Tips for a high ring tender score

Going 4011 · Guru

Tips for a high ring tender score

techelite · Guru

Going 4011 wrote:
2) Instead of using "Quantity", aim the scan gun and fire away. Someone has 20 cans of tuna? Take a can, scan it 20 times really fast, and it'll boost your score like crazy.

This will boost your items per minute score but your overall ring/tender will only benefit slightly, if at all. This is because the time earned for using the gun is much lower, on the order of .4 seconds per scan.

Going 4011 wrote:
3) Hit "EFT" to pause when a customer is being slow, or if you need to get a price check or other issue taken care of, then cancel out when you're ready to scan. (Does "Total" work like "EFT" here?)

Hitting keys to "pause" your time stopped working a few years ago. The only reason people think it works now is that it raises your items per minute score, so they assume it directly translates to increased ring/tender. However, ring/tender rates you on your ringing and tendering time. All you are doing hitting by hitting total and a payment key is transferring that waiting time from your ring time to your tender time and since you aren't completing the actual payment, you lose any earned time that might have benefited you.

In fact, you may actually harm your ring/tender score because you have to wait while the EFT payment cancels out before you can continue on. Also, you run the risk of someone with the customer sliding a card and "accidentally" finishing the order before you are ready while you turn around to bag or whatever while you wait for the customer to unload.

In terms of payment-related gains, you stand to benefit much more from having a customer who is done unloading be ready with payment or slide the card while you ring their order. That way all you have to do is finish the payment; if they pay by card, you stand to use only a few seconds to complete something that you get 20 seconds or more of earned time.

The enterprise standards for elms earned time at the checklane are posted on my division's kweb page. I'd be happy to post it if anybody is interested in seeing just how diverse the labor standards for earned time can be and exactly what they are. They are specified down to the millisecond.

SCO · Senior Member

honestly i just dont care anymore.. after 4 years of worrying about it, i'm done. i'll scan the exact same way, one week i'll get 105% the next i'll get 85%.

Date: Dec 4, 2013

I'm not the OP, but I'm curious: What's the worst that they could do to you if you're just not fast enough?

Kind of like this old, grey-haired lady in one of our registers. She's got terrible eyesight so I doubt they'd move her to the service departments that requires seeing what you cut and all.

techelite · Guru

They technically can move you anywhere in any dept unless you are an older cashier who is actually coded as a cashier and not a store clerk.

Date: Dec 4, 2013

Then again, if they did move that old lady, it's not like she'd speed up any faster.

Going 4011 · Guru

techelite wrote:
Going 4011 wrote:
2) Instead of using "Quantity", aim the scan gun and fire away. Someone has 20 cans of tuna? Take a can, scan it 20 times really fast, and it'll boost your score like crazy.
This will boost your items per minute score but your overall ring/tender will only benefit slightly, if at all. This is because the time earned for using the gun is much lower, on the order of .4 seconds per scan.
Going 4011 wrote:
3) Hit "EFT" to pause when a customer is being slow, or if you need to get a price check or other issue taken care of, then cancel out when you're ready to scan. (Does "Total" work like "EFT" here?)
Hitting keys to "pause" your time stopped working a few years ago. The only reason people think it works now is that it raises your items per minute score, so they assume it directly translates to increased ring/tender. However, ring/tender rates you on your ringing and tendering time. All you are doing hitting by hitting total and a payment key is transferring that waiting time from your ring time to your tender time and since you aren't completing the actual payment, you lose any earned time that might have benefited you.
In fact, you may actually harm your ring/tender score because you have to wait while the EFT payment cancels out before you can continue on. Also, you run the risk of someone with the customer sliding a card and "accidentally" finishing the order before you are ready while you turn around to bag or whatever while you wait for the customer to unload.
In terms of payment-related gains, you stand to benefit much more from having a customer who is done unloading be ready with payment or slide the card while you ring their order. That way all you have to do is finish the payment; if they pay by card, you stand to use only a few seconds to complete something that you get 20 seconds or more of earned time.
The enterprise standards for elms earned time at the checklane are posted on my division's kweb page. I'd be happy to post it if anybody is interested in seeing just how diverse the labor standards for earned time can be and exactly what they are. They are specified down to the millisecond.

Darn, had no clue that a higher items per minute could negatively affect overall ring tender that way, thanks for the advice!

