I hate Que-vision so much!! It's drives me nuts! I remember before we had it everything ran more smoothly. Now as soon as I come into work I see my managers in the front end already panicking urging me to "Open up now! We're going to dip!!" Desperately paging dairy, produce, and liquor departments to open up. Sometimes we don't have any baggers at all because they're all up in the register checking (a lot of our baggers are cross-trained to check), which makes the parking lot a mess since there is no one to collect the carts . A lot of customers get mad at us when they're already in line and we ask them to move to another register or to go to self checkout (because they're causing a 'red' on our dashboard).
Today I got a "Not Highly Satisfied" on the OSAT survey because a customer left a comment saying that I was "discriminating against her" because she was in my line and I asked her to go another register (that had less people in line). Also I hate it when I'm checking at the 'Express 15 items or less lane' and to avoid a dip I have to take a customer to my line even if they have over 50 items, and of course the people that are after with fewer items start getting mad at me.
Another time I had a customer making some returns in my line and asking questions, so I lost track of how many people were in my line, so I got a dip and my manager starts getting angry at me, telling me that "because of you, we now have a dip!" What ever happened to the good ol' days when we had the actual Front End Supervisor managing the lines (instead of heat sensors) without getting punish simply because we have a 4th person waiting in line.
I hate it how the 'big guys' at Kroger come out with all this crap and expect so much, without any consideration about their employees, and then threaten to punish us if we don't meet their standards!! I would like to see the person that came out with the Que-Vision & dips (and ELMS why we're at it) leave his nice little executive chair in his cozy little office, and actually work at a Kroger store and put up with all the crap we have to deal with.
QueVision works great at my store and we always have somewhere in the 95-99% compliance range. You'll never have more than 2 people ahead of you in line, except maybe Thanksgiving/day before Thanksgiving.
Meeting the QueVision standards just requires you to have competent checkers and a couple mediocre courtesy clerks. If you have half your checkers barely making 100% ELMS compliance and having a lower IPM than U-Scan then of course your front end is going to be chaotic and full of dips.
OMGosh everything you said is what i have been feeling. Sometimes I come into work 15-20 minutes early just to scope things out and see how everything is going then I head to the break room and relax before I clock in. When it's hectic in the front and lines are piled up they will actually urge me clock in early because they are backed up.
We never really have baggers because they send them all on the lot so even if it's busy up front us cashiers have to run back and forth ringing up groceries and bagging them. Then we have those customers that will say I'm not bagging my own groceries, I don't work here! This not my job! Then get upset when some of their food is getting crushed.
I'm one of the fastest checkers at my store so customers tend to wait in my line no matter what even if the supervisor tell them to go to a line with less people they will still wait in my line.
I don't shop Walmart but wish they had QueVision when I did. Never saw any manager give a crap about how long customer lines were and usually only 2 registers open one at each end with 8 closed ones between. My point is QueVision is meant for customer service and to help cashier.
Yeah, QueVision itself isn't a problem IMO, it's the ridiculous lack of hours. Running a skeleton crew (and there's always those 1-2 callouts), while trying to stay green in QueVision, is nerve-wracking as all heck. One or the other we can live with, but both is a terrible combo.
QueVision works great at my store and we always have somewhere in the 95-99% compliance range. You'll never have more than 2 people ahead of you in line, except maybe Thanksgiving/day before Thanksgiving.
Meeting the QueVision standards just requires you to have competent checkers and a couple mediocre courtesy clerks. If you have half your checkers barely making 100% ELMS compliance and having a lower IPM than U-Scan then of course your front end is going to be chaotic and full of dips.
You must be at a store that does less business than mine then if Thanksgiving is really the only time you have to worry about there being more than two people in line. Que-Vision is a nightmare for everyone where I work. Co-managers hate it because they get called to the front a lot to help watch the floor because the supervisor can barely get off a register, and then get chewed out on conference calls if too many dips occur and 1+1 compliance isn't satisfactory. Supervisors hate it because it's stressful, trying to watch the floor from a register while dealing with customer issues/call-ins/surge help failing to come up to help check, and basically are forced to focus more on raw numbers than quality customer service (a lot of customers want to talk to the cashiers/baggers, not be rushed through a line or herded like cattle from lane to lane). Cashiers hate it because they are pressured to meet ring tender goals while ensuring groceries don't get smashed, register policies are being followed like coupon and check policy among numerous other things, not getting scammed and not doing something Loss Prevention is going to drag him or her to the office for, dealing with customer issues such as price discrepancies, WIC issues, Mega Event item count being off, having to "engage" with the customer at hand as well as ringing stuff up as well as watching his or her own line for 1+1 compliance. Self Check-out Attendants hate it because they are being pressured to act as "Robin" while making sure no one walks out the door without paying and helping customers along the four or in some cases six, self check-out units, plus possibly performing other tasks like sorting go-backs and responding to cashier issues along express since the supervisor is stuck on a register. Surge help from the other departments hate it because they can't get their work done because they're being called to help check, bag and/or get carts off the lot sometimes repeatedly within the same hour, knowing full well the same will happen again next hour, during busy days like weekends and during busy times of the day like during prime time and thus either refuse to come and get yelled at by management or come and get yelled at by their department head. The Que Vision Predictor doesn't even help half the time, more or less, as it can read: Action Now: 3 and lanes can still be out of queue, and if a supervisor is being pulled four different ways, like he or she usually is, it can be very easy to dip.
