Radio Shack Question
Anyone work @ the Shack?
What are some of the challenges you face selling Cingular? Do you prefer selling Cingular or Sprint? Which company is easiest to work with and why?
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks for you help.
What are some of the challenges you face selling Cingular? Do you prefer selling Cingular or Sprint? Which company is easiest to work with and why?
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks for you help.
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I'm an associate at a Radio Shack.. so I'll take a stab at the question.
The major hurdle up until recently has been deposits for customers to get people on board with Cingular. Up until this month, we could only take deposits in cash. Now thankfully, we can also take deposits with a credit card or bank card (debit). Still, bringing people over with deposits that exceed $150 is hard a lot of times. Those customers generally tend to want the "free phone".
Probably the biggest challenge is competing with the partners who give thier rebates instantly... Best Buy, Sam's, Wal Mart. Convincing a person to wait for their rebate in exchange for working with an associate they will be able to find again takes some doing. I rather they buy ...
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The major hurdle up until recently has been deposits for customers to get people on board with Cingular. Up until this month, we could only take deposits in cash. Now thankfully, we can also take deposits with a credit card or bank card (debit). Still, bringing people over with deposits that exceed $150 is hard a lot of times. Those customers generally tend to want the "free phone".
Probably the biggest challenge is competing with the partners who give thier rebates instantly... Best Buy, Sam's, Wal Mart. Convincing a person to wait for their rebate in exchange for working with an associate they will be able to find again takes some doing. I rather they buy ...
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I worked for RS, and found many of the problems the previous poster mentioned. Having two carriers is a boon, except when the credit sucks on both applications. Payouts are decent, but the limited amount of information we are given about the customer (Sprint especially) severely limits the amount of CS we were able to do for the customer; I heartily agree with Shackviper about people buying their phones elsewhere and then expecting us to trouble-shoot whatever they needed: "you've got questions, we've got answers" is still in people's minds, like it or not, and the average consumer is dumb as a post on customer loyalty.
I would say that I enjoyed my experiences with Cingular more than my experiences with Sprint. I also would like to...
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I would say that I enjoyed my experiences with Cingular more than my experiences with Sprint. I also would like to...
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Here Here. Radio Shack needs to advertise more in the paper, signs, or what ever. We constatly get customers in our stores who to ask where cingular and/or sprint store is while they are stareing at our signs. Then it's I didn't know you sold phones. aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh
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Advertising, or the lack there of, has killed RS in recent years. This past Christmas was our best in a while, and not surprisingly, we spent a ton on advertising. Christmas stops, and so does the traffic flow. We're in a retail environement where if people don't see your name every 10 minutes... people forget you.
I'll mention an addition hurdle on cellular sales in general for RS (and many other retailers in general I assume). The lack of accessories available at launch is killing. For RS.. not having the right iGo tip to go with a phone (my Sync still has no tip) or no cases.. or worst of all.. no adapters for the Nokia handsets... it's hard to sell a phone and get your customer the full solution when you don't have it. That irri...
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I'll mention an addition hurdle on cellular sales in general for RS (and many other retailers in general I assume). The lack of accessories available at launch is killing. For RS.. not having the right iGo tip to go with a phone (my Sync still has no tip) or no cases.. or worst of all.. no adapters for the Nokia handsets... it's hard to sell a phone and get your customer the full solution when you don't have it. That irri...
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know exactly what you mean . . . the cases for phones in RS world come out . . . o . . . SIX MONTHS(okay, maybe three, but still WAY too long) after the phone launches, then they come in small quantities, THEN they give large orders, but by then, the phone is discontinued, and they have to send A TON of stuff back to the warehouse because the prices were jacked on the cases initially; I sell leather cases at my current position for $20 at the most, $15 sometimes if it'll nab a sale. RS? 30 clams, no bargains unless you buy when buying the phone, and then it's a ridiculous offer. advertising? Don't get me started, my friend. Last year in my district ('05) was the first they had advertised for Hot Friday (after t-giving) in YEARS. Not s...
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Advertising is a must. We can't just sit back and wait for customers to find us or remember us. You've got to spend money to make money.
The accessories do continueto be a big hit for me though. We're trending more and more toward universal cases, which I dislike in many respects. When we launched Cingular we ended up having to buy a bunch of old Cingular accessories to stock. We JUST got in a RS V557 case in October... and we only got 2 of those.
We need to clear out older accessories and get the newer stuff in quick. If a phone launches with no accessories, don't yell at me for my windex rating. There's only so many VoiceStar headsets and universal cases I can put into a sale.
What we really need in terms of Cingular ...
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The accessories do continueto be a big hit for me though. We're trending more and more toward universal cases, which I dislike in many respects. When we launched Cingular we ended up having to buy a bunch of old Cingular accessories to stock. We JUST got in a RS V557 case in October... and we only got 2 of those.
