Coach Reviews

Pros

Most employees are very professional yet still fun to work with
The discount is great (you are limited on what you can buy so it's easy to refuse using your discount for your friends!)
Not commissioned, which leads to a more relaxed selling environment
Monthly bonus opportunities for meeting certain store sales goals
Overall, great product
A good environment for learning how to communicate with all kinds of people

Cons

Too much focus on individual sales goals, especially since individual sales do not affect associate pay
Hours are strictly limited for part timers in lower volume stores
There have been some product quality issues lately

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of that SPH chart. If our sales environment is about TEAM selling, why do we need to be subjected to individual sales goals?
The tier system for part timers' hours isn't all that fair

Pros

large co-op. it will at least look good on resume

Cons

pay too little for the stress level you are about to experience

Advice to Senior Management

n/a

Pros

great product, great discount; the people are uber smart

Cons

fairness around promotions. walk the talk

Pros

Solid brand and leadership in an international company

Cons

Retail hours are a blessing and a curse and working on your feet constantly in a high energy environment.

Pros

Coach has a strong brand and continuously comes out with products that the market is excited about. The benefits package is very good. Compensation was with market trends, but on the retail side there were a lot of bonus incentives. Company supported professional growth and recognized achievements well.

Cons

There are times at Coach when the number of years of experience became more important than the job performance. Also at times upper management did not dig deep into issues to find out the root cause of the problem or really understand what the situation was.

Advice to Senior Management

Get excited about the company and keep communicating with other store management and DM.

Pros

Predictable.
Beautiful product.
Extremely well-organized.
Procedural management template easy to understand and follow.
Fun customers.
Awesome employee discounts.

Cons

Wearing a uniform is only one way they discourage diversity and innovation.
Easy to get stuck in a D-performing location at the whim of one person's opinion.
Declining quality in products lead to increasing customer dissatisfaction.
Long, physically demanding hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Give employees an opportunity to anonymously review their managers. Don't rely so much on cookie-cutter retail sales methods. Be flexible.

Pros

The people I worked with were amazing and I still keep in touch with them and the benefits are amazing!

Cons

There are some very slow days and one of the managers always urged you to be pushy to the customers

Advice to Senior Management

Most of the managers are very friendly and professional except for the occasional one that wants you to literally follow the customer around the store

Pros

Coach is run professionally and expects professionalism of me. It offers opportunity for growth, promotion, friendship among both your co-workers and your customers. You are trained carefully and are given the opportunity to learn new skills that will help you not only with your success as a sales associate, but also as a person in general when it comes to communicating and working with others.

Cons

There is always a large drawback to working retail when it comes to your schedule. The retail world rarely, if ever, shuts down for a day. Because of this you are often required to work Sundays and many holidays. It can also be difficult planning very many activities in advance due to the fact that your scheduled hours will change and vary from week to week.

Advice to Senior Management

Coach offers many incentives and rewards to it's workers if they excel in certain areas. This is nice and can push workers to try their hardest. However, sometimes it can push them too far and before long rather than working as a team they begin working for personal gain in the companies eyes. I think it is very important to have big incentives and rewards being directed towards stores as a whole. When the entire sales team succeeds together, the entire store excels far more then when it only has one star performer.

Pros

The hours are flexible and the managers are understanding of other time commitments. Usually they are good about not scheduling for days that are requested off.

Cons

The managers are not serious about the job. They try to do things at the bare minimum and it consequently affects how the store performs.

Advice to Senior Management

The managers at Coach should lead by example instead of, for example, go shopping for their halloween costume. At times, the store managers spends 20 minutes in the bathroom texting on her phone.

Pros

Employee discount is very generous

Cons

All of the managers are robots and they expect the sales staff to be the same. The micro-management of employees is unbelievable. No matter how much experience you have had in a successful retail career with respect to sales, they want you to do it only the "Coach" way, which is like the Stepford Wives (look it up). The managers constantly follow you around the store. After you have interacted with a customer, they pepper you with questions, such as "Did you suggest a wallet?"..."What about a keyring?"..."Why aren't they buying anything?"... It's truly a nightmare.

You may think it is prestigious to work at Coach, but if you enjoy being treated like an automaton, then work here. Most people like being treated as individuals. There is no room for individuality or creativity at this company.

Also, they schedule you to do floor sets at unrealistic times, such as working until midnight the day before Thanksgiving... giving you no time whatsoever to prepare your dinner and home for a family visit on the holiday the next day.

In addition, the managers do not permit you to take breaks despite the break periods being clearly outlined in the employee manual.

If you are passionate about retail, this is NOT the place for you!

Advice to Senior Management

Why bother giving advice, they certainly would not listen.