Obsession membership card
You won’t be surprised to learn that my columns on Costco’s methods of persuasion have resonated with the very people who have to implement them. That is, the employees responsible for convincing members to pay more for the “executive” black card, sign up for auto-renewal, or take the CIBC credit card.
Behind the smiles at the customers and the insistence hides a perpetual pressure to achieve ever better results and an unhealthy work climate, wrote me a dozen employees from all over Quebec. Everyone I spoke to described a company obsessed with its membership card sales statistics.
“Obsession, the word is weak! This is what drives the company. Without membership cards, there is no Costco. It’s the number one priority,” says an employee who has several years of experience in multiple functions.
Every 30 minutes, the supervisor goes to customer service to collect a packet of statistics which he writes down on a grid sheet. It records the number of customers who have passed through the door, sales, the number of new cards (basic, executive, credit), upgrades, downgrades, automatic renewals, etc.
And if the results are not up to expectations, employees are questioned. The director meets them. They are compared with their colleagues. We demand explanations, we ask them what their “plan” is to do better in the coming hours, five people told me on condition of anonymity so as not to harm their careers.
They do this for every stat you don’t hit. If the stats haven’t changed in half an hour, they call on the walkie-talkie to find out what the plan is. And there you have to say it. But what do you want me to say? There is no plan!
A long-time employee at Costco
As soon as they are hired, packers and cashiers are told that they will have to participate in the war effort to convert customers to the black card. At all times, there is someone “on the line”, that is to say near the checkouts, ready to intervene if an upgrade possibility arises.
Ambitious and specific sales targets must be achieved for everything, including executive card sales. “Sometimes it doesn’t work. We just have standard memberships. It is not long that we are told. The director arrives with the results from another warehouse and he asks us why it works for them and not us? It’s a lot of pressure, ”laments another employee.
At Costco, we confirm that there are targets to be reached, “as in all companies”. And that “small friendly competitions” do indeed take place between the warehouses. But that doesn’t create an unhealthy climate, says Marc-André Bally, senior vice-president responsible for warehouses in eastern Canada. “There is no intense pressure. No one works under pressure at Costco. »
The leader insists that there is “no pressure selling” in stores. “In no case does Costco ask its employees to be pushy. When it’s no, it’s no. »
However, many customers in November found that their “no” had taken a long time to be understood, which generated complaints.
In addition, Marc-André Bally assures that “no one is reprimanded if they have not achieved their objectives” and that no one is fired because of disappointing statistics.
As this vice-president told me recently, employees who manage to convince a member to join something more do not get any bonus. No financial benefit.
So why bother? To have access to a promotion and to pass under the radar, answer the employees who contacted me. This peace of mind is priceless, they say.
“I don’t want my manager on my back for my stats, my manager doesn’t want the manager on his back for department stats, and my manager doesn’t want senior leaders on his back for team stats. warehouse. »
Believe me, having experienced it in my warehouse, being targeted for low results is the worst thing you want.
An employee at Costco who requested anonymity
Warehouses are in competition with each other, and the results are broadcast to increase the pressure, lament employees. “We’re told, ‘I can’t believe that in an hour you haven’t been able to convert more people.’ And there, you feel like shit, says a long-time employee. Even if it’s not a company that fires. We are all miserable. »
A woman who worked for several years checking bills at the exit of the store recounts, like others, that the pressure really increased starting in 2019 or 2020. She, too, was asked to push the sale of cards and it was mentioned to her each year in her evaluation that she had to sell more. “Achaler the world, it is not in my values. She quit quite recently, like many others, she says, because of difficult schedules and “unhealthy” pressure.
Other employees also feel that pressure has increased over the past two or three years, particularly to convince members to sign up for automatic renewal.
Marc-André Bally swears, however, that Costco has “not changed the degree of pressure”.
Very paying, but draining
The constant pressure to achieve ambitious sales figures encourages employees to be pushy and play on words, some complain.
But during the blitz, in November, to boost the automatic renewal at the heart of my recent column, “it was them, in truth, who told us what to say”, says an employee uncomfortable with what happened. product. “Since we wanted to push people to renew their subscription, we had to say that this method would now be mandatory. I am therefore writing to let our members know that personally I am sorry to have misled them, that it was not at all my intention. »
In other warehouses, the instruction was understood differently, a sign that it was perhaps lacking in clarity. One employee felt that she had to “play on words” so that the member understood that automatic renewal would become mandatory. “If I tell you ‘we update our systems, now renewals are automatic’, what do you understand? she asks me.
