sales associate

retail sales associate

design consultant

order picker

interior designer

The Tile Shop

Money: 
Full-timers, you will suffer the most! If you don't satisfy plan each month you are stuck at 14k a year! Thats no good especially considering thats the pay part-timers get as well. Everyone struggles to get their numbers up and part-timers will indirectly rob you of sales because they have goals to hit too. However they still get paid hourly regardless! So you will waste more time to be paid roughly the same amount as a part-timer. Not to mention that theres sales nearly every other week that hurt YOUR gross profit making YOUR paycheck suffer.
 
Part Timers get 13 dollars an hour plus commission if you "make your keep" in other words earn the same amount of money in Gross profits that your'e paid for hourly work, then anything past that you will get 13% of the of your gross profits NOT YOUR SALE TOTAL.


Hours:
You will have no life... Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse, kids, loving parents, good ol'friends maybe? Kiss them good bye with a long hug because you may never see them again.

Yes I'm being hyperbolic but its not far from the truth. Your "free time" will be spent in the mornings before you leave at 11 to clock in at 12 leaving you with maybe 3 hours to relax. you'll will work weekends and afternoons to leave work at 9pm you'll miss you children growing up and lose crucial homework time if you're a student. every last employee has complained about hour management. a simple solution like 'Employee A' works Saturday with Sunday off, and 'Employee B' has Saturday off but works Sunday. Then having them switch every other week isn't a considerable option. Rather both employee A and B will work both weekend days despite the over staffing.

Yes sale positions can be like this in nature but remember "you work to live not live to work". However management doesn't care about your personal affairs or life outside of the showroom they take advantage of you and your life more than any other sales position I've seen!


Management:
D+ Not the worst management but far from the best. We moved to a new location but a terrible one at that. However in the managers and regional managers eyes it was the employees fault for a decrease in sales when no company has survived in that location for over 60 years!

I've also noticed the favorites card being payed quite often. One employee will sit in his car for hours on end to avoid work, while another was nearly fired for doing his job but taking a few phone breaks from time to time to text his father about his gravely ill sister. This is because the lazy employee has a contractor sending in customers for him, and all he has to do is write the ticket out and go back to his car making the company nearly 100k a month. While through hard work the phone employee made 30k a month. 

So lazy employees with good contractors can nap, but hard working employees get canned for having personal life issues...

Day-to-day:
Your'e not signing up for a sales position your signing up to be a janitor. yes while sweeping and stocking are normal chores on the job you will be expected to everything but mow the lawn. This does include cleaning fecal matter flooding the bathrooms when the public sewage pipe line breaks. You will spend your 8 hour day cleaning the place top to bottom to repeat the job the next afternoon. good luck making sales while working on that at the same time.

But if you are making sales while the other employees clean be prepared to be written up because your not doing your "full job" either.

If you place an order when theres no stock available be prepared to drive to other locations to pick up their stock for your order.

HOWEVER! working with the actual customers can be a charming and very lovely experience. I loved working with people to make the house of their dreams. 

You'll also have to be a stand in warehouse employee when the warehouse guys leave, personally I enjoyed this so take it as you will.

While this may sound like a rant this is an okay job, if I had to recommend this place to anyone it'd be for a part-time commuting college student. It's pretty good money, you can actually have a normal schedule. I personally took all night classes to work in the morning and go to school in the afternoon so I could actually see friends and family. I also had a non existent Saturday class to get a day off as well. It's also an equal opportunistic company very inviting and comfortable with GED grads, Homosexuals, War Vets, and those with Disabilities.

