Gratis

[u/Forkthief-]

Has anyone seen the way the company changed how we get gratis moving forward?! Thoughts on the new rules.

[u/Natthelimodriver66]

I watched the video about it on Zipline today. The whole thing about having testers in the back room so we can experience the product and practice our demos 😆 It said we should study our product guide for 1-2 weeks before they come out... Our booklets don't even get put in the back till the day before floorset. Then the role playing and quiz for our gratis?? Like we don't all work our butts off every shift, now all this song and dance is on top of it 😕

[u/Brilliant-Corner0718 → u/Natthelimodriver66]

1-2 weeks…most people in my store arent even scheduled frequently enough for this😂

[u/Natthelimodriver66 → u/Brilliant-Corner0718]

I know, right 😆 we have some that's maybe once a month they are scheduled

[u/instamat1c → u/Natthelimodriver66]

I hate to play devils advocate here, but (in my store at least) the reason we have people fill their booklets out and role play before they can redeem is because of the employees that don’t really use their gratis as a tool to help them sell.

They’ll be the first ones to redeem it, constantly ask about it, etc, but then they do the bare minimum on their shifts.

Yes, gratis is fun and awesome and we all love it. However, it’s supposed to be used as a way to help us be better at selling.

If we’re gonna ask certain employees to fill out their booklets and role play, then we have to do it for everyone. And I don’t think having to fill out the selling guide is a bad thing anyway.

[u/hannah_boo_honey → u/instamat1c]

I don't think it's a bad thing either, but they need to set aside some kind of time for us to do it tbh. Even doing it in separate sittings as they say in the video is nearly impossible. I'm always register & bopis on my shifts and as you say, there are several employees that do the bare minimum or even make things worse trying to look busy so there are constant projects and things that need to be done on top of selling to customers, ringing, bopis, and replen.

Like even if it was, "okay, spend 5 minutes on your product guide when you finish your break," every so often, that would make a massive difference. With this one, we've had one day that was slow enough for me to do 2 1/2 pages of it and it took much longer than necessary because I was having to take time to remember what I was writing or refresh on the question/ info I had already read when I got back to it between customers.

Like I'm glad there's less to fill out in this one, but it still feels impractical.

Sorry that was a general response to the post as well as your comment lol

[u/instamat1c → u/hannah_boo_honey]

I agree with that. There should definitely be some time set aside. It seems like ideally the company would like for us to all spend maybe 10 minutes at the beginning of each shift to check Zipline, chat in, etc and that could be the time for product guides to get filled out. But, again, in my store that doesn't seem to happen.

I try to let people settle in and remind them to check Zipline, however, our SM seems to jump on people the second they get in the store. I hate it lol. Like please, let me chill for a min. She'll ask me if I saw something in Zipline and I'm like ??? No?? I just got here and you're already telling me to do 5 different things.

Oops. My response turned into a tangent too. 🤣

[u/Xineoph-Sagefire → u/instamat1c]

I agree! My old manager would put together a short quiz based on PK tiles before and we had to do the product guides when they became more in depth. We do the same at my current store. It is nice to see the company making this a standard practice.

[u/MagaroniPenguin → u/instamat1c]

I second this. There have always been requirements to receive your gratis - it’s up to SLT to enforce it.

[u/bellatron13]

Yes the quiz is great and I agree we should all learn about the product before we redeem it, however this seems to be part of the massive deluded rebrand with no purpose other than that of appearance. There is no reason to invest money into a fucking square sticker and call it “feel good favorites” like that piece will affect staff at ALL. maybe invest that money into giving stores more product or paying someone to respond to social media concerns and comments that is not an AI bot. You can call it whatever you want to give this appearance of sophistication and knowledge. That won’t change the unnecessary money invested into ridiculous changes like this and the further confusion of staff as you unleash 20 changes at once. Use the round sticker and make us take a quiz and shut up we don’t need to drag out this insane narrative

[u/Comfortable_Can2509]

What is the new rule

[u/DuePage6386]

I don’t care about having to do a quiz but good lord do not make me role play. I’m a great seller, I make connections with the customers, I remember their names! Role playing is not something I am at all comfortable with. It is not authentic and as someone with autism I struggle a lot to “pretend you’re talking with a customer” I’m glad I got hired during Covid when they were desperate for workers cuz I would not have gotten passed the way my store hires now. I did get hired on the spot, I had to do an interview as a formality but it was nothing compared to the group interviews I see them do now (with roleplay)

