Jan 11, 2008

More About The Hardware Business

I missed my post yesterday due to circumstances beyond my control. That's all I can say on the matter. I am in the middle of my work grind, you know the one where I work two and a half days? This week at the hardware store, things are going much more smoothly for me. Now that I know where most things are located, I don't have to constantly ask my coworkers for help, which makes us all happier. Also I am beginning to feel more confident in my ability to provide correct information. I continue to be impressed by the whole operation too. We use a radio system to communicate among the employees, so that when a customer needs help one of us can be summoned to the assist them. These people provide terrific customer service. the last thing you want in retail is for a customer to leave because no one helped them. I very impressed that the employees to a person, are enthusiastic about their job. I may be the exception, but I'm doing my best to pretend. The manager goes out of her way to acknowledge a job well done. That may seem like a small thing, but most workers don't get much in the way of positive feedback from their bosses. Another thing that is interesting is that the owners of my store have a computer program that lets us see how the store is doing financially for the day, week, month or year and allows us to see how that compares to historical data. We can see how many sales there have been, average sale per customer, profit, etc. It is very unusual for management to let the workers have that sort of access to the financial data. What I have noticed is that all the employees are very interested in the business details of the store. As I understand it the employee bonuses are based upon financial performance and because they have a vested interest and they have access to information, they really key in on profitability, by controlling costs and maximizing sales through good customer service. There seem to be some very bright people running this business. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

5 comments:

dennis said...

Dennis is glad things are running smoothly for Merle.

Kurt said...

This hardware store is in America, right?

Bobby D. said...

The Ace I go to in the Catskills has nice helpful people. Maybe it is an Ace thing.

Fred said...

I know you are being pressured to garden & golf, plus you have a part-time job. It might be time to remove the Delts from Campus - Your call, though.

Steve Reed said...

It's amazing what happens when employees have a stake in the business' success, isn't it?