And sure thing, I'm curious to see what their standards are :P

Going 4011 · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
I'm not the OP, but I'm curious: What's the worst that they could do to you if you're just not fast enough?

Kind of like this old, grey-haired lady in one of our registers. She's got terrible eyesight so I doubt they'd move her to the service departments that requires seeing what you cut and all.

At least in our store, people who've been there long enough (like old grey-haired ladies :P) get a pass on things like ring tender, but for the rest of us it can at least affect whether we cashier or bag/cart instead.

And we get gift cards for making it to the top 25 in our district.

posterboy · Member

To techelite:

Yes, please post the standards here. I also scan as fast as I can the same every day and get scores in the 80's one week and 90's the next week, then down to 80's the week after. Does anyone know if there are different "standards" for a full service check lane vs. express ? It seems like my ELMS scores go down when I am assigned a lot to the express lanes. If customers bring more than 15 items to the express lane does that transaction not "count"?

Also, does logging into and working the self checkout (we have been forbidden to call it U-Scan) "remove" you from the ELMS system or not? If you worked at self checkout all week and spent no time in a check lane, would you get a score of 0 ?

P.S. to OP: Avoid using the handheld unit whenever possible. You get only 0.4 second per beep.

Date: Dec 5, 2013

there are different standards for express. you get more time because they know you're bagging.

you get 10 seconds between customers. don't go into secure mode during an order because they'll punish your time. somewhere i have a list of all the times allocated for different tasks from scanning a card to typing in a code to weighing items to wic to checks, to the various types of card payments. i don't really pay much attention to that.

the real key is consistent pace, don't talk too much especially to other employees it'll slow your scanning down. some people can do both, most cannot and they don't even realize it. on my front end there's nothing that ticks me off faster than my cashiers and baggers talking when the customer hasn't even gotten a hello. and believe me some of them will make it a point to talk to a store manager and complain or do an OSAT comment when this happens.

don't scan & bag as you go on a big lane. know your PLUs. don't worry about wic slowing you down, you can make your time in other orders.

just find your rhythm.

if you don't make your time, the worst they really can do is move you to minimize your impact or cut your hours but who has a dept with so many people they can really afford doing that?

what i do is put the slower people on the back lanes. the fastest are always supposed to be on express anyway but that doesn't always happen because of scheduling. what you can't do is put someone who isn't comfortable or capable on express. it's a disaster.

some of the slower people are better in other ways and will get lots of 5s for OSAT.

Date: Dec 5, 2013

if you were signed into self-checkout you don't appear on the ELMS ring/tender report you appear on the self-checkout attendant report which shows your interventions, weight discrepancies and so forth. your performance is measured differently there.

Date: Dec 5, 2013

at self-checkout basically ask customers to press a button on screen like 'large item' if they need you to do something like scan the "forgot card." that way your attendant initiated interventions are lower. the weights scale resets... well we all pretty much know the things that are off commonly like water and deli chicken but it's good to check to see if there's signs of funny business.

techelite · Guru

posterboy wrote:
To techelite:
Yes, please post the standards here. I also scan as fast as I can the same every day and get scores in the 80's one week and 90's the next week, then down to 80's the week after. Does anyone know if there are different "standards" for a full service check lane vs. express ? It seems like my ELMS scores go down when I am assigned a lot to the express lanes. If customers bring more than 15 items to the express lane does that transaction not "count"?
Also, does logging into and working the self checkout (we have been forbidden to call it U-Scan) "remove" you from the ELMS system or not? If you worked at self checkout all week and spent no time in a check lane, would you get a score of 0 ?

I keep forgetting to email myself the standards so I can post them. Should be able to tomorrow.

Previous posts about SCO and regular vs express lane scores are correct.

Yes, orders >15 items in an express lane do still count. This is why it is imperative to take advantage of your right to ask larger orders to move to a regular lane (with a few exceptions like regular lanes are full, there are extra baggers, supervisor sends them to your line for whatever reason, etc)

techelite · Guru

Here they are.

Enterprise labor standards for elms earned time for actions at a register.

