A week and a half into Total Access

[Thrash767]

I like the program, and I'm not burnt out on selling it, but I am getting a little irritated with attitudes of the higher ups about it. Yesterday on the day shift they didn't get any onlines, so my DM called about a half hour after my closing shift started and reamed me out about it and went on about how this is unacceptable and blah blah. And yeah, getting zero is bad, but it's a Monday, and not to mention we lead our district in activations over the first couple of weeks. Needless to say I was pretty surprised for getting reprimanded over that, especially since my store barely has any activity during day shifts anyways, so little that it's rare for there to even be a CSR on during that time.

Then today my SM tells me that if we don't have so many activations by whatever point in the week then we all have to partake in a conference call. Fantastic but that's a waste of my time and theirs because we will make our numbers up anyways. Hell, I already managed to triple our total onlines for the week during my opening shift today.

[brantheman]

The movie pass customers can be hard to get to make the switch, but after they've made it clear that they're not interested - I just let it go. They don't want the online. Cheaper yes, but still, they don't want it. And canceling it nationwide would be silly because, believe it or not, there are still a lot of folks out there who haven't adapted to the new millennium and don't own a computer, let alone have access to the internet.

Besides, I like the MP customers. They're the best people to deal with, and you rarely if ever have to do credits for them! "Oh, you changed your mind on this one? Okay!".

The program is massively successful at my store and in my district. It's getting tedious pushing it so often, but hey, it's money in our pockets. I sure as hell didn't mind getting that extra $190 on my last paycheck, just because I threw it in a brief sales pitch to some people. It's well worth it. It may piss people off, but most of them learn to tune you out anyway. Thats the way it is at any retail store.

[coldie]

My manager told me that magically now the 'sales manager' is the guy who'll be in charge of making sure sales are where they need to be- that includes online activations.

Of course, I reminded him that this is exactly what I told him the name change from ASM to Sales Manager meant five months ago: the fall guy for when sales are slack.

He denied it like crazy when I told him that, and now it's a classic case of "told ya so."

Grandmomma's daughta ain't raise no sucka.

So, tonight I get to be in a conference (pressure) call with the other ASMs, since my SM decided to not set goals and hoped that activations would magically fly in.

[GoEagles]

Let us know how that meeting goes....I think I am being called into one in a couple of days.

Go Eagles.

[zooworker]

Originally Posted by coldie

My manager told me that magically now the 'sales manager' is the guy who'll be in charge of making sure sales are where they need to be- that includes online activations.

Of course, I reminded him that this is exactly what I told him the name change from ASM to Sales Manager meant five months ago: the fall guy for when sales are slack.

He denied it like crazy when I told him that, and now it's a classic case of "told ya so."

Grandmomma's daughta ain't raise no sucka.

So, tonight I get to be in a conference (pressure) call with the other ASMs, since my SM decided to not set goals and hoped that activations would magically fly in.

Hell, we have conf calls for sams every week and 4 time a week for the closing managers. They always do this at peak hours, and it burns me. I need to be on the floor during that 1/2 hour.

[AbandonedDreams]

Originally Posted by zooworker

Hell, we have conf calls for sams every week and 4 time a week for the closing managers. They always do this at peak hours, and it burns me. I need to be on the floor during that 1/2 hour.

We have a 15 min conference call every night for the closng MOD during peak hours...and now that each distrcit in my region has its own little number, they don't care how much longer it goes for.

[zooworker]

Sent one of my managers to a high volume store the other day, he got 7 activations, and he used our store code.YES!! That works for me.

[Morbid Angel]

Originally Posted by brantheman

The movie pass customers can be hard to get to make the switch, but after they've made it clear that they're not interested - I just let it go. They don't want the online. Cheaper yes, but still, they don't want it.

Believe me, I can tell you as an employee who was pushing the Pass as a test market back when it was known as the "DVD Freedom Pass", they didn't want the Movie Pass either. They'd throw us every excuse in the book; "I don't rent that many movies." "I don't want my credit card being billed automatically." etc. But we kept at it and eventually got them to sign up, without even so much as a free trial period. Now we're struggling to get them off of it. You've just gotta keep at it. If these people have even a small iota of common sense, they'll eventually see the Movie Pass is a tremendous waste of money and leave the dark side of subscription based renting.

And canceling it nationwide would be silly because, believe it or not, there are still a lot of folks out there who haven't adapted to the new millennium and don't own a computer, let alone have access to the internet.

Not really. Fact is, the Movie Pass was only introduced as a way to compete with Netflix. The customers who think it's "better" than online renting, ironically owe a debt of gratitude to Netflix and they don't even realize it. Problem is, the Movie Pass was a failure and didn't even so much as put a dent in Netflix's armor. All it's successfully been able to do is convert $80 a month customers into $25 a month customers. That's why they jacked up the price on it, stopped pushing it in the stores and launched Blockbuster Online, which allows the company to REALLY compete with Netflix. I know it's hard to believe, but getting rid of the Movie Pass wouldn't hurt the companies bottom line. Infact, if anything, it would make it easier to pay off revenue sharing agreements. Blockbuster did just fine for many years without any sort of stupid "passes" and many video stores are doing just fine for themselves RIGHT NOW without giving their customers all you can eat passes. Just ask Oz.

As for the Movie Pass customers themselves, we all know there's no chance in hell these people are going to stop renting movies anytime soon. So either they're going to become regular paying customers again or they're gonna have to go to Blockbuster Online or Netflix. Of course we would indeed lose some of them to Netflix, but remember these people all are about "instant gratification." They don't have the patience/maturity level required to use Netflix. After a month of 2-3 day waits between movies, they'll come crawling back to Blockbuster and beg us to let them signup for Total Access. Mark my words.

Besides, I like the MP customers. They're the best people to deal with, and you rarely if ever have to do credits for them! "Oh, you changed your mind on this one? Okay!".

For once, I completely disagree with you Bran. I can't stand MP customers myself. Not only am I sick of seeing them flood the stores every god damn Tuesday, but I'm also sick of how they come into the stores thinking they own the damn place and are entitled to special treatment. MP transactions are so fucking lame too:

Grumpy MP customer walks up to the counter, throws DVDs down on the counter, says "swapping out" in that condescending tone and stands there impatiently tapping their fingers on the counter while you take a "long" 20 seconds to take out the locks and scan the movies. If you even so much as mention a candy/soda/popcorn promotion, they'll yell "NO! Just give me my damn movies!" and storm out the door. Then they'll come back again 5 hours later(since all they do is watch movies all day long) and proceed to do the same thing to another employee.

Ugh. Die Movie Pass losers! I hate you all.

[zooworker]

Originally Posted by Morbid Angel

Grumpy MP customer walks up to the counter, throws DVDs down on the counter, says "swapping out" in that condescending tone and stands there impatiently tapping their fingers on the counter while you take a "long" 20 seconds to take out the locks and scan the movies. If you even so much as mention a candy/soda/popcorn promotion, they'll yell "NO! Just give me my damn movies!" and storm out the door. Then they'll come back again 5 hours later(since all they do is watch movies all day long) and proceed to do the same thing to another employee.

Ugh. Die Movie Pass losers! I hate you all.

I for one would like to see the MP go away for these same reasons. I'm sick of the majority of them coming with that "I'm more important than them " Attitude.

[OzMan]

Originally Posted by Morbid Angel

All it's successfully been able to do is convert $80 a month customers into $25 a month customers.

Yeah, but now you're converting them into $18 a month customers, and paying for shipping so they don't have to come into your store as often.

Think about it this way: IF every copy of Cars is going out anyways, and you're still not making money, the problem isn't the customer base......