Sure, maybe if you have a competent schedule writer that doesn't let e-Sked do what it wants, and yeah, maybe if you have cashiers that are fast (most of ours don't care, cruddy pay, miserable hours, no incentive to meet goals because there are no rewards, thus a vast majority of our cashiers don't reach a ring tender effective rate of 90% or anywhere close to it), and perhaps if corporate wasn't deliberately low-balling the forecasted amount of hours necessary in order to get by with as little help possible while maximizing the profit, maybe Que-Vision would be somewhat effective and useful. It's not about putting the customer 1st, though. Kroger can wrap itself in that slogan, feed it to news publications and slap it on uniforms and the like, but like everything Kroger does, it's all in an effort to score good publicity and make the customers think they're important. Kroger is a business and is in business to make money. That's fine. However, Kroger is not the leader and is no where near the leader in customer satisfaction or employee satisfaction. Que Vision is just one of the numerous things Kroger has come up with to fool the customer into think they matter the most, when really, it's all about maximizing profit while minimizing expenses. Which again, is fine because it's a business, but there are plenty of other retail chains out there that not only pay and treat the employees better, but also offer better customer service. Kroger's problem is the people at the top and the middle to an extent are simply too greedy and the only time Kroger spends money, thus earning its title of being the most generous company in America, is to earn good publicity and make it look like the corporate execs care when really, it's all a ploy to make customers want to shop there because the customers think they're shopping with a company that cares and donates a great deal of money, all with the goal in mind of becoming an even richer company.
Your store's entire front-end problem stems from your cashiers' low ring tender score. The slowest checkers at my store, and the cause of most of our few dips, have a ring tender of >100% and an IPM in the 15-20 range. That's barely giving a **** speed, <90% is not even trying or doing something really wrong (ex: bagging while checking, excessive talking, slow typing, etc). If your managers booted the employees who were below 100% for too long and hired people who could care a little bit you wouldn't be having issues.
The whole point of having standards is to prevent unacceptably poor service from being delivered, I'm not quite sure why so many stores have managers who don't fire employees who fail to meet the incredibly low standards of the front end.
The whole point of having standards is to prevent unacceptably poor service from being delivered, I'm not quite sure why so many stores have managers who don't fire employees who fail to meet the incredibly low standards of the front end.
Because there would be no employees in the front end.
Management and supervisors put enough pressure on people that cause them to not give a rat's ass anyway.
Your store's entire front-end problem stems from your cashiers' low ring tender score. The slowest checkers at my store, and the cause of most of our few dips, have a ring tender of >100% and an IPM in the 15-20 range. That's barely giving a **** speed, <90% is not even trying or doing something really wrong (ex: bagging while checking, excessive talking, slow typing, etc). If your managers booted the employees who were below 100% for too long and hired people who could care a little bit you wouldn't be having issues.
The whole point of having standards is to prevent unacceptably poor service from being delivered, I'm not quite sure why so many stores have managers who don't fire employees who fail to meet the incredibly low standards of the front end.
Why should people care even a little bit when Kroger doesn't care about them in the slightest? Pay someone $7.35 an hour and give them around twenty five hours a week, and all you're going to attract is people that don't take the job seriously or strive to improve or work to meet standards. I don't know why your cashiers are as motivated as they are, but our cashiers don't care one bit about ring tender or dips or whatnot. The majority of them are in high school/college and treat it as a place to pick up some cash for expenses/gas/stuff they want. They know it's a job that doesn't have a future. They know they aren't going to be rewarded or punished for meeting/failing standards. They know they don't count because that's the way Kroger makes them feel. The people that work there stay there for two reasons, really: they like their co-workers and flexible scheduling. That's the only reason any of us are really there. It sure isn't for the pay, the benefits, or the opportunities.
Bottom line? You get what you pay for. Pay pretty much the absolute minimum, attract those that are willing to only give the absolute minimum or don't care to give any more than the absolute minimum.
The whole point of having standards is to prevent unacceptably poor service from being delivered, I'm not quite sure why so many stores have managers who don't fire employees who fail to meet the incredibly low standards of the front end.
Because there would be no employees in the front end.
Management and supervisors put enough pressure on people that cause them to not give a rat's ass anyway.
100% of the cashiers at my store are above 100% ring tender. Even our relief help is mostly in the 90-110% range. We have a couple people who are in the high 150% range frequently, too.
QueVision works great at my store and we always have somewhere in the 95-99% compliance range. You'll never have more than 2 people ahead of you in line, except maybe Thanksgiving/day before Thanksgiving.
Meeting the QueVision standards just requires you to have competent checkers and a couple mediocre courtesy clerks. If you have half your checkers barely making 100% ELMS compliance and having a lower IPM than U-Scan then of course your front end is going to be chaotic and full of dips.
1+1 and 1+2 compliance is not the same as meeting your green half hours and avoiding dips. it also depends on the store. smaller stores try to do far more with next to nothing. we will have five lanes open and one courtesy clerk while the other is off on the lot trying to keep carts in store or off on a store sweep, so missing for a half hour. it's ridiculous at times.
Que-Vision would be great if we were given enough hours to actually run the front! Not to mention the fact half the time we don't have an surge checkers, especially on Friday after 4 pm and all day on Sundays! Between Que-Vision and E-Schedules, we are set up to fail.