Date: Dec 10, 2013

I think that not having an overage/shortage in your drawer is much more valuable than ring/tender time in the grocery industry considering the profit margin is so tiny. Besides, if you go too fast, you run the risk of being rude. Not very "customer 1st" in my opinion. The trick to having a high ring/tender is really just being rushed, anti-social, and having a bagger that doesn't wait until the end of the order to start bagging. If you have a FES who really rides you to death on ring/tender, then get off the front end asap. You could be using your energy to do other things like receiving or cake decorating. If you're willing to endure it for a year or two to become a service desk rep, then I tip my hat to you.

techelite · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
The trick to having a high ring/tender is really just being rushed, anti-social

Not true at all. My store's fastest cashier, and multiple times the fastest in the entire district, is one of the nicest, most customer-oriented people on my front end.

I've seen plenty of other people pull it off before, so don't be fooled. All you have to do is really understand the ring/tender system, not just know the basic formula for your score, and you can do very well.

4hourrush · Guru

Actually, I think I witnessed this today.

I was in the Englewood Marketplace tonight and the cashier completely rushed me. He like freaked out when a couple markdowns didn't scan, he grabbed them from his bagger and got them with the gun real quick, then he finished up the order, handed me the reciept, the bill from my change, but not the rest of the change, which was only a couple cents so i didn't argue it.

But the whole thing kind of bothered me, because I like looking around in that store when I can, which isn't too often, but omg, is ring tender that important that you can't even say hi to your customers? I'm glad I never see that in my store. Even before I started working out there, the cashiers were always friendly

Edit: I could always give them a bad score on OSAT.... help my store go up in rankings ;) lol jk i wouldn't do that :P

-- Edited by 4hourrush on Tuesday 10th of December 2013 08:35:23 PM

Operations133 · Veteran Member

techelite wrote:
Going 4011 wrote:
2) Instead of using "Quantity", aim the scan gun and fire away. Someone has 20 cans of tuna? Take a can, scan it 20 times really fast, and it'll boost your score like crazy.
This will boost your items per minute score but your overall ring/tender will only benefit slightly, if at all. This is because the time earned for using the gun is much lower, on the order of .4 seconds per scan.
Going 4011 wrote:
3) Hit "EFT" to pause when a customer is being slow, or if you need to get a price check or other issue taken care of, then cancel out when you're ready to scan. (Does "Total" work like "EFT" here?)
Hitting keys to "pause" your time stopped working a few years ago. The only reason people think it works now is that it raises your items per minute score, so they assume it directly translates to increased ring/tender. However, ring/tender rates you on your ringing and tendering time. All you are doing hitting by hitting total and a payment key is transferring that waiting time from your ring time to your tender time and since you aren't completing the actual payment, you lose any earned time that might have benefited you.
In fact, you may actually harm your ring/tender score because you have to wait while the EFT payment cancels out before you can continue on. Also, you run the risk of someone with the customer sliding a card and "accidentally" finishing the order before you are ready while you turn around to bag or whatever while you wait for the customer to unload.
In terms of payment-related gains, you stand to benefit much more from having a customer who is done unloading be ready with payment or slide the card while you ring their order. That way all you have to do is finish the payment; if they pay by card, you stand to use only a few seconds to complete something that you get 20 seconds or more of earned time.
The enterprise standards for elms earned time at the checklane are posted on my division's kweb page. I'd be happy to post it if anybody is interested in seeing just how diverse the labor standards for earned time can be and exactly what they are. They are specified down to the millisecond.

Thanks for all the tips, I thought securing in the middle of orders improved scores by lowering tender time, but since you're not actually ring tendering anything it makes sense that it doesn't matter. I knew the IPM was placebo effect of you 'stopping the clock'. I knew EFT while waiting was a no-no, I topped the ELMS score back when it debuted in 2002 this way when it actually worked..lot has changed since then but I managed to top it again twice.

The only consistently above goal cashier at our store doesn't secure her register at all..always consistently 100-110%ish. I always secure while doing nothing, just a habit of mine but I had to work 42 hrs, 6 days just to beat her. I can't do like those cashiers who get on for 2 hrs and score way high, mostly they do it by luck I notice though because it's never consistent.

It's a huge struggle to get people to be ready with payment..it's not like VIP that's easy just get their phone number. half the time that will just prompt them to stop what they're doing and enter in the phone number. I always offer to type it in for them but 4 out of 10 times will reject this notion. I get it, privacy I guess. The other 5 out of 10 they'll just have the card and get it out. And of course the 1 out of 100 who will refuse to give the card, phone number or anything till the end of the order. Roll with the punch it won't kill you at the end of the week unless you are one of those 2 hr tendering heroes from another department.

