Wendy Rivadeneira
Ms. von Uhl

The Pressure is on for CVS Cashiers

Problem: Many companies are learning that the most efficient way to grow their business is by reaching their customers in a convenient way. This can mean many things, but I see this as learning to understand that the customer always comes first. However, many companies may forget that their success mostly depends on the hard work of their employees. Companies can manage to do everything right with wanting to please the customers, but the employees should not be ignored or put under too much pressure to please the customers . A problem that I will be exploring is how CVS cashiers are expected to perform many tasks and perform excellent customer service, even though they may not have all the resources to do so. I think that a solution to this problem would be CVS management setting realistic goals and tasks for their cashiers, and providing more resources and useful knowledge for cashiers to accomplish these tasks and pay attention to the customer.
Background: My fieldnotes helped me better understand the culture of CVS cashiers, as well as my status as a cashier. What I wanted to further explore was how cashiers at the store where I work are required to handle a lot of tasks, while still being required to provide good customer service. During my fieldsite observations, I noticed many issues that were out of the cashier’s control. For example, my coworker was busy checking out a customer who had a question regarding one of the sales. He did not notice the line getting longer and reaching more than three customers. At my store, once a third customer has reached the line, the cashier is told to call another cashier to ring. However, there were no other cashiers available, so he was stuck helping while the other customers were getting upset. Another moment, I noticed that my coworkers was taking a phone call regarding a customer’s photo order, while there was a customer waiting to be checked out. This happened more than once that day, and becomes inconvenient for the cashier who has to manage both customers. As a CVS cashier, I understand that CVS stores rely on their employees to be good with customers. This is because the stores receive weekly scores that reflect overall customer experience for that specific week. The score is calculated through customer surveys. Customers who shop at CVS will receive an email with a survey attached. This survey will allow the customer to rate and answer questions about their experience shopping at that store. The questions ask the customer if they were offered help while shopping, and are asked how friendly or welcoming the cashier was while they were checking out. This is why my managers tell me and my coworkers to greet every customer walking in, and ask every customer if they found everything they were looking for. The target score at my store is around 75. This is the average score my boss, Chris, wants the store to reach. A higher score would be better, but that score is what our store expects to reach every week. Other stores may have lower or higher target scores depending on the location. I believe this is a fair score for our store to reach, and I think that if the score were to increase, then there would be even more pressure on cashiers. This issue is relevant to my research, because I want to explore how CVS management may not always focus on their employees as much as they focus on their customers. A common problem I encounter when checking out customers is having to solve every customer’s issue, while still being able to attend other customers in line. Many times there will not be enough cashiers, so if I am helping one customer, other customers would get impatient and get frustrated with me. Many times this is out of my control, and it lowers the score we receive for that week. Situations like this can be avoided if managers were able to schedule better times for cashiers, so that at least two cashiers would be working together. Lately, my boss has been scheduling fewer people and the hours he gives do not work. For example, he would schedule two managers with only one person as cashier. This is not too helpful because the managers are not necessarily supposed to ring, since they have other responsibilities. It would be more helpful to schedule more cashiers, especially on busy days, such as weekends.

Literature Review:
“CVS Job Applications – How to Get a Job at CVS.” Job Search Organization & Job Application Status Updates | StartWire, 30 May 2013,
www.startwire.com/job-applications/retail/cvs.
“The company also places a huge value on customer service, so it would be a good idea to emphasize any customer service experience you have on your application, resume, and cover letter. Every CVS employee interacts with customers regularly, so this is a very important skill to have.” This quote expresses that CVS places important value to hiring people who can interact with customers and provide good customer service. This shows that one of the main interest’s that CVS has is customer satisfaction.

Blume, Eric R. “Customer Service Giving Companies the Competitive Edge.” Training & Development Journal, vol. 42, no. 9, Sept. 1988, p. 24. EBSCOhost, ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9126791&site=ehost-live.
According to a journal article by Eric R. Blume, “ more companies are turning to customer service as a means of staying competitive in business.” His article is important because it discusses the economic advantage of stores that do provide great customer service, when compared to stores who do not. This statement can explain why CVS management pushes their employees to provide excellent customer service. CVS is ensuring their path to success by focusing on the customer’s satisfaction and making the store employees responsible for this.

