Yesterday was my first day of work. Finally! I've been waiting to be on the schedule or even to be used on any of my call-in shifts. I was scheduled to work from 3pm to 8pm with a possible extension to 10:30pm if it was busy. I had my VCR set to tape Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy, a Luna bar in my purse to snack on during my break and was ready to rock the sales floor. At Bath & Body Works they give us girls lockers to store our purses in so I got to fight with a silly combination lock for a few minutes after I got clocked in. You would think that after working at a bank that has two combination locks on the safes that I would be able to work the stupid things. But no, it took me about four attempts to get it open at the start of my shift and three and the end of it. I got my name tag made, apron on, and spy gear placed (ear piece and communication pack, very top secret like) before I stepped out onto the floor for a quick overview of the many specials and sales going on and then instructed as to what I'd be doing.
I was working the front half of the store greeting people, introducing Vanilla Noir the new fragrance, helping people find what they're looking for, giving bags to people with their arms full of merchandise, and straightening the displays. For a while foot traffic was kind of slow and the front of the store was so well stocked and straightened you would have thought we had not opened yet that day. Well, maybe it wasn't quite that organized but I had nothing else happening so I just kept making sure everything looked good. Later Suzanna, one of the managers, told me that she liked that I didn't just stand around if there weren't customers in the store. Go me! Even if I wasn't new and trying to impress them so they give me more hours, it bugs me when people think it's ok to be paid to do nothing. I've worked with a few people that thought it was ok to put off doing the work that needed to be done and I don't think it is fair to everyone else that they work with or the customers that it may end up affecting. The only thing that she said that I needed to work on was offering demos to customers. I just find it a little awkward just demonstrating a product on a customer but I figured out a way that I can easily offer the demo. Instead of something along the lines of "we have a new fragrance, Vanilla Noir, let me have you try the lotion..." I have been practicing "we have a new fragrance, Vanilla Noir, that I'd like to show you, would you like to try it or just smell it?" That way I'm giving them the choice to try that product but still making sure that they are introduced to it. That's right, along with my spy gear I was also wearing my thinking cap.
I had a few interesting customer interactions at work, the type that make you want to go back just to see what other situations you may have. I had one lady who kept asking me questions about the air freshening products that we offer. She wanted to know what she could use that isn't a plug in because she doesn't trust those and isn't a candle because she doesn't like to burn things. So, I told Anti-Pyro that we have room sprays that work nicely and have the travel ready air freshener which can be clipped or placed wherever she needs. So after talking to her for far to long about how she can make her apartment smell nice for the holidays she wandered toward the back half of the store to do more shopping. About five minutes later, Anti-Pyro walks back up to me and asks me how much our cashmere teddy bears are. I check the tag, let her know and she thanks me and walks back to the other end of the store. After that I start saying "let any of us know if you have any questions" rather than "let me know". Not that I minded helping her but she could have easily asked one of the three other girls working instead of walking all the way back up to me. Later this nice, chronologically advanced woman came into the store and told me that she was happy to have found us. Apparently a few years ago the store was downtown or something and she moved away when the store moved to the mall so she didn't think we were in the area anymore. I don't know, I was very confused I just know that she was happy to have been reunited with the store. I showed her Vanilla Noir and answered a question she had about one of the products then left her to browse when I checked on someone else. A few other times I helped her with stuff and when her bag was full and about to head up to the register to check out she walked over and asked me if I work on commission. I told her that I didn't but then wondered if she was asking because she wanted to give me credit or because I acted like I was looking for a sale. I am pretty sure it was because she liked me and the service I offered her and she wanted to give me credit for the sale if possible.
I also had this guy wander in who looked so lost. He was buying gifts for an exchange at his work and had no idea of what to get. I helped him out with some of the pre-made gift sets and you could see the relief on his face. I also had this guy who was shopping for his wife and had no idea about what was going on. I think he thought we were more like Sephora or somewhere that has more of skin care products rather than pamper yourself products. I asked him if he had any ideas and was trying to ask him open ended questions to get an idea of how I could help him with suggestions but he just wouldn't answer with anything helpful. Seriously the only thing I learned was he didn't want lotion and she has oily skin. I feel like I offered nearly everything possible but he just didn't seem interested. I felt like sending him to Longs or Rite Aid to just look in their skin care section.
My last interesting person was a grandmother shopping for her 12 year old granddaughter. She wanted to get her some fun lotions and lip glosses that are age appropriate so I showed her where our kids collection is and helped her pick out some lip glosses that were just shiny and glittery rather than adding color. The lip glosses are currently on sale for $5 each rather than their usual $7.50 so go get some for stocking stuffers and make the ladies happy. Sorry, couldn't help myself. So granny bought a handful of lip glosses, two kid lotions, two kid body sprays, mini seasonal hand sanitizers, and a pair of the softest socks in the world (also on sale!) for her granddaughter. I loved helping her and talking with her but I had a hard time freeing myself to check on other customers which I need to be able to do. Turned out that it wasn't too much of a problem because we weren't too busy otherwise and she ended up spending about $75 on all the stuff she bought. Our goal, in order to meet our sales goals, is to have something like 4 out of every 10 people that coming in to buy something and I think that of the people that I helped, probably 7 of every 10 ended up buying something. I doubt it was all me, but I like to think that I facilitated in some of those sales occurring.
So you would think that with such a successful sounding shift they would have needed me to stay until 10:30, right? Wrong. Even though people that were coming in were also leaving having purchased something, we were not getting a lot of people entering the store. Because of that they ended up sending me home at 6pm. So my shift that should have been five hours was only a smidgen over three. My training lasted longer than my first day of real work. So I am trying to find out if Color Me Mine is still interested in hiring me. I can't have a job that doesn't need me to work. Doesn't make for a very good paycheck nor does it keep me busy. I don't need to read through my Stuart Woods books that fast. Hopefully I'll have good news from them soon.
Sorry about the new record breaking long post. But I hope the alliteration aided in any agony.
Loves.
All of the First Days
1 week ago
0 comments:
Post a Comment