Back to the struggle of payment: typically the ONLY reason express is good is because of this. 6 out of 10 of your customers will have payment either ready or near ready (out and avaliable) because after all they only had to unload a couple items. Having a big line in your express is good for your efficiency actually lol. Bad for que-vision but good for your ring tender. The more they have to wait in line the more chances they'll be ready. I remember when I had 10 people in my line because we were slammed (8+ waiting at self checkout alone) and only ONE of them had payment. Really? So I said loudly because I could tell they were getting impatient "If you have your payment ready this will go a lot quicker". No complaints and baam had em flying. Believe I hit #1 with 107% that week.

-- Edited by Operations133 on Friday 13th of December 2013 02:52:16 AM

-- Edited by Operations133 on Friday 13th of December 2013 02:53:46 AM

Operations133 · Veteran Member

techelite wrote:
Here they are.
Enterprise labor standards for elms earned time for actions at a register.

Thank you so very much for this!! This is what I was looking for..wow okay so scan gun is bad, only for IPM showoff? Quantity key is bad I knew that much just don't take it as far as putting in 20 keylimes individually (lol 115 seconds gained!) because you're still working against tender time plus I'd be pretty annoyed to get a gigantic receipt since the cashier refused to use the quantity key so use judgment but cool maybe I'll start 5 splitting them now. I've always keyed in produce individually if they didn't bag em, why not? It's like a seperate item anyway.

I'll only use the gun to help customers if they have soda at the bottom now and I have a courtesy clerk standing there doing nothing. I know almost all my water codes save for the rare and annoying ones that have no pattern whatsoever (like Dasani). My overuse of the gun I think explains my 93% last week when I had ending numbers like 44 IPM over .38 tender with 65+ customers per hour. I couldn't 'figure out why my efficiency didn't meet goal when my numbers we waaay ahead of everyone, was frustrating so thanks for this list!

Do the tender out gain times start as soon as you press total? So like if cash gains you 21.707 seconds and you hit Cash Cash for exact amount did you just do like 21.7 earned tender seconds over 1 actual second tendering or is there more to that because that seems crazy inaccurate to me but I'm probably not thinking of the times customers take forever to get one bill out. If it's 'hold on let me get change' I always just cash tender it out, secure..wait till they have the amount than no sale enter put change in and give remainder.

techelite · Guru

Operations133 wrote:
I'll only use the gun to help customers if they have soda at the bottom now and I have a courtesy clerk standing there doing nothing. I know almost all my water codes save for the rare and annoying ones that have no pattern whatsoever (like Dasani).

An additional little tip that goes with this is to type in those water (or any large item) UPCs very first thing, then get the item settled or on the belt or in the exchange cart or wherever, and only then hit enter to ring up the item and start the order. This way you essentially gained the entire earned time for free because it wasn't recording time until you hit enter. And remember, if you do this and they enter a plus card before you hit enter, the UPC will disappear off your keyboard screen, but it's still there. All you have to do is hit enter to start the order.

Operations133 wrote:
My overuse of the gun I think explains my 93% last week when I had ending numbers like 44 IPM over .38 tender with 65+ customers per hour. I couldn't 'figure out why my efficiency didn't meet goal when my numbers we waaay ahead of everyone, was frustrating so thanks for this list!

Overuse of the gun is only, meh, maybe 25% or so of the slowdown. Most of the issue is that it takes you longer to get the item actually scanned. If possible, keep scanning while someone else (your bagger) walks over to get the gun and scans the item, unless something you are ringing yourself requires non-scanning intervention from you (entered prices, quantities, PLUs, etc.)

Operations133 wrote:
Do the tender out gain times start as soon as you press total? So like if cash gains you 21.707 seconds and you hit Cash Cash for exact amount did you just do like 21.7 earned tender seconds over 1 actual second tendering or is there more to that because that seems crazy inaccurate to me but I'm probably not thinking of the times customers take forever to get one bill out. If it's 'hold on let me get change' I always just cash tender it out, secure..wait till they have the amount than no sale enter put change in and give remainder.

Your tender time for drawer-open operations such as cash and check run until you close the drawer. So if you hit cash cash and hold the drawer closed, you essentially gained that entire 21.707 seconds for free. However, if you take a long time tendering, or there is question about change etc. you can still end up in the red if you haven't closed your drawer.

