Who answers the phones in your store?

[JAShands]

When I’m in my office I try to grab as many calls as I can to help out. Having said that I will let them ring three times so the correct department has a chance to get to it first and save the guest from having to be put on hold. I also quickly check if people are signed in to departments when I come in. On Christmas Eve we had nobody signed in to Toys until I let a TL know so they could make sure the right people were signed in.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

Target's dialogue about "empowerment" and "guests first!" really should include assigning a store TM, on a given shift during the day, to answering the phones in the office or in a backroom area while also handling non-urgent but necessary tasks like sorting reshop, helping the ETLs with clerical tasks or so forth.

Like the fitting room person we're not allowed to have anymore?

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Like the fitting room person we're not allowed to have anymore?

That’s exactly what I thought of

for the love of spot, y’all need to sign into your phone apps. Don’t tell me “oh my zebra won’t let me sign in”... seems to work just fine when the SD tells you to after I called 5 times. I know no one wants to answer the phone but especially this week GS is absolutely slammed, we do not have time to answer other people’s calls

 

[redeye58]

On Christmas Eve we had nobody signed in to Toys until I let a TL know so they could make sure the right people were signed in.

That would explain why we kept getting toy calls at Target Cafe

 

[Aae19]

Guest Service takes the bulk of the calls now because no one on sales floor ever signs into the zebra phone. Really annoying.

I swear the two same GM team members answer all the calls at my store because everyone else refuses to sign into the app and when they are forced to sign in they still don't answer the calls just let it ring until it goes elsewhere.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

That’s exactly what I thought of

for the love of spot, y’all need to sign into your phone apps. Don’t tell me “oh my zebra won’t let me sign in”... seems to work just fine when the SD tells you to after I called 5 times. I know no one wants to answer the phone but especially this week GS is absolutely slammed, we do not have time to answer other people’s calls

I'm already getting my ass reamed for not finishing my uboats. I'm not getting on the phone just so I can get written up for failing to meet goals again.

Of the two, not being on the phone is less likely to get me written up

 

[PackAndCry]

That would explain why we kept getting toy calls at Target Cafe

I feel like they really messed up the Toy extension, our Toy phone got all the calls rolled from the leaders, Starbucks, and HR extensions for some reason, but lots of toy calls went straight to the operator phone without ringing on the Toy phone first.

 

[JAShands]

I feel like they really messed up the Toy extension, our Toy phone got all the calls rolled from the leaders, Starbucks, and HR extensions for some reason, but lots of toy calls went straight to the operator phone without ringing on the Toy phone first.

You can sign in up to 4 different areas at a time. Maybe your Toys person was a body little shit signing in to Leaders and HR? Unless it was you @PackAndCry then they just messed up the routing in your store 😂

To be fair the only calls for HR are TMs calling in (let me transfer you to your TL) and I’m calling to check on my application (yes, that happened today). Some days are spicy, most are not 🤷‍♀️

 

[CoolLife24]

It sucks the phones now are on the devices. I wish it was the old way and it was sooo much better. No one logs on except like 2 people and some people never pick up calls or pick up transfer calls

 

[happygoth]

I think the phone system now is freaking great. Of course y'all liked it better before because it was literally only Softlines that answered. Now GS and the rest of you get a taste of what we suffered with and I find it absolutely delightful. Bwahaha!

 

[jackandcat]

We could argue over which department should "own" answering incoming calls. My point is that having the Service Desk be the primary "answering the phone" contact is not workable. We are customer facing. With the circus of activity around Service & Engagement on a moderately-busy day, it's impossible to give callers our undivided attention. Businesses which make it hard to reach a live person during business hours tend to pay a price sooner or later.

 

[JAShands]

Our service desk rarely answers the phones. If we don’t have an SETL in to answer the phone I usually grab it for them.

ASANTS but my store has always been great about taking transfer calls. That’s a culture that has to be enforced from Leadership, and our Leaders are great examples of taking calls. Having the calls route to the zebras frees our TMs to go directly to the item instead of picking up an indyme phone and having to set it down to verify. It’s also great for checking assortments in the BR. We typically only check for specific letters on coffee mugs or a particular color of doll, we would never look for say a super specific hot wheels car.

Overall we’ve adapted well and DBOs are on top of their inventory and can answer guests inquires quickly, accurately, and easily!

 

[jackandcat]

I think the phone system now is freaking great. Of course y'all liked it better before because it was literally only Softlines that answered. Now GS and the rest of you get a taste of what we suffered with and I find it absolutely delightful. Bwahaha!

And how exactly does this benefit our guests who have to wait..... and wait..... and wait..... and wait and if they're lucky actually have somebody pick up the phone??

 

[Tessa120]

And how exactly does this benefit our guests who have to wait..... and wait..... and wait..... and wait and if they're lucky actually have somebody pick up the phone??

