William Fensom

When I became assistant manager I was extremely proud as it was what I had been working towards for a good few years.

When becoming assistant manager it naturally increased the roles and responsibilities I had within the store.

One being it meant I had to work side by side with the store manager to continuously improve and maintain the standards of the store, as well as having attractive merchandising displays with all the correct POS. As well as motivating the team to increase performance and exceed KPI targets

Having to run the shop on a daily basis managing my time to optimise what jobs need to be completed at what time during the day, as it would be more important to compete other tasks first.

Managing my colleagues to get the best out of them whether this be developing their confidence or increasing their skills with tasks and routines in store.

Assisting and implementing visual merchandising and following guidelines send down to us. Along with improvising what product sell best in store and optimising product placement.

Carried out the recruitment process of interviewing, hiring and training new members of staff and developing their passion to add to a dedicated team.

Trained any current or new staff on best practices to achieve optimal productivity.

Addressed any customer issues calmly and professionally to deliver quick and successful solutions.

Took part in stock control by both setting up and carrying monthly stocktakes.

Enforced company policies and guidelines for all employees.

Was in charge of gathering all staff's availability and completing the rota for the store. Including sticking within in our hours allocated to us and ensuring all staff had an acceptable work life balance.

Having a full understanding of health and safety policies and procedures and ensuring all health and safety checks were carried out whether it was the weekly or monthly checks.

Having a full knowledge and understanding of how to use the store PC and being able to use all the correct programmes and reports need to run the store.

All the other responsibilities and actions I carried out in previous roles were carried on with me as assistant manager.

When being a supervisor this is where I developed my leadership styles, skills and my confidence in my management career. And also gaining my passion and hunger to progress within the retail industry.

I was trusted with keys to the building and on certain days I would open the shop, unset the alarm clear any delivery and then open the shop until more management came in. This meant I was responsible for the store and my colleagues for 1-4 hours.

Despite not carrying out interviews or having a say on who got hired I still help with parts of training whether it be training new staff on tills, clothing or footwear or providing them with knowledge of the company.

I would also handle any customer issues or complaints whilst remaining calm and helping wherever I could.

I would also assist the senior management of the store in maintaining and improving the standards of the store and ensuring at the end of each day the store was left in a suitable tidy and presentable condition.

Priced and displayed items clearly and correctly, enabling ease of retrieval for customers.

Maintained spotless and tidy working areas to create risk-free and productive environments.

Led by example to maintain team motivation, ensuring daily tasks were performed accurately and efficiently.

I also leant a basic understanding of the admin procedures within the store. Carrying out health and safety checks and using the store PC

All the things I done as a casual sales assistant I took with me into my role as a supervisor.

When I first started it was only part time, I worked a couple of evenings a week and at the weekends. When being a part time member of staff I learnt all the basics of retail and then progressed from there. Some of the things I learnt included tidy and maintaining the standards of the store ensuring its kept as visually pleasing to customers as possible.

I would regularly use the tills to clear the queues and keep customer happy while getting money in the till for the business.

Cashing up at the end of shifts and completing daily cash up forms and cash flows and adding change to the tills ready for the next day.

I learnt how to carry out basics tasks in store including daily price changes, valuations checks of staff and weekly internal stock pulling the send back to head office.

Learning the delivery process within in the store for both footwear and clothing. On delivery shifts we would unpack the cages sent in to us, for footwear we would work away the boxes into the stockroom and then tag the shopfloor stock and work it into the tables on shopfloor. Whereas on clothing we would unpack the clothing into the appropriate tubs split in the correct section of the store. Then it would be a case of hanging, tagging and cubing the clothing onto rails and then clearing the rails with the clothing on. The third stage of delivery would be clearing the accessories it is similar to both of the others, we empty the accessories into tubs split into different sections of the store and clearing the tubs and putting out the accessories. It is a very important part of the job ensuring all delivery is put out in the correct play and is presented the best it possibly can be.

I would support profit protection, ensuring effective cost control at all times.

Improved product appeal by assisting with creation and maintenance of store displays.

Guaranteed high levels of customer satisfaction through product knowledge and attentive service.

Built lasting relationships with clients through customer service interactions.

Carried out back-of-house maintenance, for clear, easy-to-navigate stockroom management.

Processed returned or exchanged items and provided refunds to customers.

Assisted customers in locating specific items to boost satisfaction.

Collaborated with sales managers to meet target quotas.

Always ensure I arrived to work both on time and in a tidy and presentable way to represent the company.

Everything I learnt and developed myself in as a casual sales assistant I took with me into further roles.