Encountering a "Front End Manager"
I have a quibble with Food Front, the local cooperative grocery that will open a store here in Hillsdale soon.
First off, let me say how pleased I am that Food Front has decided to locate its second store here. The Hillsdale community and the co-op truly have embraced each other. Hundreds of us have plunked down $150 membership/ownerships as evidence of our support.
But this is no member/owner's quibble. No, this complaint makes common sense.
Or I hope it does.
It’s pretty simple. In the farmers’ market today I went to the Food Front booth to talk to the woman staffing it. I needed information for a story I’m doing. When I asked for her title so I could use it in the story, with some finality she said she was the “Front End Manager of the Hillsdale Store.”
“I can’t describe you as a ‘Front End’ manager,” I said. “My readers won’t know what that means.”
I paused. “By the way, what does it mean?”
She explained that she would be in charge of customer relations and the checkout department at the Hillsdale store. “Ohhhhh,” I said, buying time and trying to think up a way to describe her job in an understandable way, “Is it OK if I call you the Hillsdale store’s customer service manager?”
No, she said, that sounds too much like another person’s job at Food Front. “Just call me the “Hillsdale Front End Manager,” she insisted. “Everyone in the business knows what a ‘front end manager’ is.”
“But that doesn’t help my readers,” I countered. “The title sounds as though you run part of a body shop or a section of an auto assembly line. It doesn’t communicate anything meaningful to the customers, whom you are trying to serve. In fact, it suggests that you are so caught up in the internal workings of your organization that you can’t communicate with your customers in terms they understand.”
Actually, despite her weird title, she was communicating very well. She was helpful and courteous and, I hope, accepting of my concern. Besides, I’d decided to fudge the whole “front end manager’ issue and to call her generically “a manager at the store.”
Still, as a member/owner, I left her with the suggestion that she and her superiors think about changing her job title to something that would be, literally, meaningful.
Besides, the title raised another weird issue: Is there a rear end manager?
I was afraid to ask.
First off, let me say how pleased I am that Food Front has decided to locate its second store here. The Hillsdale community and the co-op truly have embraced each other. Hundreds of us have plunked down $150 membership/ownerships as evidence of our support.
But this is no member/owner's quibble. No, this complaint makes common sense.
Or I hope it does.
It’s pretty simple. In the farmers’ market today I went to the Food Front booth to talk to the woman staffing it. I needed information for a story I’m doing. When I asked for her title so I could use it in the story, with some finality she said she was the “Front End Manager of the Hillsdale Store.”
“I can’t describe you as a ‘Front End’ manager,” I said. “My readers won’t know what that means.”
I paused. “By the way, what does it mean?”
She explained that she would be in charge of customer relations and the checkout department at the Hillsdale store. “Ohhhhh,” I said, buying time and trying to think up a way to describe her job in an understandable way, “Is it OK if I call you the Hillsdale store’s customer service manager?”
No, she said, that sounds too much like another person’s job at Food Front. “Just call me the “Hillsdale Front End Manager,” she insisted. “Everyone in the business knows what a ‘front end manager’ is.”
“But that doesn’t help my readers,” I countered. “The title sounds as though you run part of a body shop or a section of an auto assembly line. It doesn’t communicate anything meaningful to the customers, whom you are trying to serve. In fact, it suggests that you are so caught up in the internal workings of your organization that you can’t communicate with your customers in terms they understand.”
Actually, despite her weird title, she was communicating very well. She was helpful and courteous and, I hope, accepting of my concern. Besides, I’d decided to fudge the whole “front end manager’ issue and to call her generically “a manager at the store.”
Still, as a member/owner, I left her with the suggestion that she and her superiors think about changing her job title to something that would be, literally, meaningful.
Besides, the title raised another weird issue: Is there a rear end manager?
I was afraid to ask.
Labels: Food Front Hillsdale, groceries
posted by Rick Seifert at
6:40 PM
4 Comments
