Position:
- Department Manager of stationary as of Feb. 2011
- Sales Associate in Shoes, Stationary, Lawn & Garden, Hardware, and Receiving
Location:
Eldersburg, Maryland
State College, Pennsylvania
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Also helped in 4 other stores in MD for remodels
Dates Employed:
10/10/2002- 11/29/2011
My Responsibilities
- Customer service
- Employee development
- Evaluate information from employment interviews
- Asses staff and applicant skills levels
- Oriented new employees
- Improved efficiency and encouraged growth of 20+ associates
- Inventory management
- Product merchandising
- Vendor relations
- Stocking and ordering merchandise
Experience I Gained:
- Learned how to manage multiple people and place them based on their strengths
- Developed high customer service standards that routinely brought people back, often looking for me to help.
- Learned to take ownership of customers to help in a variety of departments
- Gained an understanding of merchandising techniques that increase sales
- Learned the importance of proper communication between upper management and employees. Lack of communication creates stress and confusion, proper communication creates team work and efficiency.
- Gained an understanding of store planning. I was a part of 4 remodels in 3 different stores and saw the ups and downs of each.
Notable Points:
- I achieved above average reviews for my customer service standards
- I routinely took charge of the Back to School section at Walmart because I understood the customers needs and what was needed every year to succeed.
- During a remodel, I created my own floor plan for the stationary department that better planned for the way people shop. I improved the adjacency flow of related items, and would have cut back on the confusion in finding products. Unfortunately this plan never got implemented because they said it was too late in the process. Example Here
- I routinely went out of my way to help customers, even if it meant working in other departments. My favorite stories involve not giving up on finding a solution, even when the customer may have done so.
- I was routinely called on for organizational projects. These include multiple week long projects sorting seasonal merchandise to allow more efficient picking, to the organization of a fixture trailer that took about 24 hours to complete myself.
- I take initiative if something needs to be done and I know no one else plans on doing it. My best story for this is the building of new cart corrals