I’m not sure where to begin. For a brand rep, the job is pretty easy, low pressure and expectations. Guest lead is a step up from brand rep. Depending on your location, the guest lead is solely a key holder but I’m sure in other stores, they take on more responsibilities. As far as ASM and up, that’s when it gets really hard. The expectations are so steep, they are unrealistic. The company wants a boutique experience but have processes and DORs in place for big box retailers and everything needs to be on time and at 100% all on boutique payroll. Most days you’re running on two person coverage, so there is very MINIMAL time to complete task. You can complete tasking while the store is open but it’s not a good idea because you’re likely to be mystery shopped at any time. As a store manager, you will have time to office (one day) the rest of the week, it’s strictly selling. Interestingly enough, the company wants to you do walk thrus with your assistant managers that “should” take 2-3 hours, well when does anyone find the time?
During the week, the selling culture can be there, it’s slower, come the weekends.. it’s a completely different story. Lines for the fitting room, no fitting room minimum. It’s a boutique on steroids and with little to no coverage.
As far as the clothing is concerned, the company needs to target exactly who their guest is. The buyers are sending apparel for 13 year olds but want us to sell them to the “established woman”. Pick an age group and stick to it because the styling is all.over.the.place. It’s also quite embarrassing when your mall has several competitors and we are all carrying the same product but ours is about $40.00 more.
Management turn over is extremely high (especially from an ASM standpoint) and corporate is wondering why. Well, dig into the specific stores and definitely by pass the DMs. The company sends the store managers on elaborate trips twice a year for “development”. While the ASMs are in the business running the show. Well imagine if your SM just started with the company, went to Disney world and then quit a month later. Talk about a waste of resources and money. As an ASM, you’re going through manager after manager.
It’s unfortunate because you can tell the CEO really cares about the mission, the reasons why, the people and the business but the message is muddled and confused as it goes through the pipeline. The hot button word is friction but some of the DMs are the ones producing friction. The company let us know to prevent friction, we would no longer need to submit schedules to DMs, yet our district managers are still requiring them to be turned in? PTO approval was also discussed, yet no one in the district can get a response from our “leaders” saying yes or no about PTO.
