Phone Shop Worker - Behind the Scenes

Begruntledcotes

Deleted due to hostile reaction.

tempus_fugit

We don't hate you for it but I'm certainly still not going to buy it and as long as you respect that decision then we'll be fine. Mind you, I rarely buy phones from shops anyway.

[Deleted User]

Begruntledcotes wrote: »

If our insurance sales aren't up to target for long enough, we will lose our jobs.

So, when I seem a little upset after you've said a definitive no to me after pitching insurance, it's simply because you've been the one sale that could give me a threatening phone call from my manager and worsening of my working conditions. Believe me when I say it sucks even more having to set up your phone as part of our customer service, because essentially you're going the extra mile to serve someone who basically wants you sacked.

So it 'sucks' to have to set the phone up (which is actually part of your job) while you think the customer is trying to deliberately get you sacked?

And you think this is going to get you sympathy?

If I was a customer and the assistant seemed a little upset just because I said 'no' to an insurance up-sell I'd tell them that I'd changed my mind and go elsewhere.

Neil_Jones

Deleting the original post doesn't save you from "hostile" reactions, it is in fact incredibly irritating and discourteous to other forum users now and in the future, and for that purpose you get no sympathy.

Having read what was quoted of your post, all I have to say I think you might be in the wrong job. If you get upset because you can't sell phone insurance to somebody to save your backside, that's one thing. If you hate your job, go and find another one.

Customer Service can suck sometimes, granted, especially if you're the face of the service, but thinking of customers as them wanting to get you sacked, well that can only be the case if you give them something to want to get you sacked about, surely?

MothballsWallet

If I get offered insurance I don't need, I always say "no thanks, it'll be covered on my house policy" because I include our policy gives an amount of cover that matches the offered policy anyway.

JJ_Egan

OP is a poor salesman its that simple .

d123

If anyone would like to read the original post.

Begruntledcotes wrote: »

Hello all you Money Saving Experts.

I'm a soon-to-be ex employee of a very popular mobile phone shop I won't name for obvious reasons. I thought that some of my knowledge, however, may be a useful insight for those of you tired of the way some phone shops act or sell to you.

So, feel free to also ask some questions about what it's like to work at a phone shop and I'll answer as best I can.

The main thing I wanted to provide insight about is that dreaded bugbear of many a phone shop attendee - Mobile Phone Insurance! From my own observations on customer behaviour I know many of you will have thrown garlic at the screen and hissed at the mere mention of the dreaded 'I' word!

I think one of the biggest misconceptions I get working in my phone shop is that it's some kind of evil scam on the part of the phone shop worker to get more commission at your expense. I can wholeheartedly assure you it isn't the case.

Most of the time, us phone shop workers actually don't want to have to sell you insurance. We're actually not on commission, and earn barely above minimum wage anyway. The truth is that we know how much customers hate insurance sales, and we are in fact self aware, so the derision and sneers we get when we mention the dreaded cover, we hate it just as much as you guys.

The fact is, most of us beg, and I mean beg our higher ups to review their policy on insurance sales. To the detriment of our own mental health, and our working conditions, they instead push and push our targets ever higher.

While we aren't on commission, we are targeted on sales. We get heavy training on how to change your mind through psychological manipulation, titled 'objection handling' and we pretty much get told to force insurance as much as possible. Insurance is very much more important to our numbers than phone sales.

The thing is, if we don't sell enough insurance things get REALLY bad for us. When we're under the target we will receive phone calls from higher ups that threaten our jobs in thinly-veiled language. This is even despite past performance being good. On more than one occasion I've been called 'worthless' and told 'you shouldn't be working here' because my insurance was under target, despite having had a 5 week run prior where I was over target. We bring this up to the union and our own channels where the response is basically to 'suck it up'.

If our insurance sales aren't up to target for long enough, we will lose our jobs.

So, when I seem a little upset after you've said a definitive no to me after pitching insurance, it's simply because you've been the one sale that could give me a threatening phone call from my manager and worsening of my working conditions. Believe me when I say it sucks even more having to set up your phone as part of our customer service, because essentially you're going the extra mile to serve someone who basically wants you sacked.

The scarier thing is, our targets are so that nearly half of our contracts must be sold with insurance to hit target.

Believe me, we don't actually believe in the cover being that good either. But we are in this situation and it's what it is.

So, this is a bit of a heads up as to why insurance is pitched to you, and just saying, maybe don't hate on us little workers so much, we know it sucks, and we don't want to sell it to you either. We're just trying not to get bullied at our day jobs.

So there you have it, a bit of an exposure as to the insurance attitude behind a major phone shop, so you can know the practice that goes on and maybe you feel a little bit of empathy for us little people. You may say 'just get a new job'. Don't worry, I am doing, but many of us are made to work such bad shift patterns most of the time we're too exhausted to job search in our spare time. Plus opportunities aren't exactly plentiful these days!

Feel free to ask me random questions about stuff that confuses you, that you may want insight before going to a physical phone shop. Always happy to answer questions and solve problems.

JJ_Egan

So post was a lie .
<

Always happy to answer questions and solve problems.>

Neil_Jones

So I was right from the limited extract that was quoted by Colin_Maybe now I've read the full post. The OP is in the wrong job and considers it appropriate to post on a public forum moaning about it.

I wonder if the next post will be "I lost my job because I complained on a forum, what can I do to appeal this?".

mobilejunkie

I'm not sure they deserve so much flack. I also wonder how many of the subsequent posters have been in a high-pressure sales job. Having worked in a different industry I am very aware of the pressures and nonsense piled upon people who are expected to go and sell products and not take no for an answer. In my case, no sale - no income but (generally) paying my own costs. The customers don't know that so have an incorrect perception of the motivation involved - which is best described very much as the carrot and the stick. I was fortunate since I was/am reasonably successful - but have walked out of companies which were or became too awful and refused to work for those with poor products. I would not adopt the practices of some of the other sales people - but did employ a few of my own.

I also noted a while back that CPW (an awful company - possibly the one here, but who knows?) started advertising that they don't pay commission. What they didn't say is how they push what they want to sell or add on or what pressure and (almost) intimidation is applied to achieve it.

I never thought I'd end up in the industry/position I've been in for over a decade, but it has suited and worked well for me much of the time. I have, however, walked out of one company three times (they got worse each time I was coaxed back) and my first experience saw me promoted within 6 months before walking out two months later. In all instances I did not have anything else lined up - but most people aren't able to do that unless they do.

Whilst I agree that the OP may not be a great sales person and may well have a poor attitude to customers (whilst I always tried to do my best for my customers that was within parameters that enable me to actually make a living out of it), I don't think people who have not lived through such an environment have any real idea what it's like and the ways in whcih companies manipulate them to do things they don't believe in at the expense of their customers.

Not the least critical of people who post on here, I am nontheless surprised that the OP has received such a universal slating from (possibly) people who have never been on the other side of the fence (fortunately for them, in most cases!).

[Deleted User]

mobilejunkie wrote: »

I'm not sure they deserve so much flack...

I wouldn't have said that they did get much flack, I was probably the most critical of the just two posts before he decided to delete the post in a hissy fit and I do work in a customer facing environment so have total understanding. I'd love to know how they cope with angry customers face to face if that's the level of their tolerance.