Teavana Reviews

Pros

The love of tea, world culture and interactions with customers.

Cons

more emphasis on sales than on employees, corporate gives little support to store managers. Also, the bonus for sales associates is quite pitiful!

Advice to Senior Management

Please ensure that District Managers are highly trained and well-educated. Too many of your district managers are abrasive, intimidating and lacking a good old fashioned college degree.

Pros

Free drinks, Awesome co-workers, Item discounts, Sometimes they give you free items if it's broken/damaged, Very in-depth training

Cons

Intense sales goal expectations
Not enough pay
What you sell is never enough
Constantly shadowing the customer
Always having to start conversations and ask customer questions
Always having to get customers to buy POUNDS of tea and expensive teapots
Gets talked to by manager if not reaching sales goals.. therefore, can get very stressful

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the overly-stressed sales goals. That will definitely keep workers from walking out or quitting.

Pros

Promote from within
In Depth Training
Quality Products People Actually Want
Company Pays Relocation Expenses
Competitive Pay
Family Atmosphere
Abiility to go above your direct manager to solve conflicts
Open Communication

Cons

Aggressive Sales Process
Pressure to meet productivity goals
Never good enough - a store can be over plan, and still reprimanded for a low average ticket

Advice to Senior Management

Think about the employees. As you grow, you are not taking them into account. Having a big sale set up on Christmas Eve, and adding a reset into it ruins many plans at a time when people should be focusing on family. Your product is great, and I love educating people on the joys of tea. I just want to not be feeling stress over numbers that are not effecting your bottom dollar in my store.

Pros

Learn a great deal about the art of tea.

Cons

Bonus structure is absurd; hourly sales goals vs. store goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Revamp bonus structure for retention; sales procedures nonproductive.

Pros

free tea
nice co workers
good location

Cons

pushy sales platform
bad hours
bad boss

Advice to Senior Management

they should try to treat their employees with more respect. They also never give me any good hour. 30 hour one week, 5 the next

Pros

Teavana is a sales driven company. If you are able to push people to reach their maximum potential in sales, it is a great place to work. Sales are of utmost importance. You will be looking at them every day, and pushing yourself and your team to exceed your goals.

It is a very fun atmosphere with great products. There are a lot of advancement opportunities within Teavana if you can excel in Sales. Because of their rapid growth they are constantly creating new positions and opening new stores which means that there are always opportunities.

Cons

As a GM you can get a call at any time from your store and you should not leave your cell phone away from you for long. Most of the employees are college students or that age, so a lot of management is needed.

Pros

Great Discount
Ability to take home "damaged" merchandise
Contests to get alot of merchandise, tea
Free tea
Very in depth training

Cons

Teavana wants to promote not only it's product but the "lifestyle" that goes with tea drinking. I don't see how this is possible. They often blast loud, obnoxious music. The sales process is stressful for the employee and the customer. Each employee has alot of sales goals and its never enough. You have to have great sales to get promoted, but *newsflash* just because you are a great sales person, you will not be a good manager! The biggest problem is that most of the management in store are former sellers who exceeded their goals, but they don't promote growth for other employees. I don't know how Teavana will be in the top 100 best places to work for with their turn over. Also, the pay rate is just over minimum wage...not that great!

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on promoting people who will be great managers, not just good at sales. Eliminate personal goals (save those for contests) and have employees focus on the store goal. Make your sales process more inviting and less pushy!!!

Pros

The Tea is amazing so was the 40% off discount! The store has a calm zen vibe. All you can drink tea while you work.

Cons

Very Micro management. As a GM your more of a glorified sales associate. Very pushy sales process, with a robotic script. Area Manager lacks any sort of communication, leadership and guidance. Company has a great training program...however I was with the compamy a mere 3 months & had yet to attend the two weeks training in Atlanta. High turnover for all staff members including area managers. The pay was on the low end and the health benefits were expensive.

Advice to Senior Management

Area Managers need to be trained better on working with their store managers. They should instill a team spirit within the area and inspire them to drive sales and recognize accomplishments. Don't just throw an external GM hire into a short staffed store with lack of training and leadership to just fill the position...train the on the sales process & Teavana culture first!

Pros

Not only do they offer a 40% discount on everything and unlimited free beverages, but employees are welcome to take damaged items at no cost. The pay is great, especially for retail! I loved that all of my coworkers were fully competent and intellectual; a rare find in any job! There is a fantastic, easy to follow training manual so every new employee gets the support he needs to succeed immediately, regardless of previous experience. The company also offers an amazing, fully paid 2 week training for potential managers, and there are a TON of promotion opportunities. The company is very involved in global charity and takes pride in the quality and source of every single product. There is no busy work, just the basic necessary paperwork ( done almost completely electronically to be Green), so you get lots of time with customers.

Cons

All locations are in malls, and you have to sample to people in the hall. The quality of the customer who enters the store to purchase is great, but you have to deal with all the other mall folk as well!

Advice to Senior Management

Give more autonomy to store managers.

Pros

Good discount on tea and merchandise, 40% to be exact and free drinks. Also, they are willing to work around your schedule. Teavana is also striving to be listed as one of the top 100 places to work.

Cons

They want you to be pushy with selling the tea and merchandise. I have to offer things five times using the "five times rule", I feel like I'm pouncing and stalking customers, and dont even get me started on the sample cart "Try some delicious tea!" "Try some refreshing tea!" They say you have to do ten minute rotations at the sample cart, but I have been stuck on that cart for way too long.

Advice to Senior Management

I know that you this is sales, and that you need to sell to make a profit, but can we not be so harsh and inspect how many tins, ounces of tea and every little merchandise each is selling. Even if they are selling the minimum, at least they are making a sale.