Monday, September 19, 2016

a new vocabulary

It's easy to pick up new phrases when you immerse yourself in a new business.

I find myself now saying things I never said before.

"I love this new Jonathan Simkhai top; it's so on-trend."

"And you can pair it with these great high-waisted jeans."

"This new blouse has an elevated price-point but you can see why when you put it on."

"And don't forget next week's EGC promotion."(that's an Electronic Gift Card).

"Also, be sure to tell your customers about the GWT." (Gift With Purchase).

"And yes, of course I have been clienteling."

We have a back room for supplies and the supply room is always missing the stuff it's supposed to have. Basic stuff.  Like pens. Shopping bags. Rubber bands. Ribbon. Garment Bags. Stuff I need to do my job.

I mean, really. How ridiculous is it that when a customer needs to sign her receipt, we don't have any pens for her to use.   I need to go to a floor that is "closed for renovations"  and scrounge around for pens that have been left behind.  

No one seems to be responsible for keeping track of low inventory on supplies. 

Garment bags are kept in a closet far from the small supply room where the garment bags  should be kept as that's where we pack up stuff to be shipped out.

And there's so much over-staffing.  Four people are not needed to open the registers when the store is never ever busy until at least two hours after opening.

The other day a customer notices our stained rugs in two separate dressing rooms and comments. "These rooms are disgusting!" she says.  "Don't you have anything better?" Later I approach a sales director to tell her, and her comment back to me, hands on hips, is, "What do you want me to do about it? Get down on my hands and knees and scrub the rugs myself?" (My manager wasn't in the day this happened. When I told him, he called the right people and got the rugs shampooed).

And then there's the low pay. The returns. The draw. The archaic computers that frequently don't work. And the barely-existent vacation and sick day policy.

So I'm thinking, maybe some new words and phrases should be added to the retail-vocabulary. Words like:

  • Business efficiency
  • Accountability
  • Current technology
  • Respect 
  • Equipping sales associates with the tools to do their jobs
  • Improving employee morale
  • Subsidized cafeteria (so we don't pay $6.95 for a small soup and Snapple)

Life could be so much better if the right people could incorporate the right words (and associated actions) into their vocabulary.  

I'm pretty sure sales would improve as a result.

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