Retailers ignoring physical locations while pushing online ordering

[ClownLoach]

CVS is working hard to completely remove phones from store pharmacies and make them inside lines only. When you call you'll always have to go through the call center. If you're having trouble getting through on the phone now then it's likely that location has already converted to a call center. They are aggressively hiring right now for remote workers for pharmaceutical customer service. My wife applied and the application process is outrageous. They basically have you download a simulator to your computer that makes you listen to phone calls and both enter drug information from the call AND respond to emails simultaneously. Does that sound like a good idea? It was about a ten minute simulated process and I thought she did well, but they never called back. If you did it any faster I guarantee you would have missed something. Basically now someone in their house will have your medical info on the screen, call your doctor to talk to them and ask them questions about your prescription, then call the pharmacist at the store and relay the info. This is exactly what was simulated as an "everyday example of work as a CVS pharmacy remote customer care agent."

This makes sense; they do not have time to have drawn out phone calls. Not enough staffing in the pharmacy.

They must be hoping as errors are made from multitasking that the pharmacist or whoever receives the data will find the error (of course then they will have to spend time to correct it... stop their work flow to correct it...). I was curious what those remote customer service agent jobs where; I have heard of a number of CVS in-store employees talking about those and have applied for them (they want to get out of the store, but would like to keep working for CVS to keep seniority). So it is possible a lot of those positions are going to internal candidates.

I am really curious where CVS is going to take pharmacy in the future. With fantastic ideas like what you describe above I don't think this model of having all these big retail stores all over with understaffed/rude/overworked/miserable employees being face to face with customers is going to continue.

Maybe they can employ a model like the Little Caesars pick up locker. There is no more face to face between customer and employee (this may even make sense in a pharmacy environment with many sick/contagious customers). You go to your assigned locker and pick up a phone receiver (I wouldn't want to touch that phone receiver...) and get your consult etc. If you need to show ID for controlled substance you can pass it through the locker or display it on camera or something.

The issue is that they are obviously expecting wildly high levels of "productivity" from these remote workers who will be required to use desktop computers with hardwired internet connections and webcams on at all times. Can't use a laptop to walk around your house. Must dedicate the room to the job with closed doors. Can't take a quick bathroom break in your attached en suite that will only take a couple minutes because you'll be seen going off camera. I would not work under that level of worker surveillance at all, because I do not believe any of these details are required under HIPPA but rather are to micromanage the employee. They apparently have aggressive productivity "goals" where you must take so many calls, tickets etc. per day so you're incentivized NOT to do the right thing and say "could you repeat that" or read back etc. to ensure you're not accidentally ordering a drug that's going to kill the patient. I have seen remote bank workers who don't have to operate under this level of surveillance and being effectively cuffed to their desk, and they literally have people's bank accounts, mortgage loan documents etc. up live on their laptops.

[storewanderer]

The issue is that they are obviously expecting wildly high levels of "productivity" from these remote workers who will be required to use desktop computers with hardwired internet connections and webcams on at all times. Can't use a laptop to walk around your house. Must dedicate the room to the job with closed doors. Can't take a quick bathroom break in your attached en suite that will only take a couple minutes because you'll be seen going off camera. I would not work under that level of worker surveillance at all, because I do not believe any of these details are required under HIPPA but rather are to micromanage the employee. They apparently have aggressive productivity "goals" where you must take so many calls, tickets etc. per day so you're incentivized NOT to do the right thing and say "could you repeat that" or read back etc. to ensure you're not accidentally ordering a drug that's going to kill the patient. I have seen remote bank workers who don't have to operate under this level of surveillance and being effectively cuffed to their desk, and they literally have people's bank accounts, mortgage loan documents etc. up live on their laptops.

That seems to be one of the things some companies doing this remote work thing want- they have a requirement that the employee must be on camera 100% of the time. I've heard of this as other places as well. I think that is ridiculous, if they were in a physical office environment they'd be in a cubicle and the way cubicles are designed nobody is staring at your face as you work. People I've talked to say they can mark away/take a break but I'm not sure if the breaks come at assigned times or quite how that works.

