Why are all calls with upper management always revolving around coaching and writing retail store reps up? This creates nothing more than a horrible workday atmosphere. Retail store managers feel so much pressure from above they give out false observations so they can show they are “doing their job”. How about everyone work together to sell? You can be over and well over the 100% mark for the month and they’ll find something or make up something to put in. Why does AT&T allow this? The fix is to take coaching out of human hands. Let a computer system let a manager know when a coaching or a focus needs to be improved. This would create a better all store atmosphere with reps and managers trusting each other. The DOS and ARSM positions are the problem here. Always trying to make a name for themselves while stepping on others. Get with it AT&T!!
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Retail employees are easily replaceable and expendable. If you haven’t made the jump from retail to another org, your options are limited. Company has been closing COR stores steadily in favor of authorized retailers. Take the hint.
Make no mistake about it. Fraud starts in COR and AR is reprimanded if they don't meet and exceed COR'S numbers. DOS supervise both COR and AR. Prime is the worst. The small guys are usually the most ethical.
Our store deals with AR store issues consistently as well. I’ve worked with reps that came from AR stores and they all say there are no rules there. By that they mean they, don’t get into trouble. This is why there is so much fraud and unethical sales done in those stores. Yes I realize COR stores have there issues as well. We are a tenured location and we do care. We also know the rules and what’s right and wrong and that why we get picked on. These DOS and ARSM’s don’t care one bit. They want you to do fraud. They want you to be unethical. Then when they fire you they replace with with another short term fraud machine and the cycle goes on and on. All why they take credit for making number better. AT&T needs to look at all the chargebacks. These higher up’s talk about “true growth”, but only for the month your in. Then it’s on to the next month and how the numbers look during it. AT&T is FAILING its customers and the employee’s. AT&T has become nothing more than a fraud business with consistent lies. They target and retaliate against employees that know right and wrong. They are ageist and hate tenured employee’s and want them off the books. No matter what lie they have to conceive to do it. It’s disgusting.
The new training for new hires / existing reps should be how to deal with AR / D2D issues - in which - just got to a store, they can fix it for you. That's the new norm and how we spend our days. My manager and asm run around putting out fires that we never started. The reps no longer get sales. D2D lies about pricing and sends customers to the store to " set up " their phone. Today alone, we had 5 groups of customers that all needed " help ". Here's the funny part, the cancellation rate for these guys is over 50%. We see this daily. So with that being said, how is this customer experience going ? And you think you can survive on this ? This is the new direction of the company ? This is the guarantee all right - I guarantee we fail with this new direction. Never in my 10 yrs with the company have I seen such failure. Funny thing is upper management has no idea and never will understand this. Why ? I will tell you why. Because they have never done the job, set foot in a store - nor ever seen their costco reps in action. Say what you want about COR reps. Say all you want. And if they are so bad, close the stores. Come on, get it done, but don't leave it the way it is. Stick a fork in it already. The titanic is going down.
Talk to your union
It’s because Retail Sales Reps are like the discarded pennies you find on the ground.
You will always find more people with no real skill set.
A fresh crop graduate from public school every year.
Actually mentoring and working with employees to improve is a grind. Squeezing them with performance management and the threat of losing their job is easy.
It’s because the Retail managers and leadership is always wanting to strive for more metrics and revenue. To the point where reps will start slamming customers because of the pressure.
How about doing some coaching sessions with RSM’s so they know how to coach to behaviors?
We have HRBP’s for each market that do nothing and could easily conduct the trainings. Problem is they never sold anything or ran a team