Staples my time manager how to#
Staples my time manager update#
Staples my time manager series#

Shah, “but we don’t have the Market Basket problem.” “If they buy it online, we lose the sale,” said Ms.

Staples my time manager how to#

Now, staffers who don’t want to walk customers have another option: they can escort them to an in-store computer and tell them how to place orders online. But that practice was abandoned, she said, because so many stores were bouncing so many customers that it was creating ill will among consumers. Shah said, which entailed sending a customer to another Staples store.

Staples my time manager update#

Walking the customer is an update from a tactic that was known as “bouncing the customer,” Ms. Shah, who works in a Staples store in Fountain Valley, Calif. “It’s called ‘walking the customer,’ because we let them leave the store empty-handed.” said Ms.

“There are these conference calls with district managers, and one of them once told a store manager, ‘If you can’t do the job, you can go sell fries at McDonald’s.’ ” “It’s not pretty,” said a manager who asked not to be identified, fearing repercussions. What happens to managers who can’t keep their storewide Market Basket numbers up? Sales staffers who aren’t meeting their goals are coached, and if that doesn’t work, she and other employees said, there will be disciplinary action that can lead up to termination underperformers can also end up with lots of night and weekends shifts or even a reduction in scheduled hours. In other words, each time you sell a computer, you need to sell, on average, $200 worth of other stuff.

Staples my time manager series#

Staples, explained a manager named Natasja Shah in a series of conversations and e-mails, has a system called Market Basket that tracks how many dollars’ worth of add-ons each staffer sells. But according to employees, it has in place a set of incentives that make it unpleasant, to put it mildly, for staffers to sell a computer without a whole bunch of accessories, particularly a service plan. Staples, as we will see, won’t answer that question. After a quick check of inventory, the salesman returns to say the Acers are all gone. And then, before he goes back to get one, he asks me if I want the service plan.” I then asked if he could please go get one, because I definitely wanted one. I asked him if they were indeed in stock, and he indicated that they were. I asked him if I had just spoken to him about the Acer laptop and he confirmed that he was the person. “I walked in and found the exact person whom I spoke to eight minutes earlier. The would-be customer calls a second Staples, where a salesman says, yes, we have that $449 Acer. Moments later, the sales associate informed me that the laptop was not in stock after all.” Then I heard him call the sales associate over and tell him something. He walked away when I finally maintained that I did not want it. He was extremely rude, implying that I was ‘cheap’ for not adding the plan. “He returned with the store’s general manager, who again proceeded to aggressively push the protection plan onto me. However, before he would get me one, he proceeded to try to sell me his ‘protection plan.’ “Upon my arrival, I found an associate who informed me that the laptops were in stock. He is trying to buy an Acer computer for $449, as advertised by Staples in a newspaper. Below is a condensed and edited excerpt from a Web site called m圓, written by someone identified as JA2009. But before we hear from the employees, let’s yield the floor to a customer who describes what this pressure looks like from the consumer side. This story came to mind recently, after the Haggler heard from several Staples employees who described some of the pressure they face from management when it comes to sales. Sell the mattress in the ad, and you’re gone. And the rule among sales staff could not be simpler: if you sold any customers that discounted mattress, you were fired. Every week, the chain ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post, advertising deep discounts on one make and model of mattress. THE Haggler once knew a guy who worked as a salesman at a mattress chain in the Washington area.