Jarred

7.00 AM 

I wake up and start getting ready for work. It takes me about an hour to get to Preston so I’ll leave just before 7:30 AM. I listen to Gary Lyon and Tim Watson in the Morning on SEN to catch up on the week’s sports news.

8.30 AM

The first thing I will do when I get to work is to set up the store for the day. This includes making sure our computers and the display stock is switched on ready for customers to try out. It’s important that it is easy for customers to be able to find what they are looking to buy and know the price immediately, so keeping the small appliances area tidy and correctly ticketed is crucial. I’ll also check my emails where I may receive information from suppliers and colleagues or sales figures.

11.00 AM

In small appliances, we get many items coming back which need to be sent for repair or assessed for faults. I’ll normally spend some time troubleshooting and organising for these to be sent for repair. If we can manage our faulty and returned goods efficiently, we will win the confidence of our customers and keep them returning to shop with us.

1.00 PM

We will normally be quite busy in the early afternoon so I will spend this time serving customers. Small appliances include everything from floor care products to blenders and juicers, so after some time working in Smalls, you will gain a diverse product knowledge base. As a graduate, it is important to remember you are still a salesperson and customer service agent, so even though you may have responsibilities outside of normal customer service, you still work retail and are expected to be serving customers and hitting sales targets.

3.30 PM

Towards the end of the day, I will run the tickets again and look for price changes throughout the day, or seek to get ahead of price changes which may begin the next day. If I can, I will try to catch up with the Proprietor or store manager, just to get an idea of how the store is running and if we are meeting our objectives.

5.30 PM

The store closes at 5:30 pm so I will normally leave as soon as there are no customers left in the store. However it is important to think of the things you didn’t get done during the day, these are the first tasks I will complete the next day.

Harvey Norman is a great company to work for and we are often treated to company events outside of working hours including workshops or even awards nights.