July 2024 NEWSLETTER
Retail is all about the people. Customers and team.
People.
We’ve been running a series of posts on the days in the lives of people who lead different aspects of retail.
We think it’s an insightful read and found it a fun exercise to reflect on how spend our own days..
Day in the Life of.....
a School of Retail Co-founder and Director
1. Name/Role Title: Claire, Co-founder and Director
2. What do you love about your role? I love that I am completely myself at School of Retail and that I have the freedom to be creative in how we bring exceptional customer and team experiences to life. It’s my way to improve our world, my tiny butterfly effect.
3. How do you start your day? Always with a cup of tea my lovely husband brings me in bed. Then I meditate for 25 minutes before the morning bustle commences. After I drop my daughter at school I go running and attend a yoga class before I start work.
4. What’s one thing you do as part of your role that people may not realise? I write our newsletters. I love to write and connect our community with articles that might inspire.
5. How do you want your customers to feel? That they are rapt to have found a straightforward learning solution that from the get go, provides practical ways to improve their customer and team experience.
6. How do you want your team to feel? We are friends first and have a very open and honest relationship. Knowing Janelle and Aba are both happy is what matters most to me because our best work always flows from there.
7. What’s your top tip for keeping your team engaged each day? We engage each other. We seem to know when one of us needs a lift and laughing together is always what lights us up. This is retail after all – it’s meant to be fun!
Day in the Life of.....
a School of Retail Co-founder and Director
1. Name/Role Title: Janelle, Co-founder and Director
2. What do you love about your role? I love that we get to work with so many incredible retail leaders and we help them understand just how amazing they really are! I also love that what we do never really feels like work. I get to work with my two close friends (Claire and Aba), doing what we love and getting to come up with new and fun ideas to bring our vision to life (and if we like it, we do it! There’s no red tape!)
3. How do you start your day? My mornings are always busy getting my two beautiful kiddos to school but aside from that, some kind of movement is a non negotiable for me. Pilates and a big walk is my favourite way to set me up for the day!
4. What’s one thing you do as part of your role that people may not realise? I coordinate and schedule in our talented tutors to help us facilitate classes.
5. How do you want your customers to feel? Like we genuinely care about them and their results and that we take the time to understand their business instead of just running off the shelf classes. It’s important that we can speak their language!
6. How do you want your team to feel? I want our beautiful team to feel supported as humans and like we can do anything we put our minds to.
7. What’s your top tip for keeping your team engaged each day? Focus on and play to each others’ strengths and talk about what these are often. And don’t forget to celebrate the wins!
Day in the Life of.....
a School of Retail Co-founder and Director
1. Name/Role Title: Aba, Co-founder and Director
2. What do you love about your role? So many things! We get to meet so many amazing individuals and work in such a fun industry. But the opportunity to be creative in how we solve retailers’ issues is a real bonus for me and doing this alongside two very clever and inspiring people like Janelle and Claire is icing on the cake!
3. How do you start your day? I’m not really great at routine so there’s no real set way for how I start my day and it’s very much dependent on whatever I might have on. But my mornings will most often start with listening to music and a cup of tea.
4. What’s one thing you do as part of your role that people may not realise? I’ve been dubbed with a “Head of IT” title, which mainly just involves renewing Zoom subscriptions and the like to be honest, but I’ll take it!
5. How do you want your customers to feel? Like they’ve had a weight lifted off their shoulders and really content that they’re doing something of value for their teams by working with us.
6. How do you want your team to feel? Fulfilled and having fun. We all have other work/side projects/commitments in addition to SOR so making sure everyone is having fun and that the work we do is filling each of our cups in some way is important to me. I also get that we’re very lucky and privileged to be working in a space that we’re all genuinely passionate about so appreciating this as much as possible is key as well.
7. What’s your top tip for keeping your team engaged each day? To enjoy each other’s company. The main reason I work on SOR is because I really love hanging out with Claire and Janelle! So finding ways where we can have fun together in addition to getting work done helps keep us engaged as a team and actually also perform at our best.
Day in the Life of.....
an Assistant Store Manager
1. Name/Role Title: Matthew Zhang, Assistant Store Manager at Westfield Sydney lululemon
2. What do you love about your role? I love the ability to experiment and showcase my leadership in my role. The autonomy given to me is unlike anything I have experienced, particularly in retail. I strive to create an environment where Retail is not just a back-up before your next step, this IS the next step.
3. How do you start your day? I clear all my emails and prioritise what needs to be done. Once the minutiae of admin is complete, I focus on what matters most which is my team and the people that make this business happen. By clearing all distractions, I am able to show up 100% to everyone I meet in the day
4. What’s one thing you do each day as part of your role that people may not realise? I collect information about people's hobbies and interests outside of work so that when it's time to reward them; I have the perfect prize. For example, our latest staff member to be rewarded got a gift card to Restaurant Hubert as he is a fan of fine dining and has been ticking off Sydney's best eateries with his partner. He was thrilled to get it!
5. How do you want your customers to feel? Each person that walks in should get an "Oh, it's you!" reaction from our team, where they can feel like another person is speaking to them authentically and want to connect. Doesn't always have to be about product too, sometimes it's just nice to chat.
6. How do you want your team to feel? Our team should feel supported in their learning, they feel encouraged to perform well in their role, and excited about new things to come. One of the great aspects of working here is that we don't limit anyone's growth. If you want to learn something; we give you the resources, the time, and the coaching but only YOU can make progress.
7. What’s your top tip for keeping your team engaged each day? Be the Model of Excellence that you want to see. Your team will follow your example. This doesn't mean pick up the slack for the whole team, it should be about achieving high goals together.