The way this place works is simple. 
You sell a certain amount. If it's not more than what they expect every pay period then you owe them meaning next time you sell more than what they expect they will take out what you owe them. This is very off putting for a lot of people especially if they don't put in the effort. The company gives you all the tools to succeed. Some managers are great and they help tremendously and some don't care. I was lucky enough to have a good manager who cared about the store. Also some coworkers will try to steal your sales by getting involved with YOUR sale especially while you are busy with someone else or when you arent there. Its really all about how knowledgeable you are and the rapport you build with customers that makes them want to work with you. It takes a lot of work to be good at sales. I was good but in sales you are never good enough and that's where the bad part comes in. I had a manager that was extremely micromanaging all the time, Nit picky and annoying af and told I can always "do better" there. Really no matter how hard you try its JUST NEVER ENOUGH I mean its sales. Now with that said you also have to clean your section, the bathrooms, the displays that are in your section, organize your section, sweep the floors, mop the floors, load cars, answer calls, return calls, manage your sales portfolio, open the register, close the register, make sure you also closed your orders properly so inventory is not wacked out, and maintain all backordered items (this place is notorious for having items that are NOT AVAILABLE when the customer wants it) its a mess a lot of times, email multiple distribution centers to get stuff in......and all the while sell. Sell Sell Sell. Push Push Push. Design consultation is the fun part where you make nice bathrooms and kitchens come to life. I was good with all that but when someone is up your rear and you have all this work Ill be honest I just didnt want to go to work anymore. It went from I like it here to I need to leave. You work all weekend..need I say more. The hours are really really long. The job will wear you down over time. Dealing with contractors is your main concern because they send you all the customers so make sure you treat them well even though some are as dumb as a box of rocks and you'll witness this when you are trying to get the customer or them to use a product for the project because don't forget that you are not just selling tile. Oh no no no. You have to sell to people and contractors all of the products. Ya have fun with that. The products are top of the line but its sales and some people are set in their ways.  You will make money, trust me if its very busy youll make a lot but youll also get harped on for not getting to everything else. Its a non stop cyle. Sell but make sure this (whatever task) is getting done now STOP (whatever task is getting done) and go sell!!! I wont lie be prepared to loose steam over time ESPECIALLY when you have management that is up your rear constantly. The reason why they do this is because when you sell enough and the store makes plan the manager gets a bonus. If the you don't reach plan they lose money. Its ridiculous I mean give me a break....oh speaking of which If you need a lunch break you can take one but they'll ask you to get up and help them with something. Why you ask? Well its because they are always short staffed and its no wonder. They will even ask you to use your car to deliver stuff to people. Oh yeah delivery issues haha. You have no idea. This place has a nice look when you walk in but its really just a warehouse of tile that wants to be a fancy consulting space. Its not. Don't waste your time or do. Its up to you. Eventually you'll go cuckoo. Benefits are meh. I was there for 5 years and some people asked me if I was interested in management and I just looked at them. I think their head was a tile. 

When I started at The Tile Shop I told the manager that I knew nothing about tile but that I was willing to put in the effort and to learn. My favorite thing that he said to me was "there's nothing you can do that we can't fit". For most of the staff though he is known for saying "if you don't turn your back on me I won't turn my back on you" and it's really amazing to see a manager role model and do the same things he asks you to do. 

Something really notable about this company is that your first week there they give **extensive** training. So even if you go into your first day knowing nothing, by the end of the first week you have a lot of tools. I've seen a change in corporate to ensure that the staff is being supported. When I started, there was subsidy based pay and as a company in order to support the employees they've decided to move away from that in order to keep on good talent and encourage better quality associates. 

I can say my own manager started with the company and was training and promoted to get his own brand new store in 18 months. The assistant manager when I started had been with the company for about a year and a half and 8 months later she was training and promoted to get her own store also. What's even better about that is that the company actually helps you with relocation costs!

I have worked at the same store for about a year and a half. Since starting I have seen lots of mobility and room for growth. I started knowing very little about tile and some knowledge about design but the showrooms are each packed with full size displays and there is training continuously available by managers and online via videos so you can see/hear it from different perspectives. (This is great for people who are hands on learners as well as visual learners). 

The benefits are very exciting aswell. I've been contributing to my 401K since I was in high school- and what I like is that The Tile Shop not only contributes to your 401K but also to your HSA (health savings account). So that if you need to buy anything health related, your contributions are also being added to by your company. 

I think the hardest part of the job is work-life balance. I think the biggest reason for that is because you essentially get the freedom and support to run your OWN business. I used to have a flip phone (even though I'm in my 20's) and upgraded to a smart phone so that I can keep connected with my customers. When you build that rapport and relationship with your customers you're invested in their project. When you work with pros consistently, you want to make sure you are accessible so that they know you're available to help them either now or scheduling an appointment. If you stay on top of emails and let your customers know your availability you're way less likely to be bothered on your days off. 

Overall, I love the fact that I have growth and support in my job. I used to be paid hourly and always had to bring work home. Now I get paid for the time I put in. Having never worked commission- I can say that the company really does give you the tools to success.  And there are a ton of benefits for customers so that the store essentially sells itself --6 month return policy no restocking fees, delivery options, quick lead time, own our own product, etc.

(I also love that the hours you put in builds up the time off you earn! Especially because my family lives far away so it gives me opportunities to go home to visit).

Great company to work for, if you listen and stay organized with your customers you have the tools to succeed. Glad that they updated their policies over the years to get to this point!