We need to clear out older accessories and get the newer stuff in quick. If a phone launches with no accessories, don't yell at me for my windex rating. There's only so many VoiceStar headsets and universal cases I can put into a sale.
What we really need in terms of Cingular ...
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I hate iGo's! They sent us 5 of them (against our wishes and refusals) but didn't send us any tips. Then the sent us tips for discontinued phones for carriers that have never been in the state, much less the area. We tried to order tips to match phones we carried, or had requests for, but those are either completely unavailable, or on backorder. The only ones they sent us were for the Razr, and I have three different kinds of chargers for the Razr and all are cheaper than the iGo so, again, they don't sell. Our DM had the audacity to say that we weren't marketing and displaying them correctly, even after I explained about not being able to get tips. I hate those things. I could probably get them faster and cheaper from another vendor....
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I have no problem selling iGos. I present the choices and show the customers the differences between chargers. I'd say a good 70% of the time, the customer will choose an iGo. Why?
* Durability
* Power Protection
* Interchangable Tip
It just makes more sense to most of my customers. If they want cheap, there's other places. If they want quality, they come to see me. By and large, people who shop at Radio Shack are not expecting the lowest price. They are expecting superior customer service, knowledge base and support. Thankfully, most of the stores in my area provide this in excess.
* Durability
* Power Protection
* Interchangable Tip
It just makes more sense to most of my customers. If they want cheap, there's other places. If they want quality, they come to see me. By and large, people who shop at Radio Shack are not expecting the lowest price. They are expecting superior customer service, knowledge base and support. Thankfully, most of the stores in my area provide this in excess.
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so, you're saying that there are no wireless pirates (yarrr, someone who poaches phone sales, and slides low-end tickets onto others) in your district? Wow, maybe I should come back . . . 😉
yea, the universal cases were good, but the one I got from RS over a year ago quit around the 1-yr anniversary. I expensed a universal clip to demo to customers, and it works just as well . . .
I'm so glad I don't have to deal with Windex anymore. I was king of service plans, but then I didn't stay around long enough to have to deal with the back end of those.
yea, the universal cases were good, but the one I got from RS over a year ago quit around the 1-yr anniversary. I expensed a universal clip to demo to customers, and it works just as well . . .
I'm so glad I don't have to deal with Windex anymore. I was king of service plans, but then I didn't stay around long enough to have to deal with the back end of those.
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Not trying to be funny or anything but does anybody buy sprint anymore? If yes (i am sure somebody buys it) how do you compare to cingular in numbers. eg 1 sprint contract to how many cingular.
just curious thanks
just curious thanks
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uhm, you must not be hispanic, eh?
I'm not racist, merely realistic.
Until Cingular started lowering their standards for credit, most hispanics were looking at $500 or $700 in deposits, where with Sprint, they had at the most a $250 dep, and for someone with a stolen identity, that's not bad for a phone.
In some areas, Sprint does have a better network than Cingular.
Just saying.
AND, for all you branded jack/world kiddos, Cingular does trump Sprint in many aspects of the market (aside from the connectivity disorder 🤣 )
I'm not racist, merely realistic.
Until Cingular started lowering their standards for credit, most hispanics were looking at $500 or $700 in deposits, where with Sprint, they had at the most a $250 dep, and for someone with a stolen identity, that's not bad for a phone.
In some areas, Sprint does have a better network than Cingular.
Just saying.
AND, for all you branded jack/world kiddos, Cingular does trump Sprint in many aspects of the market (aside from the connectivity disorder 🤣 )
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Radio Shack still does more Sprint sales than Cingular, at least in my district. Not by much, but the edge is still there. Back when we switched it was almost exclusively Sprint because a lot of associates refused to learn Cingular. That hurt us a lot out of the gate, especially when we had managers who downed Cingular as a sales tactic to sell Verizon. Thankfully I have always taken the road of not putting anyone down, just selling up what I offer. I won't tell you what that service won't do for you, but I will tell you what this one will.
Up until the launch of the W300i and the CU400, if a younger person came in for a phone with a lot of bells and whistles, they most often left with Sprint. This was mainly because of the Power Vi...
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Up until the launch of the W300i and the CU400, if a younger person came in for a phone with a lot of bells and whistles, they most often left with Sprint. This was mainly because of the Power Vi...
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great feedback.. thanks.
One last question... How is 'in the field' Cingular support and what could change...
thanks, again.
One last question... How is 'in the field' Cingular support and what could change...
thanks, again.
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In the field Cingular support is awesome. I have zero wait time when I call the support desk. They can normally get me everything I need in one call. The new porting services we have are awesome as well. With the customer in store, by the time most port customers leave, the port is finalized and their phone now works without a wait. I would change nothing right now.
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