May 31, 2015
► Events during the next couple of weeks:
May 30: Customer Appreciation Day: Free Gifts with any purchase, while they last.
June 3: Pool School 101 ~ Introduction to Pool Maintenance, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
June 13-14: Customer Appreciation Day: Free Gifts with any purchase, while they last.
► Customer Feedback: A Seasonal Specialty Stores Report Card was received from customer Charles D. of Candia, NH. His general shopping experience with us was Excellent. Did any of our team members do an unusually good job? “The warehouse help. I picked up the pool personally and they loaded my pickup with utmost care. Good guys”. Sales help was rated Average. “I expected with what I call a large purchase to see a manager or supervisor at the time of sale to go over some pros and cons.” Operations, communication, and product performance were all rated Excellent. Pool School and the Take-It-Easy program were rated Excellent. What can we do to improve? “See question 4 (wanting a manager to review a large sale)” What do we do really well? “Make sure your customers are well informed after a sale on care of the purchase.”
► All new advertising, weekly specials, and department promotions start Sunday, 5/31: “Pool & Patio Sale”. This month’s color is purple.
► The final Intro to Pool Maintenance class is Wednesday, June 3rd. This is our most important class for beginners. Make sure people know about it.
► Our biggest day in the history of our company was Saturday, May 23. Thank you to all, and in particular for Mia and Allison for making over $15,000 in sales, each.
► Great job parking in the back parking lot Sunday, May 24. Everyone was where you belonged.
► We work so hard to make customers in the store like us, but we do not do such a good job on the phone.
When you are directing a call or taking a message, calling or writing “parts” really screws the customer. Over half of the time that I take the call or return the call, it was not about parts. It was about something more general. How did you screw the customer?
- A true parts call can only be taken in the Parts Department, with access to the computer and possibly the books. But calls about pool advice, skimmer, return, liner, how to fix a filter, what’s wrong with my cleaner – all of those can be answered by many people around the store and the warehouse. Right on the spot, instead of 6-8 hours later. So don’t be general, write or announce the question.
- And when you pick up to take the call, don’t say “How can I help you”. That tells the customer that they completely wasted their time explaining it the first time, say “You have a question about ____________”. They are still going to explain, but they at least feel that someone did their job, and got them to the right person. And if you picked up the wrong call, you know it right away.
► Free lunches this weekend:
- Saturday by Lloyd Flanders (Honey Baked Ham)
- Sunday by Patrick McEwen (Uno’s Chicago Grill).
► From Anne-Marie: Just a reminder. When entering customer’s information on their customer record in RetailPro, please always use all capital letters, and also phone numbers should be entered with the full number (including area code). No punctuation should be used – no dashes, parenthesis or periods. Thank you.
► Internet Humor: A man went to the police office wishing to speak with the burglar who had broken into his house the night before. You will get your chance in court, said the desk sergeant. No, No, No, said the man. I want to know how he got into the house without waking my wife. I’ve been trying to do that for years!