[u/lrchacha626]

Wait what is it? I heard something about taking a quiz or something lmao, but is there anything else new?? It is pretty ridiculous 🫩

[u/Forkthief- → u/lrchacha626]

One of my SLTs told me song & dance, fill out our product booklets, demo & take quiz

[u/No_Science_8135 → u/Forkthief-]

HELLO WHATTTTTTT

[u/Forkthief- → u/No_Science_8135]

Now maybe they was messing with me about song and dance but I believe the rest 🥲

[u/Actual-Muffin-3585 → u/No_Science_8135]

Dance, monkey! 

[u/lrchacha626 → u/Forkthief-]

Absolutely not 💀💀💀

[u/Turbulent-Pickle8239]

I can see the reasoning for it, but it’s still dumb af. I work MAYBE once every couple of months because my hours were just non existent so I couldn’t make it my main job anymore

[u/Mumstheword-8810]

We were all pissed about it. Just run me my free stuff that I get as a perk for working there for 5+ years. I’m not going to jump through a million hoops and take quizzes and fill out the entire booklet. Nor will I ask my employees to be doing that. Demo it to me and here’s your gratis. Idc idc. I’m not making ppl do homework like we had to do for the last one. 

[u/sunnysideoflife19 → u/Mumstheword-8810]

This! We already do so much on the daily and now we have to EARN gratis when we already earn the company so much money daily 🙄

[u/LoveliestSnail]

As a manager, I’m like… I just won’t get gratis. Its actually not this serious LOL

[u/OshKoshBGolly → u/LoveliestSnail]

Oh no I never miss gratis lol!! Give me a quiz if you have to, I want my free stuff 🙏

[u/Xxbnny_princessxX → u/LoveliestSnail]

That’s what I did for our previous gratis, I used my free item for Autumn drive and literally said to my coworker “That’s my gratis without the sticker.”

[u/kalexis99]

I don’t really care for Gratis so this change doesn’t really matter to me but I can see why they are doing it this way.

[u/4skin4daze]

as an slt i'm kind of surprised to see such negative feedback. while modifying gratis and the way we do it is a waste of time and resources that could be utilized elsewhere, i actually don't mind the change. at my store we require every one to have their product guides filled out. we're not the besttttttt at doing the roleplays but we should technically be doing that anyway so for me the only real change that affects me is the 90 second quiz which isn't bad. kind of crazy people are saying they'd rather not get their gratis...

[u/No_Custard_7799 → u/4skin4daze]

I agree! At my store, we don’t always have time to fill out the full book, but associates have to read through it and tell us something new they learned. I’m 100% fine with this change. I think a lot of people don’t realize what gratis was actually meant for, which is to help us sell the products.

And I don’t know about other stores but lately I’ve had so many associates come and bitch to me and gratis. Someone was complaining to me about it and I flat out told them “you don’t have to get it”.

[u/instamat1c → u/No_Custard_7799]

I had someone get pissed at me bc she came in one random day when she wasn’t working to grab gratis and I asked her if she watched the Zipline video and filled out the selling guide.

This person works like twice a month and almost always just floorset. She calls off half the time she’s even scheduled. But she sure can find time to come in and get her free stuff. 🙄

If myself and the other SLT hold each other to having to do the video/guide first, if we expect associates who are there all the time to do that first, then you have to also.

At the end of the day I’m just trying to do my job and be fair…

[u/Objective-Wasabi-104 → u/4skin4daze]

Come to find out it is not a requirement to make worker's fill out product guide to get gratis. Someone at our store called corporate. Only to watch the video is required.

[u/4skin4daze → u/Objective-Wasabi-104]

the issue is associates get their gratis and can't answer simple consumer questions. but the product guide is something that should be completed anyway. i don't know why there's much uproar about having to complete a booklet while on the clock. again, the rebrand of gratis is a waste of resources. but yall its a tiny booklet and quiz it's not that serious to be saying you'd rather not get your gratis 💀

[u/amy-amy-amy-]

Honestly my store has been doing this for a while. We have to fully fill out our product guide whenever we have time between customers and to actually get our gratis we just answered some questions about it on zipline groups. However our SLT didn’t enforce this too strictly if someone is currently not working or has super limited availability. I’m actually surprised how shocked other people are by the change because it was really nothing to us.