It feels more like they want robots than actual people as workers.

[veteran+]

As they apply this technology to prescriptions being handled off shore.....................oh geez, what could go wrong?

I wonder...............

[storewanderer]

As they apply this technology to prescriptions being handled off shore.....................oh geez, what could go wrong?

I wonder...............

That is when you realize what damage the lack of competition and "globalization" has done.

Yet somehow we are paying more than ever for this product/service...

Where doe$ the money go? Certainly not to the employees.

I don't even see how this is more efficient than having a properly staffed assembly line pharmacy where the drop off window has an employee stationed there who receives the prescription and quickly enters it into the system, a tech gets it filled, a pharmacist verifies it, and a cashier down at pick up window sells it to the customer. But these bloated debt filled corporations clearly know best.

[ClownLoach]

As they apply this technology to prescriptions being handled off shore.....................oh geez, what could go wrong?

I wonder...............

That is when you realize what damage the lack of competition and "globalization" has done.

Yet somehow we are paying more than ever for this product/service...

Where doe$ the money go? Certainly not to the employees.

I don't even see how this is more efficient than having a properly staffed assembly line pharmacy where the drop off window has an employee stationed there who receives the prescription and quickly enters it into the system, a tech gets it filled, a pharmacist verifies it, and a cashier down at pick up window sells it to the customer. But these bloated debt filled corporations clearly know best.

As far as I know these customer service agents must be US based, aside from that obviously their intent is to save money by eliminating the obvious paid downtime that occurs in a pharmacy. The CVS corporation wants their people at every level to be working 100% of the time at a rapid pace and feels that they're losing money somehow if anyone pauses for even a moment. They have that sick philosophy of pricing everything, if everyone takes a moment to breathe every hour that will cost the company $1.852 million dollars a week, therefore they must put everyone on camera and have the boss watching over them at home.

The sickness is the fact that they will achieve these earnings results from their reckless under staffing, remote call centers etc. and then Wall Street goes to every remaining operator and says "your results aren't good enough. If CVS can make X per share the you should too" without any understanding of how these profits are achieved.

[storewanderer]

As far as I know these customer service agents must be US based, aside from that obviously their intent is to save money by eliminating the obvious paid downtime that occurs in a pharmacy. The CVS corporation wants their people at every level to be working 100% of the time at a rapid pace and feels that they're losing money somehow if anyone pauses for even a moment. They have that sick philosophy of pricing everything, if everyone takes a moment to breathe every hour that will cost the company $1.852 million dollars a week, therefore they must put everyone on camera and have the boss watching over them at home.

The sickness is the fact that they will achieve these earnings results from their reckless under staffing, remote call centers etc. and then Wall Street goes to every remaining operator and says "your results aren't good enough. If CVS can make X per share the you should too" without any understanding of how these profits are achieved.

CVS is the gold standard for the industry (according to Wall Street). The machine CVS has built is very impressive. You literally have this machine that numerous users/customers hate, yet they continue to be forced to do business with it. It knows it and doesn't care. Sounds a lot like the government.

And this is what happens when you let a company buy out way too many competitors.

[veteran+]

YUP!!!

[ClownLoach]

Great discussion of this problem.

https://www.retaildive.com/news/every-s ... ast%20List

[Romr123]

OMG so much this! I absolutely refuse to have a store's app on my phone---dammit if I am going to the store I want to do store stuff, not peck at my damn screen.

I have no problem using my tablet at home to do online shopping, or adding coupons to my account, but the most I'll do at the store is enter a phone number.

If I don't get all the deals by just entering my phone number (looking at you Target or BJs) that shi$ stays on the shelf or is bought online for local pickup (clearly a higher-cost endeavor for the store)

Target poisoned the well for me with their stunts several years ago monkeying with price displays on phones versus laptops at home.

Every minute in-store you have a customer fumbling with their phone is a minute you don't have them looking at the displays, interacting with the sales assistants, appreciating the cleanliness of the store, etc etc etc.

[veteran+]

Great discussion of this problem.

https://www.retaildive.com/news/every-s ... ast%20List

Yep....................spot on!