Is it me or do the people in the C suite freak out at the front line when traffic slows drastically? Working in retail you can tell when traffic is lighter than usual - but to those in Basking Ridge, it's got to be the reps and stores fault. It's ironic that people who have never sold a phone in their life can tell me why I am not executing. Cute - The Northeast may have the right idea.....so, what do you say? Comment below where you are based and if you think its time for someone to admit that 'execution' isn't the "only" problem.
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there has always been a desire to completely close down the retail stores and ONLY do indirect. I remember working with a Ex VP who wanted VZ to completely stop selling phones at one point in time. Hard to get a reading - though I've been dealing with the disasters of the indirect channel for just over a year and want to go back to finance!
100% the problem comes from the top. It would be one thing if they brought constructive conversation to the table around how to properly generate business of the little flow we have, but they’re just disrespectful. They just assign blame to the sales reps and management for their own over inflated targets and failed marketing schemes and instead of trying to own up and fix it, they attack, belittle be abuse their staff.
When the numbers are good it's " because of management" when the numbers and traffic su-k it's because of the front line. News flash, we have no control over store traffic, that's the job of marketing and advertising. Promos never change, pricing keeps going up, the network is becoming worse by the day and our customer care is a joke. Customers aren't stupid, they know they can get the same level of service, or better, for less money elsewhere. The C just keeps saying " sell the value" but there is no value anymore.
They do this every time. Then they try to justify it as being the representatives not doing their job. They are so disconnected from the actualities of the job, its not even funny. An AI could do their job for them easily. If they actually wanted people in their stores they would have AI start making the calls to free reps up from monotonous calls that only net 3%. Not to mention the engage camera toggled on for a measly 1% close rate. Wake up Verizon, the tactics that didn't work before aren't working again. Time for them to actually take the blame this time.
In our store in the Northeast , in the suburbs of NYC , we are so slow that the highest rep in the store is at 32% to quota. You can’t have the same promotion for 3 years on be be put on the most “premium” plan and have the customers to get excited and come in. Someone in VZW has to create a new promotion to increase daily foot traffic. The increased metrics makes the reps heads spin. A sore point is the AST mgrs who don’t do “ANYTHING” and hang out , they don’t even come to the sales floor during the week. I’m sure the company can save some money by looking at “Mgmt at each location. We open and close procedures every day So are they really needed . What a retail mess!
That's the way it is in all parts of the business. Lets send all the jobs to Mexico, India, and the Philippines because our customers really love paying top dollar for bottom dollar English, empathy, and the ability to actually solve issues versus transferring. People at the top keep wondering why certain systems are working and strategies are paying off. Well if you worked on the phones enough you would know. So it's the same story here, just different departments.
they are freaking out because traffic is slow, and they are raising prices. We also have officially returned to the "jumped the shark" era of quotas and metrics. $19 insurance, selling netflix perks that you're required to hand hold the customer to set up. The bloat has once again returned to retail sales. 50 metrics to hit and all only loosely related to how you actually get paid. It's very clear that no one actually cares about the company outside of the stores and they just want to collect their paycheck because if they did care, someone would speak up to all the bad choices they consistently make.