Retail and the Real World

Never ever ever trust retailers. Hopefully by now were all shopping online.

This September will mark the five year anninversary of me being involved with a retail chain at an at least part time basis. Now that I have almost a full year of white collar experience under my belt we can begin to compare and contrast the two professions. What seperates the retail work experience from the business world?

Honesty.

Now admittedly, I am making some extreemly sweeping generalizations here. However the lessons I have learned from retail bosses essentially summed up to:

1. The customer is not always right.
2. You are there to let the customer know how he/she thinks
3. Full disclosure of fees should never be directly stated.
4. When cornered, policy can be manipulated or intentionally misinterpeted.
5. We don't need the business of a client who doen't fully comply with our demands.

Perhaps I have had a poor experience or bad management. I dont want to come off as the jaded retail employee. Retail has assisted me through a number of the steps of life. However lets compare and contrast the lessons learned at my current employer.

1. Over communication is a requirement.
2. Even if the truth hurts it will be brought to the attention of a client.
3. Policy is an unbreakable truth.
4. The input of our clients is our most valuable resources. Identifying the trends of needs versus the flaws of our product will only make us stronger.
5. We want every clients business. The best sales presentation comes from recomendation.

Today as I handled a very touchy issue with a client who was on the brink of anger my first thougts run to the principles I have learned in retail. I want to scheme, I want to figure out a way out of this mess.

Fortunately, my thoughts returned to appropriate course plotting. Honesty prevailed, policy had my back, and a client will be retained. The sooner I can lose the retail mentallity the better. Not just in how I manage my career, but how I manage my life.

Links to make you

Ultimate Arm Wrestling
The Science behind the sound of Rice Krispies