I was reading a post in here that mentioned being fired over not upselling enough of a service that no one wanted. It gave me a flashback of when I had to do it for popular retail stores.
There was one job in particular that recently got a credit within the past couple years to offer their customers. My former boss in the very beginning said we were not going to push for it, if someone wants it- awesome. If not, no biggie. We weren’t going to be forced to ask people to sign up (whatttt a fucking liar).
As the credit cards went live and weeks and months went on, it became a nightmare. Managers breathing down your neck to push the applications. Managers creating goodie bags to bribe our customers with samples we genuinely needed for our customers instead. Associates lying about applications saying it was a soft inquiry that wouldn’t ding your credit score. Or making it sound like they would get the discount/sample bag even if denied but of course they never honored it (they had to escort an angry customer out of the store once)
Then managers were using credit card applications as performance reviews. Those who were able to con customers into signing up were treated like gold and were on a fast track to promotions. Those who couldn’t be bothered or maybe felt awkward asking were overlooked.
I am pretty certain this turned customers off. Because the ones who were getting reluctant people to sign up were asked repeatedly “are you SURE?! You’ll save 20% off this purchase today!” “Are you positive?” “Aw c’mon let’s just try!”
And all those poor customers who were denied and had their credit dinged for trying or not told there was a fee. Sure they could have known better and told us to fuck off. I just hated the culture the retail based credit card started. Or young people getting into debt over shit they don’t need because an employee mislead them because they’re desperate to hit goals or win a contest (if you got x-amount of sign ups you got free swag)