I worked at the Airport Road Branch of Musgrave’s for the past eleven years. I had a few different roles in a few different departments,and I felt that this was quite beneficial to me. I worked in areas such as re-ordering, stock control, retail assistant, personal selling and Electronic Point of Sale (E.P.O.S). I felt that it gave me a better feel for the business, and allowed me knowledge of how different areas operated.
Some of the skills that I developed included the following:
- Time management. As the business runs to a schedule, it is important to know what needs to be done and when. It is often that these are critical to the running of the business and important to the customers. You have to learn to use your time properly, or else tasks will start building up, and work might not get finished in time. This is important, whether you are a General Manager or a part-time staff member.
- Dealing with customer requests. Retail is a very customer driven industry. It pays to know what it is that they are looking for and how best to satisfy them. A bad experience with someone might taint the name of the business. It is about being professional and doing that small bit extra. That extra level of attention can make a big difference. In any industry, knowing who your target market is and what they are looking for, is critical.
- Liaising with different departments. It is easy for some places to only concentrate on the direct department in which you are operating in. This a common problem for larger and older firms. You have to realise that you do not work in isolation. If there are conflict between departments, then the business overall will suffer. Being able to work between different areas and build-up relationships, is necessary for businesses to move forward.
- Product selling. Related to the requests side, selling is an important task. It is not a mere issue of having products available and putting a price on them; there is more to it than. How much profit the customer can expect to make on them, what ingredients do they contain, are they a regularly available line or seasonal, how how of a range is there and so on. Knowing the important details about what it is on sale, will allow the customer to be clearer about what they are looking for. Attention to detail can help any organisation
- Working as part of a team. It is by building up professional relationships, that will allow departments and companies grow better. Recognising and building on the skills and experiences of others, will help any company. They can help complement the skills that you have. By having an appropriate mix of skills, people can work better with one another.
Philip's Portfolio 