This company needs more full time CSA jobs. The CSA does all the work and some of these sales specialists do absolutely nothing all day but talk to people. A CSA does almost everything a sales specialist does and they are paid wayyyyyy less.
Sincerely....
Do some work
I went to Home Depot and there were employees in appliances. They never said hello, never acknowledged my presence as I was looking at French door refrigerators. I left and went to Lowe’s and guess what. They did the same thing,
Not even a wave or nod. My next stop is Best Buy. I now know the model number, brand and color I want. I also know Amazon sells appliances at the same price...
To the one who says that $18 specialist is so much better than the $12 one. Tell that to Home Depot, who's been beating Lowe's year after year. Not just in profit, but in sales comps. How are those $12 specialists continually beating you in comps, but you still argue you and other $17-20 specialists like you are the answer?
All of you are going to get a cut in pay or fired anyway...As all your department heads and above sit in their offices making 25$ an hour hiring young part time people making 10$ an hour. Revolving door people. Cut and run while you can. As Marvin put it so nicely, all sales floor people are to blame.
All sales specialists do is talk to people????? mo--n, thats how we sell....what a dumb statement. I know for a fact I've forgotten more than my csa's will ever comprehend. as a seasoned 30+ years of flooring experience, and as a 15 years lowes flooring sales specialist I have customers look for me or call the store before they come in to make sure i was here. I also sweep front face clean downstock and dust my department. Ive been through more csa's and specialists in my department than i can remember. Most quit or transfer to another dept because they either dont like the calling of customers or hate cutting carpet or loading tile. I installed for years, my body is broken, but I continue to move on.
All stores are different. In ours it is the CSA's who are not loyal and don't show up for work half the time. Part timers at our store do not care to learn anything and they run away from the customer. Also, lots of sales specialists don't make $18 an hour and there are CSA's who are making more per hour than specialists. It all depends on if you are a pet of the store manager because unfairly large raises are given to those people while the rest are lucky to get a few pennies an hour. There are great sales specialists and there are worthless ones who are pets of the store manager so they know they can get away with being lazy. Sales specialists have to do everything in our store also and much of it is unsafe to be pulling and loading heavy appliances by themselves. Often have to do many non sales related tasks.
the prior post is pretty ludicrous!! To suggest that two people would produce the same results is silly. In almost any endeavor results will vary based on several factors. And it would go to reason that an experienced salesperson is far more likely to outperform any random associate. You are highly unlikely to get the same results from an associate at $12.50/hr vs a seasoned $18/hr one...that is just basic common sense. If your making the case that the lesser will perform well enough to offset the pay difference ...well that is somewhat possible. Maybe the $10mil quarterback outperforms the $20mil guy....but dont count on it
It won't be eliminated. They'll just reduce the pay of new specialists to $12.50/hr like Home Depot and expect everyone to talk to customers. If you're trying to make the case that the $6/hr pay difference is because you can speak English, have a pulse, and can help a customer, you're not making a very strong case.
i will keep this in mind the next time i am asked by an associate to answer questions and help a customer because they cannot. We do nothing but "talk to people". This is the pure brilliance you get from some people today. Helping customers spend their hard earned money on products that actually suit their needs requires talking to a customer, yes it does. You cannot text or tweet to the customer standing a foot away who asks for guidance. Proper qualifying questions will drastically increase the odds of them making the correct choice and thus having a better shopping experience. Although you sometimes wonder why we bother...there are no commissions and really zero incentive to use sales skills today. I make the same if i sell 20,000 today or $200. And as you can tell by the post our efforts and talents are surely not respected. So maybe we should go thru the motions and milk this job for everything we can until the inevitable elimination of the specialist position
So sad when people are jealous vs just working hard to get ahead. If you think you can do better then work hard, become a sales specialist and show everyone how it’s done. My guess is your someone who has been passed over for a sales specialist because your a mediocre employee.
Agree 100%. I’ve been saying this for a decade. When cornered about this, Specialists will go on forever about how “knowledgeable” they are. People get defensive when you question their value. It’s normal. The jobs are the same. Nothing magical happens when a CSA gets promoted to Specialist. No knowledge download happens. They don’t get sent to Plumbing University. They just get a pay raise and an ego boost.
CSA's know nothing.
Then why don't you become a specialist?
Sure. That’s what we need; an army of carton readers who learned all they know from the boxes stuff comes in.
This is not the case in every store. Sorry your specialists are lazy. In my store specialists do everything, except cabinets and appliances. Just as there are asms that are actually helping and not hiding in the back in some stores.