Arsm down to rsm it’s toxic good moral and ethical sales people are being pushed out, management wants sales at all cost and don’t care how you get them. They need entertainment numbers and ppv to cover the disconnects month after month of customers needing real customer service only to call in or walk into store and harassed to purchase something else when original situation is not solved. Bogo is a joke fake numbers on store level we all know they told to cancel or in some cases they don’t know they added a line or convinced to do so. This is why customers would much rather go online or to apple to get phone or transact business with att.retail is k--ling it self if you can’t provide service those customers will not come back into store for future sales traffic is down big time new players are emerging in media such as Disney cheaper and better platforms for entertainment. Debt ridden AT&T is too expensive to do business with. Our retail promos are a joke IHX can give much more to get customer to switch customer can get more online well. Fraud in retail is extreme and most manager don’t care if you do it it’s a “what have you done today” attitude not what best for company in long run.
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MNY is a disaster. From what I hear other markets are the same. The end is near.
Oh where to begin... leadership up to vpgm these days seem to be all Cricket people with their own little group. No one wants to take responsibility for anything, it's all about delegation. It's a joke. We are told to do events, so they send us to parking lots with inventory and a 6ft table...it's degrading and is embarrassing for AT&T to act like this. We are told to promise closer coupons for new double plays however we always run out and have to figure out how to get the missing $100 Visa cards. BOGO credits have not always been applied and we still have customers waiting 6 months for their credits... customers come back and are furious with US even though we escalated it months ago. I'm out of excuses for customers, we arent allowed to do any credits and even the RSM is afraid to. I have witnessed the culture of taking care of the customer go absolutely out the window and it's frustrating to watch. Our commission is a joke. The company pushing everyone to DTV or even worse, dtvNOW - the new channel lineup is an absolute joke. We can't cancel anything in store, even with power of attorney. Loyalty puts people thru the ringer with canceling deceased family accounts - the worst is if they don't know the passcode - it's a 45min ordeal, meanwhile the customer just sees 6 reps doing nothing and waiting by the door instead of assisting them - perception is a big thing and it's k--ling our stores. The online order and pick up in the store system has so many glitches reps are afraid to process and get tied up for an hour fixing a SOC issue in opus. The promos online are better, IHX has amazing promos we can't match. Everytime the customer goes online it let's them know we can deliver their phones and everything to their homes, sometimes within 2hrs. The Market is changing and it seems we are just sitting there waiting for someone to tell us to go somewhere. Why not make half of us in home techs? Some days I go 3-4hrs without talking to a single customer walking in. The union is worthless and haven't done a single thing about our compensation. Seems like most people are jumping to the business side but all I see is 4 or 5 different departments ALL BATTLING FOR THE SAME THINGS. cru, first net and fiber - that's all everyone is chasing.
Please tell me this isn't everywhere across the country in retail - I can't see it surviving another 6-9 months
Retail is not toxic. The people who work in it are. It is a job. Every job I have ever had required me to do certain things. Some of them made sense, some of them were silly. But they were paying me so I did what I was told. I came to work here and all I hear is employees go on and on about not wanting to do the simplest of things, mainly just to argue. I just laugh as I see the union people puff their chest up but never get anyone anything but bad advice and unemployment.
First step is to always resolve the customer’s issue and while doing so get to know the customer and uncover needs before offering any solutions. So someone immediately asking about TV before resolving a customer’s concern or uncovering needs is not following Our Promise. Managers not teaching it that way are not following it either.
I've seen first hand a customer ask for help with setting up their email. The sales rep replied, what TV service do you use? The customer replied, "what does that have to do with my email"? The rep kept hounding them about entertainment. The customer walked out. If the rep wouldn't have been as pushy, the customer may have been more inclined to come back to that rep for future purchases. That's why AT&T retail is failing. That's why they have the turnover rate they do. You may be getting $10 today, but you blew your chance of making thousands of dollars from that customer over a lifetime.
If the customer knows what they want and can’t be persuaded and all hope is lost then AT&T might as well get rid of sales people and staff stores with just lower paid customer service reps?
To the poster who said AT&T knows what does and doesn't work, you obviously are required to wear a helmet in public. AT&T can't understand why my prepaid numbers are always low to non existent in my store. My store is in one of the richest 10 mile stretches in the US. Prepaid is marketed towards no or bad credit customers. No one wants a piece of junk dish on a 2 million dollar house. And it's not like that dish is channeling in superior quality TV service. CEO's of fortune 500 companies love when their TV service goes out in the rain. And not everyone is rich here. The ones that aren't live next to them and want to keep up with the Jones'.
People know what they want before they come in. I love how COR managers have a rule of taking 5 no's before stopping talking about entertainment. I would be so inspired to go back to that store. In conclusion, AT&T's retail channels will be dead within 3 years. You heard it here first. DEAD!!!!!
I have heard repeatedly over the last 18 months that company owned stores are being transitioned to authorized retailers. Not certain how accurate this rumor is but it seems to be growing.
ATT is known for going all in on dying trends. It's what happens when your leadership is male, pale, and stale. We even doubled down on this by not hiring technical people for the board. It's very sad.
If retail is dying, not sure why at&t is opening 2 brand new stores all within 5 miles of each other....
that doesn't include the 2 new ones in the past few years also.
If retail is dying, at&t is trying to saturate the area with even more stores...odd
Yo to the guy saying that he doesn't like getting caught for doing behaviors.. You should realize that the company doesn't just self evidently come up with these behaviors. It has thousands of these stores. They know what works. They know what doesn't. And since you are a union employee your manager cant just tell you to do your job and sell stuff or get bent. So that's a you thing? perhaps sales isn't your thing? maybe SSR? oh wait.. JK
Never forget when the homeless african american Gentleman conned my female direct report employee into bringing out 10 BRAND NEW iPhone 128GB's to open that CRU account. He said he worked for Survey Monkey, not going to say what store bc that will out me. But; I pulled the plug.. I came out grabbed all the phones and took them to the inventory room post haste. The look on his face was like I just ran over his dog. It was the most amazing and rewarding feeling I ever had working in that store. :) oh btw there is a survey monkey account and fan, and we have account reps internally for that homie, and I know how to call them and ask them if these are authorized to be done by the homeless looking african american gentleman.
I can appreciate the people in the field having to deal with the mess directly with the customer, but what part of the company isn't toxic?
Yes, I agree retail is toxic. Nothing like waiting for your manager to catch you on a key behavior, and then give you a 1 on an observation. It could be as simple as not using the customers name 4 times during a transaction or walking them all the way to the door. Or when you pitch DTV and ask questions about their life style and programing and who is their video provider and they tell you NO and the customer tells you to STOP, but your manager FEELS that you'd not probe enough and ask the right questions and makes up some bogus excuse and gives you a 1 on an observation. Then 3 ones turn into a written. Welcome to the world of retail .
The retail mentality has not changed since Cingular & the old AT&T wireless became one- ie orange & blue. Customers are leaving retail for many reasons, Apple sales are down 30% YOY. People are keeping their phones longer, they say there is no reason to change- but ultimately they finally figured out a phone costs more than a $199 upgrade.
Brick & Mortar is dead. Corporate knows this. Your RSM, ARSM are still in denial. They think if they rise to the top they can breathe rarefied air. So they push. But they always have.
Good times are gone. Retail is going through the most agonizing slow death. There is no telling how long it will take to finally die. It’s like going into a nursing home, you know it’s only a matter of time but you don’t know when. And yes it’s Toxic.