How to Balance Standards - Work and Personal
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@scottalanmiller said:
@handsofqwerty said:
My comment was that customers don't know what they really want or need. They have needs. They have wants. My job is to find the best solution to address those. But I will almost certainly never do what the customer wants when they come in, unless they are really adamant about it. The reason is that customers just don't know. That's why they came to see me in the first place.
Obviously, but they are also violating the social contract of sales - asking for technical advice from a sales person. They know that they are doing this when they go in. It's just part of the social structure. When you go to a store and "ask for advice", you know that you are not getting good advice except for within a very carefully defined, socially accepted window and that even that is coloured by margins, stock levels, etc. There is no social obligation for you to do anything beyond push the products the store tells you to push, none. Not even the slightest. The store may decide that they want you to do more, but that is purely and unequivocally between you and them.
You are correct, if they knew what they wanted or needed they would not be in the shop at all. That's a tough position, but you are a sales person and you have an obligation to your employer to attempt to sell what they want you to sell. It's that simple. The "customers" of the store accept this obligation when they solicit free advice from you - they know that that advice is paid for by the sale and that your obligation is to making money for the store. Now, why anyone would still ask for that advice is beyond me, but everyone is aware of the relationship and what it means for you, for them and for the kind of advice that can be given.
I'm not told to push any specific computer or brand or anything. That's left up to me. As long as they buy it from my company, the company doesn't really care what I sell them.
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@handsofqwerty said:
But the difference between shoddy ....
If shoddy is the guideline and all you are asked to do is confirm that shoddy was done, that's all your signature implies.
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@handsofqwerty said:
I'm not told to push any specific computer or brand or anything. That's left up to me. As long as they buy it from my company, the company doesn't really care what I sell them.
As long as that is policy, that's great. Seems odd that that is policy and someone is complaining about it.
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@handsofqwerty said:
So should I just shut up and sacrifice what consider to be the "bar" of where the quality should be at simply because I'm told to or, as long as I'm still doing my job, should I stick up for doing things the way they should be done?
Yes, the bar is set by the store, not by you. Unless the store has asked you to raise the bar or you ask the store and they agree that you can raise the bar, you are not to raise the bar. In fact, when you think about who your customer is, you may not be raising the bar. What is valuable to the company is up to them to decide. Providing better service to the customers is easily not in their interest.
This can be complex. It can be as simple as doing too good of a job that they cannot repeat makes other stores look bad or makes it difficult to hire the staff that they need. Doing a great job with one tech doesn't always work out well. The store has to look at a much bigger picture than you do and what seems like a great job to you might be detrimental to the company as a whole, even if it helps your store do better temporarily.
There is a grey area here. You say "as long as you are still doing your job" and "not doing what you are told to do." The two don't really overlap. If you are being told to do something by someone with authority, that is your job. If not, you've not been told what to do.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@handsofqwerty said:
But the difference between shoddy ....
If shoddy is the guideline and all you are asked to do is confirm that shoddy was done, that's all your signature implies.
People come to our store because they know that we've always done above the minimum required. This has been critical to building our long-term business.
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@handsofqwerty said:
People come to our store because they know that we've always done above the minimum required. This has been critical to building our long-term business.
This may or may not be true. However, let's assume that it is is completely true.
Even assuming it is completely true, it is also completely irrelevant. This does not have any bearing, whatsoever, on any component of this discussion. It is a red herring.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@handsofqwerty said:
People come to our store because they know that we've always done above the minimum required. This has been critical to building our long-term business.
This may or may not be true. However, let's assume that it is is completely true.
Even assuming it is completely true, it is also completely irrelevant. This does not have any bearing, whatsoever, on any component of this discussion. It is a red herring.
How is it a red herring? We've built the store's business on a certain concept. It's what has led the store to continue to do better and better, which is better for the store, and the company. And stores compete, so if we do better and it makes it so someone will come to my store instead of one of the other local stores, that's viewed as a success by the company.
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@handsofqwerty said:
And stores compete, so if we do better and it makes it so someone will come to my store instead of one of the other local stores, that's viewed as a success by the company.
I think the key questions to ask with this are
A) If this is how the store operates, why does the tech supervisor disagree with you? Why is he alien to the culture?
B.) Does the Manager encourage this behaviour? Has he written this down in the guidelines?
C) Is Management at the regional level behind this? -
@handsofqwerty said:
How is it a red herring?
Because it is all assumption. And it is obviously a huge assumption because this entire conversation is about how the store officially does not support that. So clearly this is an assumption of value coming from you, not the company, or else there would be no question here.
You have decided that getting return customers, based on this behaviour, to this one store is what the company as a whole sees as valuable. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But their behaviour says that they do not and you seem addicted to feeling that it does. Unless it is in writing, you must assume that your assumption is wrong. There is no action from the business that supports your hypothesis.
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@handsofqwerty said:
And stores compete, so if we do better and it makes it so someone will come to my store instead of one of the other local stores, that's viewed as a success by the company.
If that is true, why is someone trying to keep that from happening and why hasn't the store manager or regional manager or higher stepped in? Unless they have, you have something wrong in your assumptions.