I was hired as a sales associate, but as the job unfolded, I came to understand that we were expected to be janitors, warehouse operators working the dock, freight coordinators, and internal warehouse order picking / fulfillment technicians, merchandising staff, and a schlew of other tasks. The company expects all of these things done, but they only pay you for sales you closed. So if you're cleaning the bathroom, and clients come in and you can't help them, and other people take them, you'll miss opportunities and likely not meet your weekly quota, as coworkers are very cut throat about claiming the sale or people. If you're working with someone already, and your client walks in, you can't expect help from other people easily as they don't benefit from helping you.

Their commission system is setup to reward people who have developed a book of business already. If you don't make your quota, you go into deficit and owe the company money. So if your coworker is not in that day, but their client comes in to pick up their order, you end up helping them load their hundreds of pounds of tile into their vehicle for no benefit, and while this is happening, you might miss out on selling to clients who walked into the store while you were at the dock waiting for a person to pull up.

I worked the opening shift, where contractors came to pick up orders. Whereas the mid to late afternoon / early evenings is when homeowners came to buy, right when I was about to end my shift, so basically I worked to help load orders and less foot traffic. Covered the phones and dealt with other coworkers disorganized sales / projects, and their mediocre managing of client expectations because my coworkers didn't do a good job setting them up or communicating them, etc. But as the pay structure worked out, I went into deficit because they don't offer a base salary to protect you, even if I was doing good with for the brand and team.

There was only 3 computers, so you had to constantly kick people off to look up stock / inventory / answer emails, do your follow up, use the internal softwares to do your job, which meant you got kicked off a lot and interrupted every time someone needed to ring up a customer.

Soon as end of the pay period came, management wanted orders to ship to make their numbers, and the pressure would come down and you were expected to have your clients come in and pick up their orders, or we would almost borderline forcefully ship it to close the books, even if the client was nowhere near ready to begin tile work. (Imagine trying to build a book of business with a new client with such a forceful approach to the customer)

They pride themselves as a word of mouth business and do not do any marketing. They revel in their glory days of precovid numbers in foot traffic, but now it's hurting them as their website and growth strategies aren't well developed.

One of their mantra is strong sales follow up leads to success, but they don't even employ CRM, and they have sales people doing so many other tasks for the store wearing all these other hats that it's very questionable how they expect the team to do a good job. I had to pay for my own CRM out of pocket, which kept me ahead of my follow up, and spent evenings organizing my stuff without being kicked off the computer every 5 minutes.

I held and upper management position for warehouse and despite the level of the ladder I climbed to get there I was low balled on pay at every turn.  New warehouse members with far less age and experience walk in off the streets and there pay is almost immediately comparable or matched to warehouse managers that have been in the company far longer, and have many more years of experience.  There is no negotiating with people for better pay once you're in, and from the onset if you don't know someone in the company already then don't expect to negotiate a livable salary when hired.  This company operates on who you know, not what you know so don't expect to move up fast if you have no friends here.  The pay raise structure for hourly warehouse personnel is a max raise of 3% per year and most warehouse people across the board will get as low as 1-2% which will be a raise somewhere between $0.15 cents to $0.40 per year annually.  Certainly not worth it if you stick around for a whole year due to the fact you will have at minimum one truck load per week of 10+ pallets of incredibly heavy tile, some stores have more trucks due to volume.  Most warehouses operate with just a warehouse manager by his/herself.  Only high volume stores have 2 or more warehouse personnel but this does mean if your store is low volume enough, it could still have entire trailers (up to 26 pallets)  for you to breakdown all by yourself doing a massive work load to separate all of the customers from the mixed up, likely falling apart, pallets that the DC sends people weekly. Here in my state there were plenty of other warehouse jobs that were just as autonomous and paid a starting wage of up to $4.00/hour more than what I made at the tileshop putting me well above $20.00/hour to do far less stressful/back breaking labor.  If you have real skills in a warehouse and know what you and others like you are actually worth to companies then you won't apply for the Tile Shop as a warehouse manager or material handler.  Do yourself a favor and make more money to do less strenuous work elsewhere.  Don't give your time to companies like the Tile Shop that think they can pay people with platitudes and high fives, or have upper management that walks into the building and immediately starts justifying how little they pay you before even saying "Good Morning".  They know what they're doing.  If this company valued it's warehouse employees as much as they value lazy store managers (who have a ton of bonus potential) and sales people that get paid way to much at times for such little effort in writing up orders then this company might be worth a 10-15 year + career.  Remember with companies like this they will always place more value on the clean cut 20 year old they have pretending to be a knowledgeable sales person raking in a $30,000 order (that will grant him/her a great commission) then they will EVER care about the person behind the scenes that has to break their back to make sure this stuff is actually ready for the customer.