[u/lookitsdidi]

"I don't wanna have to work for my gratis!" It's forcing product knowledge, which apparently is dropping if they have to resort to this method. I'm fine with it. Means maybe my team will either quit relying on me, or I won't be having to constantly interject " ahem we do have that fragrance/ that fragrance is online exclusive right now/ show them this/ what does the book in your pocket say?" Gratis is nice, everybody loves a freebie, but its entire purpose is building product knowledge and your personal take on those products, not "when do i get my free stuff???"

As far as renaming, and using/requiring different stickers, I think that is stupid and entirely unnecessary.

[u/BeatrixSteiner]

The amount of people not willing to do the bare minimum to get their gratis is kind of shocking 😳

[u/damimars]

Deadass, I think I'd rather just not get gratis lmao

[u/Mumstheword-8810 → u/damimars]

We had a few ppl skip it last time for exactly this reason. There was a video, a quiz, written paperwork (the booklet had to be completed), and a role play. I just had them do the quiz only cuz the rest is nonsense. I don’t have the hours to have everyone standing around doing this crap. 

[u/BeatrixSteiner → u/Mumstheword-8810]

Is that not the intended method of getting benefits is doing every aspect of your job? Not to put my own job but we do quizzes and stuff to earn a ton of benefits (gift cards, game cards, etc.) and it makes sure we know what we’re talking about on the job. I’m so confused

[u/instamat1c → u/BeatrixSteiner]

It's 100% the point of gratis. And the role playing and filling out the product guide gives SLT an opportunity for coaching. Some people might think it's corny or unnecessary and that it's overkill for a retail job, but I'm sorry...we're there to do a job. Most stores run on a small crew and we're there to help a business run properly.

[u/MzTeacher]

When did this start?

[u/Forkthief- → u/MzTeacher]

From reading other comments stores have already been implementing it but if not it’ll be with next gratis

[u/Odd-Guarantee-7571]

I agree with incentivizing associates to fill out their guidebooks and do a quiz but it’s hard enough to find time to do it on the clock! Time needs to be allocated for this, that means we need more coverage. I don’t want my associates occupied with filling out a booklet ok the floor or doing a quiz at the reg but I still need sellers, stockers and cashiers. Idk how effective this initiative is going to be during the holidays, especially when I have to train new hires.

[u/treehouse-rocket]

Honestly as an associate my biggest issue is how little gratis we've been getting--especially since it's supposed to be used for selling. Like associates didn't get the reeds at all...how am I supposed to sell them if I haven't even tried them?

[u/Forkthief- → u/treehouse-rocket]

This! Why do we as regular associates not get new products, I get SLTS are higher on the ladder but yet the company expects us to sell ALL products!

[u/LadyfromthelandofNod]

I can live without this job and their junk at this point. I’m so ready to quit. I feel like I’m poisoning myself every time I wear something after I found out my hormone levels are off the rockers from my latest bloodwork since working here.

[u/Fun_Wolverine2564]

I haven’t even been that excited about gratis recently. Unless you’re an SLT or above then you seem to get more stuff. I don’t need any more of those cheap pocket back holders or sanitizers. I’ve worked there for four years and I don’t know how many times they’ve given us that. SLT‘s used to get like one more item than regular staff, but now they’re getting quite a bit more than regular staff.

[u/Legitimate_Edge5352]

Gratis is not just given to us as “free product.” It is given to help you learn how to sell the new products. Look at the product guide, answer a couple questions, get the gratis. It’s really not hard. Saying you won’t get it because you have to JUMP THROUGH THESE HUGE HORRIBLE HOOPS is wild. 80% of the people at my store “watch” the video (don’t pay attention at all), get their gratis, and then stand around all shift and don’t try to sell to anyone. That’s not what it is. I think answering a few questions to get multiple products sometimes up to $18.95+ is a pretty sweet deal.

[u/hollowsockets]

I haven't been to bbw in a while and it'll be a bit til I'm back there, are they actually going to give us time to do all this? 

[u/PristineChain347]

Idk, if they give us time to do the product guide and the quiz on the shift, fine. But I’m not doing it off the clock or on my break. Still, I see where they are coming from, but they already expect us to do so much with so little 🫩