How can I increase my ring tender at the express lane?

[snugglegirl05]

I am usually assigned to the express lane when I get to work.

Today I was told that I need to increase my ring tender.

What are some ways to do this at the express lane?

[notalwaysright]

I'm not familiar with the term "ring tender." Is it how fast you go? I did a quick google search, and only found questions just like yours, specifically for Kroger. Some talk about percentage, like 95%

ETA: Oops, it's explained right here, I'm a dork. I'm not sure how to help, usually the cashiers are so quick that I can barely put my stuff down before they have it scanned.

[EricKei]

From looking at that -- I suppose a bullwhip would work.

A number of those things are 100% dependent on how fast the customer is at doing stuff, or how fast a manager actually responds to a request for help. I especially love how they think someone using WIC or writing a check will take about the same amount of time as swiping an EBT card o_O 50-60 seconds seems an absurdly-long time to process EBT, while it's kinda short for a check or unprepared WIC shopper. They also assume that you seem to have nearly-psychic level ability when it comes to looking up produce for which you don't already have the code memorized (3.4 seconds if I read that correctly).

From what I can tell, they're going with the "Mickey D's drive-thru" assessment method -- At McD, (afaik) they assume all DT transactions will take no more than 90 seconds, from the time they pull up to the time they get their food. That works great if they're the only one in line, they know exactly what they want (and only order something simple like a combo), have their money/card ready, etc. In both cases, they are assuming that your *average* speed will be within those limits because some (read: most) customers will be competent and have their shit in order, which will make up for the people coming through Express with a full cart, asking you to price check each and every item, then hemming and hawing, rejecting half of them, and then yelling at you because they misread a price and can't take an expired coupon.

Your best bet is simply to figure out small efficiencies, shaving time off of something like average scan time in order to make up for time-wasters. Learn where the barcodes tend to be located on specific item types (often at the back, near the bottom), which ones tend to require more than one attempt (like fresh meat or small, curved jars), so you can carefully aim it at the sensor the first time. This tends to take up much of the time you CAN control, so just work at it. The fact that they put you on Express to begin with (seems odd that they think it takes longer to scan an item there...???) seems to suggest that they believe you have the skill and speed to do it properly, at least! ^_^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Blast everything through the scanner as fast as possible, slam everything haphazardly in bags. If anything breaks, oh well. Be careless when handling the money.

Ring tender (or transaction speed for those of us who speak English and not bullshit) is a pretty meaningless metric. I would much rather have my cashier be friendly and competent than just be fast. I never worked the registers at the swamp, but if the front-end supervisors ever told managers or corporate people that "transaction speed" was one of the best things about the swamp's front end, they would assume that the front-end supervisor was either clueless as to what was really important, or was covering for something else more important that was going poorly.

[snugglegirl05]

Blast everything through the scanner as fast as possible, slam everything haphazardly in bags. If anything breaks, oh well. Be careless when handling the money.

Ring tender (or transaction speed for those of us who speak English and not bullshit) is a pretty meaningless metric. I would much rather have my cashier be friendly and competent than just be fast. I never worked the registers at the swamp, but if the front-end supervisors ever told managers or corporate people that "transaction speed" was one of the best things about the swamp's front end, they would assume that the front-end supervisor was either clueless as to what was really important, or was covering for something else more important that was going poorly.

I agree with this.

[EricKei]

Aye. SG, it sounds like your company believes otherwise, though. Of course, they want you to be friendly, courteous, solicitous, etc, all WHILE scanning stuff through in record time. Ya know, "Work smarter, not harder!"

In other words -- Set impossible-to-achieve standards in order to make it easier to can people who begin to cost you money, or whose hairstyle you don't like, or who will be getting replaced by your teenage cousin soon, etc.

[snugglegirl05]

Aye. SG, it sounds like your company believes otherwise, though. If course, they want you to be friendly, courteous, solicitous, etc, all WHILE scanning stuff through in record time. Ya know, "Work smarter, not harder!"

In other words -- Set impossible-to-achieve standards in order to make it easier to can people who begin to cost you money, or whose hairstyle you don't like, or who will be getting replaced by your teenage cousin soon, etc.

Which is why I will be giving the front end manager a letter very soon asking to transfer me to a different department or to attend the next pharmacy tech training class. It does not matter where I work.

I went through that with my last employer. I am not going through this again.

[Dreamstalker]

Metrics are one of the reasons I'm grocery and not front end (I know how to ring on that system, but it's highly unlikely anyone in grocery will ever be tapped to run a register). I can't figure out if my company uses that stuff, but at the old place I was sick of the managers trying to ding me for "taking too long" when the real problem was SCs and/or the register itself.

The best I could do was just be fast (courteous, yes; but speed was my priority). Usually customers in the express lane want to get out of there quickly and aren't looking for an extended chat.

[TheSHAD0W]

I've seen some cashiers do some pretty fancy handwork to speed things up. One memorable cashier had one hand out to grab items, which she would then slide/throw to her other hand, spinning them so the bar code would wind up in the perfect spot to be scanned. It was like watching an olympic gymnast doing her routine.

[bainsidhe]

Do you have a "subtotal" option? Back when I worked retail, hitting "subtotal" would pause the transaction. It would be great if your registers worked the same way.

I'd hit the button anytime I wasn't actively scanning, such as when I was bagging, wrestling with bulky items, removing hangers from clothing, etc. For items of similar size, I also tended to scan multiples and set the scanned items to the side, before pausing the transaction and then bagging the items. I was no speed demon, but I was efficient and tried to bag items sensibly. I was also in the top 10 (out of appx 150 cashiers) for scanning speed, because I paused the transaction. Otherwise any delay, including doing a price check, or waiting for customers to fumble for change, etc would tank my score.

[snugglegirl05]

Last week I was told again by the CSM that my ring tender is slower than others, and she showed me how she scans groceries.

But I have not seen her do that with other front end cashiers.

[snugglegirl05]

I found out last week that the CSM will be moving to a different store in January.

Yesterday when I got to work I was told by the Assistant CSM that VIP's would be visiting the store that day, and to make sure that I scan as quickly as I can.

I was assigned to one of the express lanes yesterday. The assistant CSM walked by my lane yesterday while there were a couple of customers in my line and said "good, moving the customers in and out of the lines quickly."

2 customers who were waiting in line were not happy with that comment. I could tell by their reaction.

I said good morning to the VIP's when they walked into the store.