March 8, 2014
► A Seasonal Specialty Stores Report Card was received from Phillip N in Hudson, NH. He stated that his general shopping experience with us was Excellent. Did any of our team members do an usually good job? “Patrick always has the right answers and great advice.” Sales help, operations, communication, and product performance were all rated Excellent. Pool School, in-store advice, and water testing were all rated Excellent. He would recommend us to a friend. “One stop shopping for swimming pools.” What can we do to improve? “Maintain your high level of service!!” What do we do really well? “Making your customers feel comfortable. Taking the time to not only sell, but explain.”
► Advertising, specials, everything changes Sunday, March 9: “Patty O’Furniture Sale”. This month’s color is ivory, except in Patio Furniture.
► We had 35 One-of-These Awards for February; two for Customer Service. Finalists were Corey, Patrick, Ann, Anne-Marie, and Jen. Owner’s Choice was Corey, and the drawing winner was Landon.
► Swimline liners feature exclusive Lamiclear™ technology: a clear acrylic top coating that protects the liner from chemicals, ultraviolet-caused fading, and abrasion. Only on Swimline and Sharkline liners (made by Swimline). We added a reminder to the liner price list.
► Congratulations to Mia, who was honored to receive a Book Award at last week’s Dale Carnegie class. Our team members have now won two awards in two weeks, and I am starting to feel like Robert Kraft; getting used to his team always winning!
► From Patrick: Reminder – Kyle B from Maytronics will be here March 11 at 9AM for robotic cleaner training. Please attend if you can.
► Spring ahead, fall back. Turn your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night/Sunday morning, March 8-9, and don’t be late for work, Sunday.
► I had an interesting experience Wednesday. A young woman who has been training to sell products in-home, visited us at home “just for practice”. She was very personable, confident, and well-prepared. She kept her presentation very conversational; even as she followed her company’s approved script. Consider my presentation to many of you on
February 26: that the most important job of a salesperson is to sell yourself. She started with an introduction to her life and how she came to this job. Throughout our meeting, she constantly referred to her experiences with other customers and friends. That is exactly what I was trying to tell you. Plus, when Jeanne described a problem, she immediately and confidently advised the product to solve the problem. She used an alternative close, and Jeanne spent $250. It was an excellent example of great selling: particularly with only three weeks of training in a very complex product line. Particularly for someone who only graduated from high school eight months ago. Oh, and the salesperson was Julia.
► Even as we buy ketchup, salt, plastic dinnerware and more, the lunchroom table is crowded with five pounds of ketchup packages, salt packs, plastic dinnerware, and more. Why don’t we use up the FREE things before we use the ones we buy? It would give you more room to eat, too.
► From the Reader’s Digest:
Life in These United States: When my lifelong-bachelor uncle turned 78, he traveled across the country to visit a dozen or so old girlfriends. “How’d it go?” I asked when he returned. “Thank God I never married any of them,” he said. “They’re all widows.”