The pressure of sales comes from the top and trickles down through area managers, to stress crazed store managers, to team leaders and then finally all responsiblilty rests on the shoulders of the minimum wage sales team who are required to balance over 30 KPIs that are sometimes simply unachievable.
I was expected to start asking customers who came in for a laptop about their mobile phone contracts, who there broadband is with, what about their gas and electricity before even getting into the laptop discussion and all the add ons like insurance and antivirus. Meanwhile the store is understaffed because the manager is overpaid and takes money away from the rota budget, I was often left to manage and sell in the same department at the age of 17 getting paid £6.20 then still criticised if I missed any of my sales targets. They expect sales to take 20 mins but keep adding on things staff must talk about so in reality it takes 40 mins. But obviously that’s your problem not the companies. I often felt morally conflicted as I was encouraged to lie to customers about add ons to meet targets, I instead stayed true to myself and dealt with the telling off from management in my one to ones. If you have a conscience you may struggle, like me. On Black Friday they expect EVERYONE in the store (except overpaid store manager of course) to do a 12 hour shift, then attempt to manipulate everyone out of taking their 30 min lunch break (yes 30 mins for 12 hour shift) by ordering a couple of pizzas and saying you can just pop out for 2 mins if you manage to get away from the shop floor. You’ll probably then be booked in for a 10 hour shift the next day. I would often miss trains home as 1 minute before my shift ends i would be given a credit agreement to do, which you do have to allow 45 mins for. I would then have to constantly remind them that they owe me overtime, half the time I didn’t have the energy so essentially worked unpaid. I have always been passionate about customer service and helping people, but unfortunately Dixon’s are more about selling everything possible the second you walk into the door.