Date: Dec 13, 2013

If there's one thing I think is weird, it's when supervisors get so obsessed with ring/tender that they forget what their cashiers' whole job is supposed to be centered around: Accepting payment and giving back the exact change. I'll tell you this, Kroger will not care that you get into the 110's if you're short $5 in your register. If your front end supervisor is threatening to send you to another department, then let him. If he makes you bag or get carts because you have a lower ring/tender than others, just let him. The store and co-managers get pissed whenever they see a cashier doing a courtesy clerk's job since there's a pay scale difference. And if you can't get your ring/tender up to 95, then just work in a different department and be thankful for the transfer.

Operations133 · Veteran Member

techelite wrote:
Overuse of the gun is only, meh, maybe 25% or so of the slowdown. Most of the issue is that it takes you longer to get the item actually scanned. If possible, keep scanning while someone else (your bagger) walks over to get the gun and scans the item, unless something you are ringing yourself requires non-scanning intervention from you (entered prices, quantities, PLUs, etc.)
Operations133 wrote:
Do the tender out gain times start as soon as you press total? So like if cash gains you 21.707 seconds and you hit Cash Cash for exact amount did you just do like 21.7 earned tender seconds over 1 actual second tendering or is there more to that because that seems crazy inaccurate to me but I'm probably not thinking of the times customers take forever to get one bill out. If it's 'hold on let me get change' I always just cash tender it out, secure..wait till they have the amount than no sale enter put change in and give remainder.
Your tender time for drawer-open operations such as cash and check run until you close the drawer. So if you hit cash cash and hold the drawer closed, you essentially gained that entire 21.707 seconds for free. However, if you take a long time tendering, or there is question about change etc. you can still end up in the red if you haven't closed your drawer.

Yah but thing is, soda is a weighted item - if you key it you'll gain what weight + keyed time? (over 6 seconds) vs .4 seconds from gun use? That's highly significant..seems like I should try to learn some common soda codes or just let them load it on the belt. I'll still gun beer cuz that at least gives you age verification credit and is generally much larger to move. Any moves I do is of course before the order even starts..most of the time if they're just coming about to the belt I'll immediately take sodas/beers/heavier items ect and move them over...scan with gun and continue but I'm thinking I should just manually scan them now. The gun seems very last resort and when I mean overuse I was using it every order lol, pretty sure it did more than just quarter damage of my slowdown.

Cash cash is generally too risky though in some cases because I had a customer change their mind and go card on a split payment. You get credit for a till open with change due back anyway 7 seconds? so I just wait for the bills now..I don't wait for change I'll cash cash that out and do the difference outside the order, I get ppl leaving change all the time so it balances out.

Thanks for answering those question for me!

-- Edited by Operations133 on Sunday 15th of December 2013 08:45:46 AM

Operations133 · Veteran Member

Anonymous wrote:
If there's one thing I think is weird, it's when supervisors get so obsessed with ring/tender that they forget what their cashiers' whole job is supposed to be centered around: Accepting payment and giving back the exact change. I'll tell you this, Kroger will not care that you get into the 110's if you're short $5 in your register.

None of my supervisors seem to care enough about ring/tender actually till recently, it's why we're one of the lowest in the division. In fact if it's 5 dollars short they don't even worry about it. The report of everyone on the till is generally over a 15 dollar or more shortage and it's not just you it's EVERYONE that's been on that till has to basically sign just a slap on the wrist acknowledgment that the till was short. No one actually ever gets a finger pointed directly at them unless of course they were the only ones on that register that day which is highly highly unlikely. I'm not saying we've never had any on cash control, just saying that's small scale stuff.

There's much better ways to improve ring/tender without having to resort to rushing cash payments so it's not a big deal. Cash is one of the worst earned payments there is, I love seeing checks and esp WIC checks (if they've done it properly that is!).

-- Edited by Operations133 on Sunday 15th of December 2013 08:52:46 AM

Date: Apr 3, 2015

I was told that I could not work in the front office because I am to slow. but my overall is an 85 and above.. How can this be??

techelite · Guru

Chase wrote:
I was told that I could not work in the front office because I am to slow. but my overall is an 85 and above.. How can this be??

Well, if your division is like others, the goal is somewhere around 95. However, they're using common, but backwards, logic. They don't want to "reward" you by letting you in the office with a low score, but if you're legitimately trying and just can't make it, they're hurting themselves more by keeping you where you are.