I spent about 2 1/2 years at The Tile Shop in an area with a high end clientele during a time when sales should have been like shooting fish in a barrel.  I had a strong customer service background and quite a bit of related design experience although not tile specifically.  The competition between stores is sometimes cutthroat and customers both intentionally and unintentionally will screw you over so there is all of that... you have to spend a lot of time tracking and fighting for your jobs or decide it's not worth the money and pain and just move on. The biggest problem is you are working on 100% commission from the word Go and  it's tough.  We had a couple of salespeople who were strong earners in the company- probably in the top 20%.  Neither one was making anywhere near 6 figures. That ought to give you a clear understanding of the pay scale right there.  And the hours? Plan on coming in often on your days off to meet clients and play catch up or drive around to other stores to pick up tile your customers need to complete jobs. You will be responding to texts and phone calls at all hours of the day and night.  When you're at work, the phone will ring non-stop and you'll be expected to answer it even if it means being interrupted from customers every 3 minutes during a consultation. I should mention your feet. They're going to hurt from pounding across cementfloors all day. Badly. Possibly your hips and back as well. Invest in some very good shoes. Hungry? Better eat a big breakfast and pack snacks you can eat on the run because leaving the building is strongly discouraged. Lunch was a luxury, even in the breakroom (oh, but they deduct time for lunch out of your required hours-lol).  The stores are perpetually short-handed because they have a hard time hiring. When I hired in, the policy was for the first 3 months there was a base pay if you didn't make commission, which would have been pretty hard to do while training.  They changed the policy midstream and said no, you'll just have to sink or swim.  Unbelievable.  I stuck with the job for too long because I really enjoyed the design aspects, my customers,  and loved some of my co-workers- even some that I just knew more casually at other stores. The money? I kept hoping my business would grow but it apparently would have taken more years than I wanted to keep investing. I could have done as well working at a grocery store or fast food restaurant,  so it got to the point of just being plain stupid to stay there. Who would be a good fit at The Tile Shop? If you have an abundance of energy and can deal with being jerked in 10 different directions all day long and are looking to move up the ladder, it takes a # of years but getting on a track to become assistant manager, then manager is where the money is. You still have to do well in sales but if management knows you're on that track, they'll feed you business and life will be much easier. That just wasn't my path at this point in life. 

I left this company very recently. I had to. I didn't like fact that you are asked to do things that you aren't paid to. Examples include:sweeping and mopping the break room, the men's room and women's room. Moreover, you must sweep, mop, dust, change light bulbs, windex mirrors in your assigned store displays. You must take out trash and use your money to buy cleaning supplies to do it with. You are forced to stand for hours on end.
Next is pay. You must meet a quota for your sales, $11,000 minimum by the 15th or you're in subsidy. 
SUBSIDY or recoverable draw is a loan against your future earnings. If your comissions do not equal or exceed $1000.00 by the 15th and 30/31st, you're in subsidy by whatever amount below that $1000.00 threshold, eg, commission $900.00 you owe $100.00. They pay you $1000.00 as draw. If you fall far in the hole as I was, you cannot enjoy a good check when you have a good month.  You have to pay it all back. 
YOU WILL LOSE BUSINESS TO FLOOR AND DECOR!! The tile shop sell a 12 x 24 marble tile for $15.99 sq. Ft. Floor and Decor has the exact same thing for $5.69 sq. Ft. You can't match the price if you wanted to. You're in a high pressure sales environment. 
You work long hours with no social life. 
Final points, my former co worker there did the math, out of the 1600 employees who work their, 70% make less that $30,000/ yr. The store where I was, out of the 10 of us, 7/10 didn't crack 30k. Lastly, where I was, no one there was certified to drive the forklift to load customers or take down pallets. Yet all of us did it to get stuff done. Our warehouse manager wasn't there when we needed him to be because he was at another store helping them out. Prior to my leaving, the new regional manager asked our warehouse guy to another store, and do their truck. The reason being that store didn't have a warehouse or a store manager. Turnover is high. We complained about all the store stuff we have to do and it went of deaf ears. The Tile Shop is publicly traded company that won't hire a cleaning crew to maintain its stores. We were also responsible for returns. From putting stock back on the shelf or taking full boxes of heavy tile back to the warehouse to a pallet. This also included doing large returns by driving the forklift and hand loading tile and doing returns and refunds. By the way, we had to straighten the tile up under the shelf as well as clean the dust put of it as well. Try do 8 rows like had to of wall tile and wood look tile. It's heavy. 
In conclusion, stay away from this place. Not everyine their is bad, but they sacrifice employees for profits.
P.S. Whoever is applying the assistant store manager, FYI,  you are required to sell $35,000/month in order to get a bonus AND you're a commissed saled person like everyone else in the store. All of that, plus the weight of the store.

