@dprice wrote:
Hello all!
Just FYI - given the new increase in locations, and with how many stores are now 2 visits per store every month, the goal will be...if you are assigned locations to complete, and you do a good job and want to keep them...we will come back to you first and offer them for the upcoming month.
It makes the visits/consistency better for you to plan, better for our project management team, and provides a better quality product for the stores & our customer. We LOVE ongoing programs like this. There of course will always be some exceptions or someone has to drop stores, wants to add stores, etc. but providing the same field rep to the same stores for programs like this always generally makes it better for everyone.
As mentioned on the thread...if you visit a store that hasn't been visited by a prior service rep (with the client, not with our company as we're just now being awarded these)...that first visit could take longer than usual because some clean-up has to be done but after that it becomes very consistent.
With the large volume of locations we are now assigned to cover, there are currently 3 Project Managers who have split the territories to cover this. However, ANY of them should be able to help you or get you to the PM assigned in your area if for any reason they can't help you directly.
VERY excited about this great new program and it should only get bigger in the next few months and coming to an area near you!
Daniel Price
Chief Operating Officer
Customer Impact, LLC
dprice@customerimpactinfo.com
@MA Smith wrote:
After reading your post I went to the TY website
Princess is the pink husky ball 4 “
Princess is also the Disney princesses look like Barbie bodies and run 15”-18”
Boo’s 6”
Babies and bellies are 8”, website uses small as a descriptor
Squishes( pillows) are 10” & 14”
Medium is between 10” and 13”
Puffies are 4”, I think these are what the app calls balls
Large is 14”
@MA Smith wrote:
When you see the 2.5 foot, you’ll know. Lol
Glad I could help.
@Boutique wrote:
Yes, should be interesting. All the ones that got up to $15 are now back to $10 .
@Cassiespark wrote:
Here's a few things I've learned after doing 30 of these:
1. $10 Doesn't cover your time. $15 minimum for me moving forward. Its important to remember that CI pays once a month, the last week of the month, so could be waiting 6+ weeks to get paid. I can make $15 and get paid the next week on a ton of other shops. I think this payment schedule is going to make it hard for them to staff all of these once people figure out that doing locations the first week of September means you get paid the last week of October. Math doesn't math very well.
2. The displays are largely disgusting. Dirt, dead bugs, dust. Ugh. This needs to be addressed. If they want us to start cleaning them, my fee just went up to $25 minimum. I've started wearing gloves.
3. Pillows on the bottom tiers tend to be super dirty and should be discarded imo. Not addressed in the guidelines, so I've been leaving them.
4. CI needs to better address the past seasonal items. Asking a gas station to make a secondary display to put 2 Christmas Items on it with a sign saying its Clearance is not a workable plan. They don't want to do this. They don't know how much to charge for this "Clearance" item as they ring up at regular price. They don't have Clearance sections as they are gas stations. This seems to be an issue between Ty and their retailers, and should be addressed that way. Or CI should work it out with TY, but for a $10 project they are over-reaching asking us to sort it out.
5. Gas Stations and Drug Stores are pretty easy and quick.
6. I sort all the items by type and then count them as I straighten them...saves a ton of time.
7. For grocery stores, looking for backstock is a huge time suck. I'm going to avoid large grocery stores moving forward. 20 minutes is easily chewed up looking for a manager and then having them look for backstock. The way to address this properly is for Ty to communicate to CI where the backstock has been shipped, and this info should be in each location project. They know where they sent inventory, no need to ask us to run around looking for it.
@shopnyc wrote:
Years ago, all merchandising jobs used to be done by hiring W2 employees who then serviced their assigned routes on a regular basis. That was always the major difference between mystery shopping and merchandising. Then merchandising companies started copying MSCs by paying people as independent contractors. Hiring employees is much more expensive than paying ICs. However, many types of merchandising assignments do not translate well to the IC model. Quite a few should still be handled the "old-fashioned way." In my opinion, the subject of this thread is one of those kinds of shops that needs regular merchandisers to be in charge of their routes. The idea that any merchandising project can be easily or practicably managed by ICs as if it were a mystery shop is bogus.
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@Nikki21 wrote:
How are these going for folks? Sounds like prices vary quite a bit, as do the store conditions and stock. Are you willing to continue your routes now that they are in order and should be easier?
@Datagirl wrote:
It is hard to determine from one or two visits but I have encountered all types of scenarios. Some stores have no inventory at all while others are swimming in it. I had a store on my second visit who was almost less than 50% full so I left her their number to place an order. Are we supposed to encourage that? I mean, I can be a sales rep but not for the pay I am getting. Managers are also hard to find in the larger stores, takes time to track people down and get access to store rooms. It is not as easy as they make it out to be and I am sure they are going to get pickier after this round.
My concern is the holidays are coming, holiday inventory, holiday displays.. in addition to what we are already doing. The pay is not great. Even on a second visit, some of these displays were trashed. I was just there and I had to re-do the entire thing again. It looked like they moved it and everything fell off so they just threw it back on.
I like the steady work, I will probably keep some of the stores but others I will ask for more pay due to multiple displays. My area still has many locations available and the fees have gone up. I am taking a few here and there at the higher fees.
I am also taking detailed notes for each store for my own sanity. Who the manager was, who had stock, how long it took me, how many displays, etc.
What are they doing differently now? Since I generally ignore their emails for these and have not done this assignment, I wasn't aware that they decided to do anything differently. There are only two stores that come up near me, but they are very close by, so if they've improved this one somehow and are paying more, I might consider it.@Nikki21 wrote:
Are you willing to continue your routes now that they are in order and should be easier?