Satisfying the customer's desire for uniform quality of sales service. The most common mistake made by retailers is basing floor staffing on the first two issues alone. There is a conflict of interest between these two issues that can be resolved only through compromise. The owner would like to have a sales person for every customer to ensure coverage. To make matters more difficult, retail traffic flow is not uniform.
Weekends demand more sales staff than weekdays.
An imbalance occurs when the number of sales people you have working at your store causes you to be overstaffed during weekdays and understaffed on weekends. Hundreds of furniture sales people interviewed by SMG have recounted legitimate horror stories of how their compensation plans left nothing for the owner to lose by overstaffing the floor. Sales people become visibly distressed at the mere mention of hiring additional staff. The problem is that both party's needs are valid but contradictory. There is no simple formula which will adequately service each agenda.