How true is it that signers will be gone next year? That managers and sales colleagues will be signing their areas?
13 replies (most recent on top)
Some stores still have signers? By last year our signing team was just 3 people with merchandisers helping. Now there's one signer still at store, all others are either receiving people or former merchandisers now working in receiving or fulfillment.
At my store, it’s a combination of Receiving and FF colleagues. Signing requires a lot of quick decision making, attention to detail, communication, and follow up. Nobody takes it seriously anymore. And there is no “lead” and the OOM could care less about it. They just care about Omni and they sit in their offices all day “editing fulfillment schedules” without taking the time to train people to do a critical task that directly impacts sales. And Omni is terrible company wide. I am so irritated with signing standards at my store. I cringe every time I walk past a fixture that is obviously wrong or has a sign missing or is altogether ridiculous with like zero care or common sense used. And the I am the one that gets called out during store visits if signing is wrong. Not the person that Oversees it. CXMs are just not equipped to do anything other than make credit announcements. They can’t possible manage signing. It’s not how it used to be. When I was a Sales Manager 11 years ago, I would NEVER be allowed to get away with the stuff that goes on nowadays. At the end of the day, the responsibility will fall on the SMM along with everything else in stores. We carry the stores, good or bad.
Last year the visual teams had to do our jobs plus help out in all other aspects of running the store. We helped out the merchandising team, fulfillment team, signing team, did floor moves, markdowns, and let's not forget spent days getting rid of fitting room rods that were stuffed in stockrooms. We had to prep for inventory and do it while everyone else just did the job they were hired to do. None of the other teams helped us!! I barely did any visual and had horrible visits. Regionals couldn't understand why the store looked so bad. Now you know how stressful it was for us. Then they wanted us to learn the register. No thanks... I'm so glad I left.
Once upon a time I was a sign team lead…I am laughing. Seriously signing requires an amount of discipline and urgency since it is time sensitive. I can see the use of the fullfillment team…signing helps them learn the floor and where the merchandise they are searching for is located…receiving team no way. Signing is not a jack of all trades task. We had trouble getting qualified individuals to sign. Even my store manager was incapable of signing. She once helped us for a half an hour(she took off in a hurry when she found out it was work) We had to re-sign everything she touched. With the addition of ISM most of the floor is probably not merchandised to sign. Perhaps signing should be eliminated totally…technology should remedy this…Good luck getting floor coverage signing. I always got the attitude, I do not get paid enough to work that hard…they were right! Secondly, customers who come into the stores should come first. They pay your salary. Signing a store is not something one can multitask with customer service, or ringing. Some of the comments on this site tell me that there are individuals willing to sign. I just do not see this working in most stores. A dedicated team and a simplified signing process is necessary for signing to work or remain relevant to the customer experience. It is not one of those functions that can be done when time and staffing budgets permits…just ask weights and measures!
What sales colleagues? Oh you mean the colleagues that constantly call out so support colleagues end up on register.
All of these people saying that fulfillment and BOH colleagues will be signing…wrong. They are already doing that now? Next year it will fall on the CXM’s and FOH colleagues. So yes, the OP is correct.
Fulfillment colleagues in our store sometimes do markdowns, recovery, help out with the truck, process new merchandise to the sales floor, and now signing. It's unbelievable how much workload fulfillment colleagues will have next year.
the stress on everyone face now only to hear this...
@cbd. Amen. Everyone should expand their knowledge and skills. It will look good on their next resume.
In our store the signers are back of house colleagues that help with truck or fulfillment when not signing.
We have always signed ,unloaded the truck put it out marked it down and did floor moves. At times we also ring customers too. We've never just had signers or markdown crew. Learn how to multi task people!!! Its really not that hard.
bahaha sure sign its all going under.. time to run kids...
Fulfillment colleagues and receiving dock colleagues will be the new signers. Supposedly several stores are already doing it. Eventually all stores will be following the same path next year.