No worse than the old days.

"Hardlines, you have a call on 2280."

Crickets. Ring back.

"Hardlines, the call is still holding on 2280."

Crickets. Ring back. Furious guest.

"Hardlines."

"Hardlines here."

"You have a call on 2280."

Ring back. Beyond furious guest.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

No worse than the old days.

"Hardlines, you have a call on 2280."

Crickets. Ring back.

"Hardlines, the call is still holding on 2280."

Crickets. Ring back. Furious guest.

"Hardlines."

"Hardlines here."

"You have a call on 2280."

Ring back. Beyond furious guest.

And then they try to pick it up in the one second that you’re putting it back on hold “hey GS there’s no call on 80”

 

[Tessa120]

Glad. And we had the phone on overhead most of the time so it was, as they were saying there was no one on hold "BING BING BING". Seriously? The tones aren't giving you a clue?

 

[happygoth]

No worse than the old days.

"Hardlines, you have a call on 2280."

Crickets. Ring back.

"Hardlines, the call is still holding on 2280."

Crickets. Ring back. Furious guest.

"Hardlines."

"Hardlines here."

"You have a call on 2280."

Ring back. Beyond furious guest.

100% accurate. Then you would have the LOD tell you to "please specify which area" and you would STILL get crickets. And it was always fun when someone would "remind" Softlines to "please answer the phone" if you didn't get to it right away because you were with a guest or had an armload of clothes or were taking care of business in the restroom.

I think I speak for all of Softlines at my store when I say we have zero fucks to give about the situation.

 

[dannyy315]

Every TM is expected to be logged into the phone app under their specific department and answer calls.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

Every TM is expected to be logged into the phone app under their specific department and answer calls.

I expect more than 4 hours a week, but I ain't getting 'em

 

[oath2order]

Every TM is expected to be logged into the phone app under their specific department and answer calls.

That's nice.

Still not doing it.

 

[dannyy315]

That's nice.

Still not doing it.

It’s part of your job duties with modernization.

And besides, the more people who answer the phones, the fewer calls each person will take. If only one person takes them, it just makes things harder for both the guest and the team member.

 

[beachlover]

No sympathy for the phone system today. First real day in fitting room, back in the day when fitting room answered the phones, I was given a 5 minute "training" and left alone. Figured out how to transfer calls, answer basic questions, LOD always took employee calls. Hardlines was really good about checking inventory but transfers to other departments went unanswered. Just a big black hole, where calls bounced back with angry callers. HR never answered their calls.

The new system isn't any better for customers but much better for those of us who were charged with talking with increasingly angry callers when we couldn't get help. No problem answering calls for my department but will not take the heat for departments where no one participates. And will say, many LOD's couldn't care less. Hats off to those that do.

 

[oath2order]

It’s part of your job duties with modernization.

And besides, the more people who answer the phones, the fewer calls each person will take. If only one person takes them, it just makes things harder for both the guest and the team member.

That's nice.

Still not doing it.

I don't have a department under modernization.

 

[Bosch]

If the zebra says 0 on floor, 0 in back, why do you spend time looking? Why not just tell them that Target.com uses a different inventory system that doesn't update immediately in response to sales, it only updates overnight?

That would require training idiots that refuse to read the screen in front of them. We have people working in those areas asking for us the SFS/OPU people to do their pulls for them and asking us to check inventory for them. I have had to tell them that is literally their job since that is the area they are working in.

It’s part of your job duties with modernization.

And besides, the more people who answer the phones, the fewer calls each person will take. If only one person takes them, it just makes things harder for both the guest and the team member.

Actually no its not. SFS/OPU is not included in that.

 

[IWishIKnew]

some of those calls involve a guest asking us to spend a lot of time seeing if something is in stock even if our zebras say there are zero on the floor and zero in the back.

This is where you check the floor location and, if it's not there, spend a few minutes zoning that aisle before going back and telling the guest you couldn't find it, sorry. (I'm assuming these are 0 on the floor, 0 in back, but more than zero on hand, which is why the website thinks we have it).

Do other typical stores and businesses in your local area -- think of Home Depot, Safeway, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Fred Meyer, Costco -- have as much trouble actually answering customer phone calls?

I don't call big stores very often, but whenever I do it's a long wait to get someone. They have the same problem we do--too few people covering too big an area with too much to do to bother with people who aren't standing right in front of them. Target makes it ridiculously easy to see if we have something--order it for OPU. If you can't order it for OPU, odds are good we don't have it. If it lets you order it and we don't have it, you'll get an email. Much faster & easier than calling, for everyone.

"Hardlines, you have a call on 2280."

Well, yeah, if you call out for hardlines you would get crickets at my store, because hardlines is fucking huge. Call out a specific department and we'll answer it, but if you called hardlines, you'd get bupkus.