Day in the Life of.....
a Store Manager
1. Name/Role Title: Kevin, Store Manager at GAZMAN West Perth, also known as Watertown.
2. What do you love about your role? I love that I am given the flexibility to do my job without being micromanaged. We are held accountable for our results, not only including reaching budget, but also store merchandising, windows, back room standards and much more. We are able to have open discussions with our Regional and VM Representative and are made to feel included in decisions without being made to feel silly if we have a question. Gazman is a very inclusive company who pride themselves on having a diverse and wide range of cultures across the business.
We are given ownership of our business and are not persecuted if we make an incorrect decision, rather we are built up instead.
3. How do you start your day? I start my day with 2 strong flat whites before tackling the freeway. I like to get in early so I can begin the day without interruption and see what needs to be done instore for the day. This allows me to emails, reports, budgets and the daily diary.
This helps set the store up for the day
4. What’s one thing you do each day as part of your role that people may not realise? I tend to take a lot on myself because I want the team to be free for customers and not be overly task orientated. However, my team are excellent and have great initiative so they often just get jobs done without the need for direction.
5. How do you want your customers to feel? We always want our customers to feel valued at West Perth, whether they come in for a pair of socks or they want or a full new wardrobe. We have a lot of repeat business and I hear a lot of our customers comment on the easy going and relaxed feeling of the store. They often come back looking for the same team member to serve them and will often travel great distances to get to our store, just for the experience they get.
6. How do you want your team to feel? I would like to think that the team at West Perth feel included and appreciated. I always ask for their opinion on decisions as sometimes I can miss the obvious (and three sets of eyes are better than one). Everyone in the team respects each other and there is no real hierarchy, I really appreciate everything they all do to help us achieve our goals.
7. What’s your top tip for keeping your team engaged each day? Energy is infectious so my top tip is that as the leader, you set that energy. My team are energised by working with me, I like to keep moving and we are quick to get things done, whatever needs to be done, without any grumbling. Lots of fun and banter helps a lot too. Above all, my top tip is to always say thank you at the end of every shift. Courtesy is still alive and people appreciate you noticing their efforts.
Day in the Life of.....
a Retail General Manager
1. Name/Role Title: Belinda Kufersin, General Manager Cable
2. What do you love about your role? I love that it’s dynamic, no two days are the same and I’m able to help guide and influence the team for continuous improvement throughout a very exciting growth phase within the business.
3. How do you start your day? A coffee and a cuddle on the couch with my cavoodle Pippa, reading my emails. Once my son wakes, I’ll take a brief walk before my morning household chores, drop Luca off and straight to the office.
4. What’s one thing you do each day as part of your role that people may not realise? Research, weather looking at influencers, reading about the industry, studying reports. I’m constantly reviewing and researching all aspects associated within the business, normally this happens outside of business hours.
5. How do you want your customers to feel? We certainly want our customers to feel as though “we have gone above and beyond” for them with kindness and understanding.
6. How do you want your team to feel? Inspired! Empowered! And Motivated!
7. What’s your top tip for keeping your team engaged each day? Check-ins are a must, however each team member needs to know how their contribution is vital to the results of the greater team on a daily basis. In a fast-paced game like retail it’s crucial that all team members know our goals and targets at any given time, so that we are all marching in the same direction.
Day in the Life of.....
a Retail HR Manager
1. Name/Role Title: Leanne Lusher, HR Manager
2. What do you love about your role? I love the variety of the role, no two days are the same. I also love that I get to help people become the best versions of themselves. People underestimate how amazing they are and sometime they just need a little nudge in the right direction.
3. How do you start your day? Our office is in Rosebery and parking is a nightmare so I got a Vespa and now my mornings are stress-free as the commute to work is now 15 minutes and I always secure a rock star park. Usually the morning consists of a cup of tea, a quick chat in the kitchen with whomever is making themselves a coffee or breaky and then it's straight to emails before I am usually pulled away from my desk by someone. I am old school and still have a "to-do" list written down, anyone who was a store manager in their past knows it's hard to give up!
4. What’s one thing you do each day as part of your role that people may not realise? I don't know when this happened (because I'm obviously too young for this title)but I am the unofficial Mother Hen of the office. I even have a slack channel called "do better" for when people aren't picking up after themselves LOL! I am the go-to for nearly everything office related.
5. How do you want your customers to feel? Welcomed! We really strive to be inclusive at Incu and we want our customers to always feel genuinely welcomed in our stores whether they are buying something or just wanting to browse. The brands we stock can potentially intimidate people so our goal is to give everyone a wonderful experience so they feel comfortable and relaxed while roaming our stores.
6. How do you want your team to feel? Valued! I always say that the casual employees in our business are just as important as our Department Heads. Everyone plays a part in the success of Incu. I love that any employee can reach out to our Directors or CEO for a chat and that wouldn't be weird. When people are valued they feel inspired, appreciated, motivated, happy and create a wonderful workplace culture.
7. What’s your top tip for keeping your team engaged each day? In a literal sense, we supply a great variety of delightful snacks in the kitchen! More importantly I think keeping your team energised comes down to your own energy and how you approach the day. If you're positive, people tend to pick up on that energy; we have a beautiful office (we have office dogs!), we have a great people and we get to work for Incu! We all have bad days and that's ok, "fake it till you make it" is so outdated and we always want to make sure our team are looking after their overall well-being and we try to support where we can.
We’re excited to host our first Field Trip at Chadstone on Tuesday 13 August. Thrilled it’s sold out so we are creating another session.
Please register your interest here if you’d like to come along.
Click the image above to watch the one minute video that tells you all about our Field Trips.
Our vision is to create a new class of retail.
Explore our services here, we hope you love what we’ve created as much as we do.
See you in store soon
Love, Claire, Janelle and Aba