Many customers have indeed reported, both on the Les Accros du Costco page and in my email inbox, being told that automatic renewal would become mandatory. Costco has also received complaints from members to this effect. However, this information that was sent to the members is not accurate. Incidentally, Costco’s internal documents were updated after my text was published to make it clear to employees that auto-renewal is not mandatory.
This document used to promote automatic renewal gives examples of phrases and words to say and avoid. In particular, it suggests asking members for a credit card number to add to the file “quickly to ensure that their membership remains in good standing”.
An employee quoted above also assures that he was never encouraged to lie, “but [qu’il s’est] told to divert, to avoid the word “credit card”, for example, to say Amex rather than American Express [à l’époque] or Capital One rather than Mastercard”.
This type of directive does not seem to date from yesterday. A former employee of the Boucherville warehouse, who was on the job when Amex was replaced by Mastercard in 2015, says he had to ensure snowbirds that their new card would work at Costcos in Florida. “You had to say yes, even if it wasn’t true. It lifted my heart. South of the border, Costco had struck a deal with Visa instead.
To hit targets while still feeling good about herself, another employee told me that these days she asks new members to provide a credit card number “to top up” their membership. “It’s not necessary so yes, it’s a lie. But it’s the most humane and moral way I’ve found to bring it about. »
When a card number is on file, Costco can auto-renew, which is valuable.
Since the grumbling of Costco customers made headlines, new instructions have been issued to employees.
To promote automatic renewal, senior management now asks them to say that a credit card number is “required” and not “obligatory”, since it is not the case. A directive that raised eyebrows among employees. “It’s not mandatory, but it is required. You and me are synonyms! “, is surprised one of the employees quoted above.
The American company also specifies, in its written instructions, that it is necessary to avoid using the word “automatic”, since it “is a Costco term” and that it “may be perceived as a invasive term. The expression “annual renewal” should be preferred. As for the application for registration, employees should avoid asking a question whose answer could be “yes or no”.
“We are not encouraged to lie, but to use roundabout ways to get results,” confides a long-time employee quoted above. For me, it hangs morally, sometimes. I have moral dilemmas. Like some co-workers, she opened up in the hope that Costco’s culture will be healthier.
Another employee quoted above says that it is not uncommon to see people crying in the cafeteria. “No one can imagine how hard, demanding, physical, draining and negative it is. She is amazed that to this day, Costco still has the reputation of being an employer of choice, while the climate is “toxic”, according to her, and the turnover rate, “high”.
Costco management does not consider the rate to be “high”. “Our highest turnover rate is among new employees who leave their position after a few months,” says Marc-André Bally. We want a low turnover rate, because long-time employees know the culture. […] A job at Costco, we want it to become a career. “The employees who have decades of seniority are also numerous, supports the one who has climbed all the levels to reach the level of vice-president.
Of course, all is not black. The strong team spirit is pleasant, and the possibilities for advancement are numerous, recognize the employees. Best of all, Costco pays very well compared to its competitors, in addition to offering enviable benefits like free health insurance and a pension plan.
This would explain both the silence of the employees and the lack of embarrassment of the leaders to increase the pressure.
“We are told: ‘At the salary you are paid, it is normal that you are asked for more than a cashier in a grocery store or another store.’ It always comes back,” laments an employee, adding that the pressure is “three times worse” for executives who have to work between 50 and 60 hours a week.
Since August, section managers (meat, bakery, deli) earn between $88,500 and $93,500, while restaurant and tire center managers are paid up to $86,000 a year. The salary of assistant directors reaches $107,000.
These conditions are a double-edged sword, according to the former employee of the Boucherville warehouse. “That’s why you become a captive. The insurance, the pension plan… You don’t want to leave anymore. »
It is quite disconcerting to see how the vision of management is diametrically opposed to that of some employees. Those who speak out dream of change, in an era where mental health, employee well-being and labor shortages are at the heart of the concerns of many companies. Deep down, these workers would like to love Costco as much as the customers.