To explain why, let me first educate you on the "sales" process at Safelite. The day begins when you log into your phone, which inexplicably you into the "Aux Work" status. I say inexplicably because this is a mode intended to be used only to make outbound calls (something we rarely need to do in Sales), and you are marked down if your stats indicate that you spend more than .6% of your time in this state without cause (i.e. not making a call). To avoid having my "Aux Work w/out Cause" time from being astronomical, you immediately hit the "Auto In" button, putting you into the call queue. On a busy day this means you immediately have a call coming in.
Now, these calls can be for 2 reasons: Either you A) Have someone calling in who already has an order and needs to make some change to it (cancellation, reschedule, or really just wants to know where their mobile tech is), or you have B) Some form of a sales call. A little voice proceeds the call to give you some sort of helpful cue about what kind of call it is, and which business it is for (Belron U.S., the company that owns Safelite, also owns 7 other glass companies nationwide and doesn't change the name on the storefront so they can keep the loyal customers that don't want to shop anywhere else).
After greeting the customer and determining what they need, you proceed to take the call. This normally involves gathering information into our computer system that will help us identify the proper parts needed to complete their job, where the job needs to be done, and eventually a price and appointment availability. Once we get a call to the screen where we have a price listed and the available schedule for the area, that call becomes an "opportunity". Our phone stats are determined by comparing the number of appointments we book against the number of "opportunities" we were presented with.
Here's where the sales part comes in.
If I've done my job right, I've built up a relationship with this customer. I've greeted them with a warm disposition, thanked them for choosing Safelite (assuming the sale from the beginning of the call), expressed sympathy for whatever situation has caused them to call in, proved myself knowledgable by asking questions that narrows done the correct part for their work (actually provided by my system's scripting, so I sound more knowledgable about their vehicle than what I really am), and I've provided them with at least 2 of Safelite's 5 "Points of Customer Satisfaction" to help add value to our service. Now I've given them a price, offered them the suggested appointment times provided by the computer for either an in-shop appointment or mobile service (with no additional cost). They've either already given me an affirmative, or they're trying to back out of things now, and I've got some more work to do by overcoming objections.
My system provides me with a couple of options if price is the issue, though really I'm very limited in what I can do on that end of things. If something else is the problem, I'm finding a solution, whatever that may be.
If I do my job properly, I proceed to collect information such as where we need to come out to perform the service, and try to sell them wiper blades and collect credit card information and an e-mail (the latter two statistically improve appointment retention). The call is done, I thank them, and we're on our way to the next call.
All of this is expected to take 3 - 5 minutes on average. That might be about right, though of course I'm still getting into the swing of things. To encourage our sales, there are various contests and games where we earn "points" or the opportunity to play for our sales. Sounds like fun right? Well there's a problem, but I'll get to that later. First thing's first.
As you may have guessed from the above description, we have no control over what kind of calls we get. This in and of itself is fine; we're cross-trained to handle commercial calls, insurance calls, and other areas. Safelite doesn't expect us to be at 100% with our cash appointment rate (the only appointment rate in Sales that matters is Cash... ie, non-insurance or commercials sales, but customers paying out of pocket), though they do expect at least 52% (and prefer 55%). This is to allow for thos occaisional crazy calls, like the friend calling for someone else who really can't make a single decision about the appointment (remember, if we give a price it counts as an opportunity even if there wasn't really one there). However, we get enough calls in day that we should have plenty of opportunities to keep our stats up.
So imagine the frustration I'm having with two days WHERE I CAN'T SELL JACK NOR SHIT!!!!! I have friends calling (who, btw, DON'T EVEN KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THE VEHICLE TO GUARANTEE WE HAVE THE RIGHT PARTS!!!) or people who are so quick to get off the phone that I can't even offer to try and get a new price or discover other objections to try and overcome... and all of this crap counts against me, and adds up over and over and over and over and...
Get the point?
To make matters worse, they implemented a system where after each call the system TELLS YOU what your current appointment rates are. So if I'm not off to a stellar start I get to be reminded EACH FREAKING TIME!!!!
ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
It is, sad to say, a TAD (read: FREAKING HUGE) demoralizing, which makes the next freaking call even harder (I want to scrream, and I'm supposed to sound chipper and upbeat... yeah, can you say "forced).
Add insult to injury, the games I mentioned before? Well, they only matter if you GET THERE IN TIME, which you don't know when the game ends. Perfect example is today. We had a game when I walked in that stated that for every 5 sales we could walk up to the prize table, pick an envelope, and get whatever prize was inside. Fantastic! Except my morning sucked... so by my break I had 2 sales that counted. After I got back from break my job coach (supervisor) came over and told everyone to only come up to the table after their shift or during their break. I did exactly as she said, finally accumulated my 5 sales, and at 3:30 pm, when my shift was over, went to the prize table. There one woman said they were out of prizes (though there were unopened envelopes on the table), and another guy said he had gotten turned away at 3:05, being told that the game ended at 3:00... even though the sheet mentioned NOTHING about a time limit (and normally they do if there is one).
Ok, why try to get me pumped up when you're going to give me instructions that means that this game is worthless to me? The impression I'm getting is either A) ignore the game, or B) ignore my job coach's instructions and run to the prize table as soon as I have 5 sales... (btw, that's what the instruction sheet said to do).
Chaos. Sheer chaos. Frustrating, and it pisses me off. This is my first week where I actually earn bonus commission based on my sales stats, and I'm having two horrible days. Sunday was good (75% appointment rate), but right now my average for the week is approximately 55%... meaning that one more bad day will tank my average. I WANT MY COMMISSION!!!!
Ok, that's it. I don't need my blood pressure to raise any more.
End of demented rambling.
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