JOHNSON, STEPHON. “CVS Workers Push for First Union Contract.” New York Amsterdam News, vol. 109, no. 12, 22 Mar. 2018, p. 10. EBSCOhost, ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=128782041&site=ehost-live.
“ For almost 14 years, I’ve worked hard for CVS but never felt truly valued by the company, which is why my co-workers and I voted to join Local 338.” The writer, Stephon Johnson, writes that CVS workers in the east coast are not being given the same benefits and wages as CVS employees in the west coast locations. The employees in this specific Brooklyn location, were mostly women and individuals of color. They felt they were not being treated equally, since employees in the California locations were granted, “ four-year contract with wage increases and better health care access…better scheduling practices, more layoff protections and a process for part-time workers to move to full-time.”
Piskurich, George M. “Service training made simple.” Training & Development, Jan. 1991, p. 37+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A9786367/AONE?u=kingslrc&sid=AONE&xid=bccbbb26.
“Customer service can be made into a simple three-step process. This process involves three crucial aspects to being good with customers. The steps are: greeting every customer every time he or she enters the store, asking every customer if he or she needs assistance every time the customer is searching for a product, and making eye contact with every customer every time they speak.” Piskurich evaluates on the importance of following up on the employee by the managers to ensure that the employee will be able to implement what they have learned in training.

“Join #TeamCVS – We’re Hiring! | Retail Opportunities at CVS Health – CVS Health.” Investors,
jobs.cvshealth.com/page/show/retail.
Understanding that CVS is big on customer service is easy to see when you check out the CVS job website. In the job descriptions section for retail employees, the website states that“As a retail employee… you’ll play an integral role in creating positive in-store experiences… providing friendly customer service.”

Objectives: My research shows that CVS may be placing too much pressure on their employees and not taking any other measures into consideration. I think that a solution to this problem would be CVS management setting realistic goals and tasks for their cashiers, and providing more resources and useful knowledge for cashiers to accomplish these tasks and pay attention to the customer. My boss believes asking every customer if they needed help finding anything else helps increase the score our store receives. I see this option as something easy, but impactful, that the cashier can do to increase the checkout score. So far, this method seems to be working, since our score in checkout is getting better each week. One objective that I propose is scheduling at least two cashiers for every shift. I think this would solve the problem of having long lines and impatient customers. Another objective would be to control the amount of time employees spend as the main ringer. The main ringer is the employee who stays as cashier for the entire shift. This can get stressful since many employees have 7-9 hour shifts. I think that having one person behind the register all day would bring their mood down. This translates to the genuine service they provide the customer. Switching between cashiers would help keep the employees happy and know that their concerns are being addressed. Another reason that employees may not perform their best with customers, can be due to the fact that they have other closing tasks to finish by the time the store closes. These tasks include cleaning the front and back rows, doing returns, doing damages, and cleaning the store and the bathrooms. It can be overwhelming for one person to do this and still feel like they can help customers in the aisles.
CVS cashiers understand that a reliable form of communication between the customer and the company is important. Customers at CVS know that they can contact CVS higher management at any given time. Whether it be in store, or on the phone to 1-800SHOPCVS. Management at my store encourages me to tell customers that they can contact this number for any questions or concerns that the store managers cannot immediately solve. This number is helpful for cashiers because we do not have the capability to solve every problem a customer may have. Most importantly, this helps take some pressure off cashiers as they are not able to assist every customer’s needs while still being able to work and checkout other customers.
Methods: CVS management needs to create effective methods in order to improve employee satisfaction, and customer satisfaction. In order to improve employee satisfaction, management should have monthly meetings with their employees and talk about concerns the employees may have. Management should then address the most important issues and create solutions for those issues. The issues may be as small as needing more rolls of paper for the register, or as big as hiring new photo assistants who can assist customer with their photo questions. These methods can be employed by several store managers in a reasonable amount of time. One way to test the effectiveness of monthly meetings is by having two groups. One group, or store, will have monthly meetings and address concerns of the employees. The other store will not have the meetings. By the end of three months, scores for each score will be calculated. The hypothesis will be that the store who did have the meetings will have a higher score in customer experience than the store who did not. Another method tested will be employing more cashiers to each shift. The objective is to see if having more employees at the register will increase customer satisfaction for checkout. This can also be implemented in different stores with the same method I mentioned before.
Conclusion: Companies who put their employees first will most likely see an improvement in the satisfaction of their customers. CVS should implement new methods in order to make their employees feel valued by the company. The employees should not feel second to the customers, as this would most likely lower overall customer experience. Therefore, CVS management should invent new methods to address their employees concerns and find ways to solve problems that is out of the employee’s control.