The person to fail... least.
Those following Twitter may have noticed a few very un-informing posts from oz and I about how shit this job that I landed is. The problem being is it pays too well to leave and is very much a window opener to a whole lot of other prospects. For such a basic job I'd never had thought there would be so much drama... but I guess there is no such thing as a easy job.
For the past 12 days, I have had to approach people in the shopping centre and entice them to join the malls e-newsletter (mailing list) for the chance to win a $500 gift card. Outside of a monthly spam mail about the shopping centre, there is no 'catch'. In theory, people should want to come to this booth because $500 is not a bad prize to get the spam you already get.
Here's where everything went wrong.
*The marketing division decided to give us uniforms that make us look like we're sprooking/selling something with a huge credit card looking "gift" card slapped onto our back. People don't want to talk to us, in fact where a guy in plain black clothes with a "WIN A GIFTCARD" "ASK ME HOW" plastered across the front, people instantly expect I am going to scam them.
*They don't have a target audience for the newsletter so we are encouraged to ask everyone, with the monthly emails being so generic that there is really no "selling" point to make it sound appealing to individuals who don't visit all the time and thus completely negating the purpose of the campaign. (to bring more people in)
*The locations we have been set up in are 'high traffic' areas, in the halls infront of the movies and right beside a nintendo display... While granting max-exposure, the people walking past can't really stop without stopping the flow of people or are preoccupied with making thier movie/game/shop that they don't have time to stop.
*The other staffed hired to work with me are 3 dance girls, really had no drawing motivation other than the $25 an hour promised for completing it. With an almost impossible quota to reach, the girls don't even attempt.. they just stand by the booth and do nothing.
It's with these contributing factors that we don't even come close to quota each day. The Shopping center asked for 150 signatures/emails per day per both (300 total) which whilst I admit was unreasonable, during a busy day could potentially be done. We got 9 days in and I really, really had enough of the mind-numbing request and responses to "Would you like to join our newsletter for a chance to win a $500 giftcard" and every day the management would come down and tell us how we were not making quota, that we had to pick it up and do better. Viciously so that we continued to be hastled and bullied into making quota. By the end of week 1, the 3 girls doing it had enough, they stopped trying and over the weekend we barely made any signatures because they were not going to be there after. I was and come monday we got a new set of 3 girls who were even worst than the first.
Yesterday (after the pre-warning of sacking did not drive results), the centre had enough and fired everyone; pulled their contract and told everyone it would be thier last day...
... that was, everyone except me...
The shopping centre had been watching how hard I worked each day to make quota, how well i documented my work so that I could show how many emails I got a day and asked me to stay on. According to centre management I possess the same work ethics and company values that Southland shopping center is famous for and that they are more than pleased with my work that they would like me to continue the campaign on alone. They have asked a simple 80 emails from me (10 an hour) and have spoken of a future job aspect working for them in centre management promotions. They are going to continue to outsource to the company that I work for on the respect grounds that the company provided them with me who "shed a lot of insight into the campaign and granted us invaluable information for our next promotion." So my bosses are very, very happy to not have lost such a major client and very happy that they were so happy with me.
The downside now of course is that I am doing this alone for the next 3 days. Oz is away on business trip for the weekend and I'm working the weekend so can't hang with people. Feeling a bit alone-ish recently as it is but it's only 3 more days and I don't have to worry about carrying the team anymore.
WElp better get to it
-Dragon out
For the past 12 days, I have had to approach people in the shopping centre and entice them to join the malls e-newsletter (mailing list) for the chance to win a $500 gift card. Outside of a monthly spam mail about the shopping centre, there is no 'catch'. In theory, people should want to come to this booth because $500 is not a bad prize to get the spam you already get.
Here's where everything went wrong.
*The marketing division decided to give us uniforms that make us look like we're sprooking/selling something with a huge credit card looking "gift" card slapped onto our back. People don't want to talk to us, in fact where a guy in plain black clothes with a "WIN A GIFTCARD" "ASK ME HOW" plastered across the front, people instantly expect I am going to scam them.
*They don't have a target audience for the newsletter so we are encouraged to ask everyone, with the monthly emails being so generic that there is really no "selling" point to make it sound appealing to individuals who don't visit all the time and thus completely negating the purpose of the campaign. (to bring more people in)
*The locations we have been set up in are 'high traffic' areas, in the halls infront of the movies and right beside a nintendo display... While granting max-exposure, the people walking past can't really stop without stopping the flow of people or are preoccupied with making thier movie/game/shop that they don't have time to stop.
*The other staffed hired to work with me are 3 dance girls, really had no drawing motivation other than the $25 an hour promised for completing it. With an almost impossible quota to reach, the girls don't even attempt.. they just stand by the booth and do nothing.
It's with these contributing factors that we don't even come close to quota each day. The Shopping center asked for 150 signatures/emails per day per both (300 total) which whilst I admit was unreasonable, during a busy day could potentially be done. We got 9 days in and I really, really had enough of the mind-numbing request and responses to "Would you like to join our newsletter for a chance to win a $500 giftcard" and every day the management would come down and tell us how we were not making quota, that we had to pick it up and do better. Viciously so that we continued to be hastled and bullied into making quota. By the end of week 1, the 3 girls doing it had enough, they stopped trying and over the weekend we barely made any signatures because they were not going to be there after. I was and come monday we got a new set of 3 girls who were even worst than the first.
Yesterday (after the pre-warning of sacking did not drive results), the centre had enough and fired everyone; pulled their contract and told everyone it would be thier last day...
... that was, everyone except me...
The shopping centre had been watching how hard I worked each day to make quota, how well i documented my work so that I could show how many emails I got a day and asked me to stay on. According to centre management I possess the same work ethics and company values that Southland shopping center is famous for and that they are more than pleased with my work that they would like me to continue the campaign on alone. They have asked a simple 80 emails from me (10 an hour) and have spoken of a future job aspect working for them in centre management promotions. They are going to continue to outsource to the company that I work for on the respect grounds that the company provided them with me who "shed a lot of insight into the campaign and granted us invaluable information for our next promotion." So my bosses are very, very happy to not have lost such a major client and very happy that they were so happy with me.
The downside now of course is that I am doing this alone for the next 3 days. Oz is away on business trip for the weekend and I'm working the weekend so can't hang with people. Feeling a bit alone-ish recently as it is but it's only 3 more days and I don't have to worry about carrying the team anymore.
WElp better get to it
-Dragon out