Not often are there mid-day shifts, so either employees will come in for an opening or closing eight hour shift. Within that period of time, there are many logistic duties appointed to each individual. These include, but are not limited to: Confirming Daily Sales Objectives, Inventory Look-up and Availability, Customer Pipeline Follow-ups, Customer Order Follow-ups, and Store Cleaning. You will be able to learn a wide variety of operation information such as the use of the P.O.S. (Point of Sale) system and communicating directly with contracting and remodeling agencies to work on customer projects. Working with the contractors, handymen/women, and interior designers that are associated with the Tile Shop allows you to network and connect with a much larger customer profile than you would be able to obtain only through walk-in customers. The hardest part of the job is that it is commission based and your pay will vary based on sales and additional pieces to those sales (ej. tools, grout, sealer). And there is a "draw" component for the position in the sales team in which you, of course have expected goals for how much product you as an individual should sell. Should you not be able to sell the necessary amount, the company takes the percentage of the sales missing out of the next paycheck in which you earn enough to cover your losses. Loss is based on past monthly/yearly earnings, as well as hours worked. The best thing about the job is getting to work with great customers and co workers. Management was amazing there and teach you to be as coachable as possible. They are willing to work with and coach you on how to follow the set processes that lead to success in the work place. The most important thing about the job, moreover, is seeing the finished product of what your customers were able to do with their order and have those customers come back in to have more work done!

The store just didn't have enough buyer traffic coming through the doors to make any money.  The store was new and the locations signage was weak.  Locals are constantly asking how long the store has been in the location, even after the first year. 

Often the directives from Corporate and Store management regarding margin and pricing were contradictory.  The pay is a recoverable draw so you are constantly in the hole, paying the company back before you can make a buck.  Often when the company has a sale the customer will save more on their purchase than you will make in a pay period.  Most reps are in subsidy and never make more than the minimum pay.  The pay period ends on the 15th and the 30th, checks are issued 7 days after the pay period ends.  The company does not employ a cleaning crew so you clean everything from all 60+ kitchen and bath displays to the public bathrooms, break room and sales floor.  If you're lucky the store has a shipping manager, otherwise you will be loading 50-80 lb bags of mortar, driving a forklift and loading pallets of tile in customers cars while wearing a dress shirt and tie.

I tried the job because the Store Manager that hired me made it sound like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new store and really make some money.  One year later I'm the only original employee at the store and have yet to make any real money.

On the upside working with most of the customers is fun and rewarding in terms of seeing the finished project and seeing how happy the customers are with your assistance in the whole endeavor.  The short commute and having two days off during the week is also nice.

Not a career opportunity unless you want to be a Manager with an interest in possibly transferring to a new store or a new state at the drop of a hat, working 7 days a week selling tile and dealing with constant turnover and training.

It was great at first! I loved my team and clients. Management gets tougher on you as time goes on. Makes you do more than you're paid to do. Training was great and helped a lot, but after a couple months it's hands off. 8 hour shifts but expected to stay if there's a person in the store in case they buy tile (most of the time they dont) and you get in trouble if you leave. Mandatory Saturdays for more business and team meetings. Any concerning Staff behavior is not taken to a superior and is kept between management so they don't lose more staff. Have to meet a quota or you owe money back the next period if you make over the quota. Hard to make money because someone can get a $40 per sq ft of tile and someone spent twenty minutes with them, and then someone can spend hours with you and they don't end up buying or buy a $10sq ft tile. You get very discouraged quickly with that. A very competitive market and it is said that it shouldn't be snakey but it ends up being, mostly from the management. People talk behind your back all the time. Hard to make money in a location that doesn't get traffic then you get in trouble for it and they say you can't blame the traffic when it is incredibly slow and you have 5 staff competing to make a living. 

I did enjoy creating spaces for clients and working with contractors and it taught me a lot but I had to quit due to no work life balance, trouble with a coworker not being handled properly, mental health problems caused by the job, and PTO overall getting denied even though I gave notice weeks in advance, simply because the schedule was already made, even though they could have worked on it and it could've worked out. 

Truly would've loved it and stayed if you didn't owe money for not meeting quota and if management was better. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales associate 26 salaries reported	$50,683 per year
Retail sales associate 6 salaries reported	$47,083 per year
Design consultant 11 salaries reported	$56,364 per year
Order picker 10 salaries reported	$1,550 per week
Interior designer 2 salaries reported	$55,000 per year

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