This is not just Neiman Marcus Sales. Customer Care Associates are also responsible for sales and problem resolution for many other companies. ie. Horchow, CUSP, and many designer web sites, plus email responses to inquiries, internet chat, and plain old paper orders by fax.
Scheduling system need Personal attention.. way to much use of computer scheduling. Computer programs for time sheets does not always work, and to many "adjustments" needed because system is not working Properly. Time sheet are tied to the phone, this is good, however sometime one just needs to "go dow the hall" for a couple of minutes.. I have NO problem not being paid for my extra bathroom breaks but employees are penalized on their performance because they might log in 2 minutes late from a 15 minute break or need to get away for a moment or two... (just don't pay us for that time, after all it is a time clock)... (There is no human interraction here... just computer keeping track).
Upselling requirements are understandable but selling requirement are currently just un-reasonable.. Sales associates are penalized for taking some time to "chat" a little... I do understand waisting time... but some customers like to have sales associates opinions and help finding items... however we are penalized for taking too much on the sales call... They seem to forget that the customer called us...I believe that all sales associates understand the need to up-sell, make more money for both company and our pay check, however, a good associate can tell when a customer just wants to get off the phone.
We have other associates that can and do "assist" us with problems that are highly complicated and need further eyes to have a look at.. This is a good thing, however, we are penalized for calling and asking for help too many times, and then when we make a mistake that could have been avoided by a simple phone call for help we get a "ding" on our monthly report.
