March 15, 2014

►    Customer Feedback:  Chris C from Westford, MA stated that his general shopping experience with us was Excellent.  “Furniture well displayed, prices easy to see.”   Did any of our team members do an unusually good job?  “Andrew M – very pleasant, professional, good follow-up.”  Sales help and communication were rated Excellent.  What do we do really well?  “Good quality furniture, clean store, good light.”

►    Advertising, promotions, specials, everything continues from last week:  “Patty O’Furniture”. This month’s color is ivory, except in the Patio Furniture department.

►    Happy Birthday to Ann A on Thursday, March 20^th.

►    A belated Happy Birthday to Julia, on Monday, March 10^th.

►    From Anne-Marie: There are business-sized cards at the registers now listing my email address for customers that have not received their Seasonal Reward$ or have questions about the program.

Also, Patrick had me add serial numbers to some of your screens in RetailPro.  Some items now require serial numbers on receipts and sales orders.  A small box appears to enter serial number, but if you right click on the down arrow, the serial numbers display for items received into inventory. If you have questions, please see me.

We have 4 XP computers that we are offering to employees for free. They all have Microsoft Office on them.  If you are interested,  please drop me a note.  If we have more employees than computers, we will do a raffle.

►    Congratulations.  The written fire drills last quarter resulted in ten people getting a bonus, and only six took a hit to their bonus.  Since most of the mistakes were very small, we paid FAR more money in bonuses than we deducted.  Two notes for next time:

1.  The store manager’s list now includes that if there is no assistant manager on duty, the store manager takes the assistant manager’s duties.
2.   While I understand the temptation, typed answers will no longer be accepted.  They must be originally hand-written.

►    From Patrick:

1.  There is now a training schedule posted underneath the regular store schedule that gives all employees the opportunity to gain more knowledge in different areas.  Anyone can attend any class, and if you are scheduled on that day, you are expected to attend even if the class is not in your “ area” of the store.  If you are not scheduled you are encouraged to attend.  You will be paid for two hours even if you are not here for that long.  This schedule will change as we get new topics and they will not always be on Sundays.  If you have any questions, please let me know
2. Please see me, Mia, or Stephanie if you have questions on how to handle winter damage phone calls.  If you are not familiar with what to do please ask.

►    The Contractor Report Card and People Are Talking books have been moved above the Integrity wall, to:

1.  Face both departments.
2.  Be at eye level.
3.  Put the contractor books facing the customer purchasing an above ground pool so that they may remind the sales person of them.
4.  Make it more likely that the sales person might show it to the customer.

►    From the Reader’s Digest:

Life in These United States:  My sister got a call from her son’s kindergarten teacher.  When he’d gone in to check on Little James in the bathroom, he noticed the boy was using a urinal.  “That’s odd,” my sister said.  “We never taught him how to use a urinal.”  “I could tell,” said the teacher.  “He was sitting in it.”