My vacation work at Urban Degree Fourways consisted of two parts - customer service and shop keeping.

 

My main job in customer service was to develop a relationship quickly with the customer and establish rapport so that they are more likely to buy something in the shop. The customer service involved:

 

1) Greeting customers as they entered the shop and aiding them in finding their right size clothing. 

 

2) Offering advice on what they should be buying while they perused through the clothing racks. It was required of me to learn quickly what clothing the shop had and the precise colour names used in the shop. 

 

3) The customer service was finished off by accompanying the customer to the till, neatly folding and bagging the clothing they had purchased and handing them the bag with a smile as they walked out of the doors. 

 

Customer service in the retail business taught me three valuable skills:

- How to communicate effectively and persuasively

- Honed my ability to learn quickly and be adaptable to many situations

- How to deal with many different personalities and navigate customer's moods and behaviours

 

The shop keeping part of my vacation work involved folding and steaming the clothes to maintain order in the shop, sorting out the store room, unboxing the new stock and stocking the shelves with it as well as styling the mannequins. Urban places a large emphasis on the team dynamic of the store and it was required that we work effectively and productively as a team. 

 

Shop keeping is valuable as even though the tasks are little, the shop cannot function without it. This has taught me that no matter how menial a task may seem, it is always important in the bigger scheme of things. Furthermore, shop keeping has taught me to be diligent and methodical in the work that I do.