finding something) they just take that customer to a team member in that area best suited to assist the customer.. This would make it so that each customer isn't asked CIHYFS by 6 team members and get annoyed. While some people are annoyed by that keep in mind some feel special when they get a lot of attention for help... I also like that idea of every so often each person in a department searches the department and asks... that sounds like a good way to do it to, maybe take like 5 minutes every half hour to do a quick sweep of their department asking any customer they see then back to tasks... Would equate to 10 minutes out of each hour.. The LOD could simply have a keyword to announce such as vibe check (lol they didn't use the term vibe when I was there so its a little strange sounding to me)

 

[sher]

Our store calls it "peak hour." We only do it during the "busiest hour" of the day. The one day I was there for it, there was actually a heavy sales floor presence but there weren't many guests so some of em were asked CIHYFS by more than one of us and you could tell they were absolutely ticked off and annoyed with us. The one person who actually did need help finding something, when I took her to it, the table was an absolute mess. I would've been done with that table in time to help her if it weren't for the peak hour, though.

 

[tellmeaboutatime]

How about this instead, wait for it, SCHEDULE SOME DAMN TEAM MEMBERS. You cannot have coverage on the floor, cashiers at the lanes and people stocking shelves with the payroll we are given. Lets just fricken brake it down. 12pm, Super Target. 4 cashiers scheduled, one is on lunch. Food Cafe needs lunch, service desk needs lunch and GSTL needs lunch. So realistically for the next 1 1/2 hours you have 3 cashiers. You will be calling backups during that time. On the sales floor you have 1 TL, 1 electronic team member, an operator and 1 sales floor team member. All of these people also need a lunch so you have 3 people. 1 cant leave the boat, the other can't leave the fitting room. This equals 1 person on the floor. That person is on the lanes due to backups. Instock team (2 people) are gone for the day. 2 people are in the back room pulling and pushing.
All of these college degree required idiots in Minnesota actually need to work in a store under these conditions BEFORE they are allowed to make any more asinine new rollouts. They need to work on Thanksgiving evening, they need to provide outstanding service with no bodies. They need to set Planos with the hours they "think" it should take. They need to work trucks that according the RWT should take until 4pm but are given the payroll to do it by 11am. You cannot have it both ways. Either they cut payroll to the bone and save $$ and sacrifice service OR they staff the store, which will cost more but will generate more $$ due to the service we are able to provide. They can make up what ever cute name they want to give it, Peak Hour, VIBE, VIBE cards blah blah blah but the fact remains the same there are no people in the stores to execute these lame programs. I will take an ETL or STL with actual work experience than a fresh faced shit shoveler any day.

 

[pfreshdude]

Ya my store has been aggresively on us about something similar. Every time we go to break or lunch we are supposed to walk down ALL the main aisles and guest service every guest. So that means walking the entire store and when in apparel obv stepping onto the Carpet to any guests. ON TOP of that we are supposed to talk up the Redcard and the Target Apps as well to each Guest. Sounds fun huh?

Makes it especially fun for Market when we are scheduled by ourselves until only 8, have to do the zone for the ENTIRE side of the store practically, with zoning dry plus freezers, coolers, pfresh. Our backroom is located fairly far from Pfresh and we have to walk through seasonal and mini seasonal to get to it meaning we have to help a ton of guests. Not to mention the guests apparently can never find anyone else in Hardlines so about 75% of the thing I help guests with while working Pfresh is not even market related. Oh and also be expected to back up cashier and half the time work out Market Reshop.

 

[sigma7]

If it was just guest service guests that you meet on the main aisle as you go to break then I don't think it's that big of a deal. If you are really supposed to walk the entire store and guest service every guest and sell REDcards...you'll never make it to the breakroom!

 

[pfreshdude]

If it was just guest service guests that you meet on the main aisle as you go to break then I don't think it's that big of a deal. If you are really supposed to walk the entire store and guest service every guest and sell REDcards...you'll never make it to the breakroom!

Ya they want us to talk up the Redcard and Apps to the guests as well. Like I have time to take 10-15 minutes or more before every break just doing that. They also want flow and every team in the store to do this because obv Flow gets done on time and never has problems with finishing :huh:

 

[sigma7]

Good luck to you and your team. If it's like anything at my store, your ETLs will be on your asses about it for two weeks max and then forget about it completely.

 

[mrknownothing]

Good luck to you and your team. If it's like anything at my store, your ETLs will be on your asses about it for two weeks max and then forget about it completely.

I can't wait until my store forgets about it. For both of the "power hours" I've been involved in, I kept getting the same guests over and over. And somehow, they were already asked CIHYFS and informed about the Red Card and Cartwheel before they got to me.

 

[redandkhaki]

i love power hour! I think it's so much fun and i look forward to it every day. I know that's probably weird but as a gstl I don't get to leave the front much but during power hour when i'm TLOD i have a gsa cover so I can. The way we do it is the LOD announces it about an hour before hand so that breaks can be covered ahead of time or plan to have them afterwards. ALL ETL's come out in the hour before hand and help get caught up on pulls, abandon, or help cover breaks, so that once that hour hits we are prepared to only be spending time helping guests. We have a couple of days that our peak hour is from 5-6 and ETL's have to stay until 6pm those days.

 

[BRTJ]

the sales floor has to walk around for an hour. Guess I lucked out with just 30 minutes. I was talking to one coworker at my store who had to close two different departments. She had to do two hour long "vibe walks" back to back. She even asked the etl if she could cut them down a little. No she couldn't. And she had to take a 30. So 2.5 hours of no work. Doesn't make sense at all. Pretty much paying people to do nothing

 

[Deli Ninja]

i love power hour! I think it's so much fun and i look forward to it every day. I know that's probably weird but as a gstl I don't get to leave the front much but during power hour when i'm TLOD i have a gsa cover so I can. The way we do it is the LOD announces it about an hour before hand so that breaks can be covered ahead of time or plan to have them afterwards. ALL ETL's come out in the hour before hand and help get caught up on pulls, abandon, or help cover breaks, so that once that hour hits we are prepared to only be spending time helping guests. We have a couple of days that our peak hour is from 5-6 and ETL's have to stay until 6pm those days.

Wow... Your ETLs actually work on the floor? It takes near-disaster to get any but one of our ETLs to actually visibly do anything. It sounds like your store does this the right way (even if I don't like the idea of a "power hour").

 

[Bananas Foster]

Is anyone else's store forbidding all team members to take their lunches or breaks during this "power hour"? We were told absolutely no one is allowed to be on break or at the TSC or in the backroom at that time. So much for getting a break every two hours in an 8 hour shift. If your lunch or break falls during that hour you can't go. Also now EVERYONE goes at the same time before that hour starts and it leaves very little coverage on the floor. It would make more sense to stagger lunches and breaks so that everyone is not gone at the same time.

 

[Dr Laytex]

Am I the only one who has never heard of this?

 

[anathema]

We haven't been told anything as of yet, maybe leadership was wise enough to ignore it...ETLs walk the floor in the morning and there's not a lot of guests anyway, seems like something they could take care of.