Pros
• Discount was great (I worked at the company pre 2020 so I received the previous discount which was 75% off your monthly phone bill which they have now changed to 50% off) • Flexibility, this may be different with some stores but as a student for most of my tenure they were incredibly flexible around my study schedule. • Incentives were sometimes pretty good mainly the Switch points programme (You sell certain brands normally the incredibly expensive such as Samsung folds and flips or budget that no customer would truly want unless they only makes calls or texts like the Oppo budget range will give you £5, £10, £20 points that you can then use to get things like gift cards for Amazon, Airbnb etc)
Cons
Unfortunately the cons do outweigh the pros quite heavily. • Targets in the retail side of the business (I can’t comment on call centres personally) felt unrealistic. I worked across stores of various sizes and the general feeling among staff was that targets often did not reflect actual customer footfall. Retail itself felt more stagnant than growing, yet targets continued to increase. This obviously affected commission opportunities and overall performance pressure from management. • Unfortunately management does differ highly in many different stores, so it’s a roll of the dice. I covered in some where management was highly supportive and understood the pressure that comes with sales while others would stay in the back office and expect figures to grow. The biggest downside for me personally was the pressure around “bundling” products. Different managers approached this differently. Some encouraged staff to present upgrades alongside additional products and focus on the overall monthly cost, while others were more cautious due to concerns around potential mis-selling complaints. In my experience, there was often significant pressure to attach extra products to sales, and staff could be questioned if customers chose not to take additional items. • Career progression can also be difficult depending on the store structure. If a store already has established senior guides, assistant managers and managers in place, opportunities for progression may be limited unless you are willing to relocate or move between stores.