AutoZone Reviews

Pros

You get back what you put into your job, at least as a CSM / SM or higher. CSM has the opportunity and the resources to grow your accounts. Realistic bonus is 400-600 per month. Some CSM in larger areas make 1,000+ per month in bonus. Takes alot of dedication and follow-up to succeed.

Cons

The best way to succeed in the CSM position is to have a very supportive Store Manager and District Manager. That is not always the case at every store. Commercial and Retail should be kept seperated, due to knowledge and information that is needed for different policies and protocals. One team concept is not always a successfull reality. MICRO Management big time-you must be able to stand your ground.
Long hours and physically demanding, but can be financially rewarding with bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management

Sometimes we need to leave the egos at the door. Regardless of what positon you hold in the store, each zoner should be treated with the same integrity and respect as the other. COC is over kill, it may help to increase some sales, but certainly takes away time from customer service with the focus and emphasis on COC. Customers become annoyed with COC...seen it over and over. Need a dedicated cashier to free up PSM to offer expert advice and give excellent customer service.

Pros

Stable job security, guaranteed pay check every two weeks. Promotions are readily available.

Cons

K.P.I.'s (Key Performance Indicators) are really all that matter. There is a K.P.I. for anything and everything. Most are sales, but some are not.

Pros

Flexible scheduling, they work around my school hours with no problem. Decent benefits. Good environment, overall a good place to work.

Cons

They focus too much on hammering customers with the "check out challenge" sales and attachment sales. Seems like pessure sales.

Advice to Senior Management

The DM said one day if someone didn't sell a COC they would get a write up. I don't think that's right. My store is in a very low income area where I have people pay in change almost daily. You can't always make those sales.

Pros

Accomodation for school schedules
Flexible with Schedules

Cons

Customer Service pitfalls
Unfair work environment at times

Advice to Senior Management

Give in and show the employees you care more about them just a little bit more

Pros

The job is very easy, just move boxes around. They train you on how to do everything, you do not need any training or licenses at all. As long as you can read you can work there.

Cons

You are however stuck doing the same thing everyday. The advisers don't make an effort to make you happy. Many people feel that they are unappreciated.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the workers feel important. Go out of you way to make them happy and they will not quit so soon. Get to know the workers more(upper management)

Pros

Very fun if you get involved. Focus on autozone culture as you start to move up. I had a great store manager and DM that took care of me. A little bit of initiate goes a very very long way in this company. great compensating career path with little to no education requirements.

Cons

-Check out challenge focus is all wrong, WITTDTJR makes perfect sense to me but the entire focus is in CoC and ignores customer count and average ticket.
-Other KPI's focus on wrong things as well, should be more completely customer orientated.
-Giving in to customers, cause a big of enough stick and you will land yourself whatever you wanted PLUS a gift card....which is bs, its a do it yourself company, not a diagnostic or we'll teach you how to be a mechanic company. upper management should support subordinates when it comes to return policy

Advice to Senior Management

support your team!!!!!

Pros

- People usually do not come in to browse, they need something; wether it is parts or advice. I loved helping people solve their issues with their vehicles, and most of the customers were grateful for our assistance.
- Flexible hours when given enough advance notice.

Cons

- The pay is not commensurate for the experience required for the job, which is why I left after 11 (on and off, part-time) years. I could not make ends meet with full-time employment there.
Management touts about being ASE certified, which I did, along with five others, but there was no incentive other than "good job", here's another pin for your collar.
- Customers taking advantage of our generosity, and expecting the counter help to do it for them (free labor). Wipers (older vehicles), batteries (in most cases), and a headlight or a dozen is all in a days work. Taking the fan blade off the fan clutch (especially without a vise) is a big pain in the back side. Most of the time I was willing, sometimes especially after the sun goes down, the counter help could not go out to the customers vehicles out of safety concerns, which the customers do not understand.
- Plan-o-grams constantly being changed. Customers complain about it, we upchannel their concerns to management, and it falls upon deaf ears, it's a "corporate thing".

Advice to Senior Management

- Pay your people commensurate to their abilities. You are not going to obtain employee loyalty by skimping on the paycheck. When you offer peanuts, you are going to attract monkeys.
- Leave the plan-o-grams alone! One of the customers biggest complaints; "why did you move it"?
- Keep more than two people on the counter when the sun goes down, so the WOW Customer Service can be delivered.
- Have Regional Managers (and above) perform counter duties once in a while (Undercover Boss). Our District Manager would run the counter when he would come by for a visit, and the employees loved it!

Pros

discounts and benefits are a plus

Cons

how promotion are handle you have to know someone to get where you are not 100 percent based off of your job performance

Advice to Senior Management

try looking at things from an employee stand point and customer point of view stop promoting friends and look at how it affect the business

Pros

Very good at getting requested days off. Decent pay if you play the system right.

Cons

Extreme top down management style. Very little autonomy at the store level. Best way to get promoted to suck up to management. I've seen numerous poorly qualified people promoted simply because they suck up, while many other competent people have been passed up for promotion because they didn't. They also tend to hire PSM's instead of promoting from within so they can keep payroll low, and because its easier. On average, it seems to take 3-6 months to promote a CSR to PSM, whereas hiring a new PSM off the street can happen in two weeks.

They also obsess about selling little extras, and rate store managers performance based on this, instead of overall customer satisfaction. Also have abysmal annual raises. Only two decent raises I received were when I went from part time to full time, and when I was promoted to PSM.

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline the promotion process to you can have an internally grown workforce, and show lower level employees that hard work does payoff. Give out better annual raises, especially to those who deserve it.

Pros

Strong financial performance. Layoffs are very rare, nearly unheard of.

Cons

AutoZone has many managers, but very few genuine leaders. If you're lucky enough to be paired with one of their leaders as a supervisor, you'll be fine. If you're paired with a mere manager, expect that you will be considered cattle, less important than the next conference call.

Advice to Senior Management

Put down the Blackberries and pay attention to the "little people" who produce the labor that gets you a bonus at the end of the year. keep this up & see how long you stay union free.