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@Breffni-Potter said:
@handsofqwerty said:
And stores compete, so if we do better and it makes it so someone will come to my store instead of one of the other local stores, that's viewed as a success by the company.
I think the key questions to ask with this are
A) If this is how the store operates, why does the tech supervisor disagree with you? Why is he alien to the culture?
B.) Does the Manager encourage this behaviour? Has he written this down in the guidelines?
C) Is Management at the regional level behind this?A) It used to. He is alien to the culture because he's only been in the store 3 months. But this was all started long before I started back in 2010.
B) The old manager, who was the foundation of the store, did. The current actual manager in the position hasn't really voiced an opinion yet.
C) They are behind our results, but are totally ignorant to our methods, as they are at the district level (our DM is a totally incompetent idiot too). -
@scottalanmiller said:
@handsofqwerty said:
And stores compete, so if we do better and it makes it so someone will come to my store instead of one of the other local stores, that's viewed as a success by the company.
If that is true, why is someone trying to keep that from happening and why hasn't the store manager or regional manager or higher stepped in? Unless they have, you have something wrong in your assumptions.
Because the company doesn't work that way. But we get reports every week about how we did compared to other stores in tons of metrics and we compete with other stores in our district especially to do better than they are. And the success of our store, in most metrics, is directly linked to me.
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@handsofqwerty said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@handsofqwerty said:
And stores compete, so if we do better and it makes it so someone will come to my store instead of one of the other local stores, that's viewed as a success by the company.
If that is true, why is someone trying to keep that from happening and why hasn't the store manager or regional manager or higher stepped in? Unless they have, you have something wrong in your assumptions.
Because the company doesn't work that way. But we get reports every week about how we did compared to other stores in tons of metrics and we compete with other stores in our district especially to do better than they are. And the success of our store, in most metrics, is directly linked to me.
This doesn't make sense. If it doesn't work that way, then you have your answer. The metrics saying that "you do well are meaningless and are a red herring. Ignore them. They have nothing to do with your decisions.
If the company cared about those metrics and interpreted them the same as you do, they would make it clear. They have made it very clear that they do not.
Your statement here should provide the answer that you are looking for. Corporate does not agree with your opinion as to what is valuable, period. So what you are calling "above and beyond" the store sees as less than ideal - meaning you are falling below the bar, not rising above it.
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@handsofqwerty said:
A) It used to. He is alien to the culture because he's only been in the store 3 months. But this was all started long before I started back in 2010.
So it's really what the company is. I think you know that the policy and guidelines are clear and are just hoping for justification to do something else. I don't see any reason to even think doing anything but what you are asked to do is warranted. I know you want to do a "better job" for your customer's customers. But that's not your mandate and they seem to be making it painfully clear that it is not appreciated.
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@handsofqwerty said:
B) The old manager, who was the foundation of the store, did. The current actual manager in the position hasn't really voiced an opinion yet.
Presumably because he does not need to if his policies and desires are being passed on appropriately. Silence IS a message.
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@handsofqwerty said:
C) They are behind our results, but are totally ignorant to our methods, as they are at the district level (our DM is a totally incompetent idiot too).
This implies that they don't care all the way up. So if it is not important to them, why is it important to you?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@handsofqwerty said:
C) They are behind our results, but are totally ignorant to our methods, as they are at the district level (our DM is a totally incompetent idiot too).
This implies that they don't care all the way up. So if it is not important to them, why is it important to you?
Because I care. Because I refuse to come down to their standards for my own ethical reasons. And because the customers don't normally get that from a retail store and I feel they should. Yes, it's my standard, not the company's.
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@handsofqwerty said:
Because I refuse to come down to their standards for my own ethical reasons.
This is a problem. You apply ethics inappropriately. You have a job to do and want to do a different one. You feel that you get to determine what your job is rather than your employer. This has been a problem you've had for years. Every job you have you have the identical issue. You get clear instructions, make up in your mind a reason why you feel doing something different than you are told is not just acceptable but better and then do explicitly something you are not supposed to do.
ANY attempt to justify what you are doing is the same pattern over and over and over. You are not learning from these things, you are just making excuses. What you are doing and saying is completely predictable. You don't properly understand who you are responsible to, you don't understand what "doing a good job is" in the correct context, you have your own priorities and you attempt to justify them instead of being open about the fact that you simply don't like the job, want to do something else and try to make it seem, in your mind but to no one else, that you can redefine the job in a way that is "better" from your perspective.
You are not doing right by the person you are responsible to, plain and simple.
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@handsofqwerty said:
Because I care.
Then you need to fix this attitude problem because that's what it is. You have decided, for whatever reason, to care about something that isn't your position to care about. Is that okay? Yes. Is it okay to let that affect things you are supposed to care about? No.
It's really that simple. You don't get to pick what you care about at work. You have a job to do.
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@handsofqwerty said:
And because the customers don't normally get that from a retail store and I feel they should.
Tough. Not your place, in any way, to make that decision.
It would be a wonderful world where that was the case, but you aren't going to make that world happen and you don't have the ethical right to demand that it be done without the store's blessing. You are actually going against good ethics rather than with them. You have ethical obligations to the store, not the customer, and you are trying to short circuit that in a way that makes no sense and doesn't hold up in any sensible, ethical way.
