Sales Assistants (General)
Sell goods and services such as food, clothing, hardware, household appliances, office supplies and cosmetics, in retail and wholesale establishments.
A Saturday on the shop floor
You are a sales assistant on a busy Saturday at a homewares store, serving customers, stocking shelves and answering the phone. It is 11am. The shop is full, the phone is ringing and a pallet of new stock has just been left near the door. Your manager is out at the bank.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I bought this heater two weeks ago and it will not turn on. I do not have the receipt, but I paid by card. I need it by tonight because we have visitors coming and it is freezing. What are you going to do?
Tell her no receipt means no help, because those are the shop's rules
Mrs Tanaka leaves furious and tells friends about it. A card payment is a form of proof, and there was a fair way to help.
Find the sale from her card, test the heater and follow the returns process
The sale is found in the system and the heater is faulty. You follow the returns process, and Mrs Tanaka goes home with a working one.
Swap the heater for a new one straight away without recording it, to save time
Mrs Tanaka is happy, but the stock count is now wrong and your manager is left wondering where a heater went.
One of these is on special and the other is a more expensive brand. They look the same to me. My wife just wants one that boils quickly and is easy to clean. Which one would you buy?
Recommend the more expensive one, since it earns the shop more money than the special
Mr Gill buys it, then reads the specifications at home and sees there was no real difference. He does not come back.
Check what each one does, then tell him honestly which suits his wife's needs
The special has what she wants, and Mr Gill happily takes it. He also picks up a pack of filters, and tells his wife about the helpful person at the shop.
Say they are both good and let him decide for himself, since you do not want to push him
It is a fair answer, but he came to you for guidance and leaves unsure. Without help he may well buy neither.
I have a queue of five and the card machine has frozen. Can you take over the phone? It's a woman asking about an order, and I think she is upset. I really need to deal with this line first.
Take the call, listen to her, write down the details and tell her when someone will ring back
The caller feels heard, and the register line is helped. You did well, though you left a customer on the shop floor waiting a little longer than you wanted.
Let the phone ring out, because customers in the shop come first
The caller rings back three times and eventually posts a complaint. Ignoring a call completely left her with no one to listen to.
Take the call, then bring the card machine problem to your manager when she returns
You listen, log the order issue and help Sam too. When your manager returns, she sorts the machine out and thanks you both.
How it went
By closing time the shelves were stocked, the phone was answered and a heater was swapped properly. Retail sales work is about listening first and then helping with what someone really needs. Do you like the idea of a job where every customer is a small puzzle?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The first ladder
A fictional case set in a family-run homewares and gift shop on the main street of a fictional country town.
The situation
Daniela worked part-time in a homewares and hardware store on Saturdays. A young man came in wanting to buy a ladder, because his landlord had asked him to fix a ceiling light. He pointed at the cheapest one on the shelf, a short stepladder, and was ready to pay. Daniela's manager liked her to mention the bigger, more expensive ladders. But the customer mentioned that the ceiling was in a stairwell, and Daniela could see that the small stepladder would not suit that job.
What they did
Daniela asked a few more questions about the space and what he was planning to do. She did not push the most expensive model. Instead she explained why a stepladder would be hard to use safely in a stairwell, and suggested he ask his landlord to arrange a tradesperson for that job. She helped him find the right ladder for a different, smaller task he mentioned, and wrote the tradesperson idea on the receipt.
How it turned out
He bought a small ladder for the job he could do safely, and rang the landlord about the stairwell. He came back a few weeks later for paint and asked for Daniela by name. Her manager noticed the repeat customer and asked her to show other staff how she asked questions.
What would you do?
- How did Daniela put the customer's safety ahead of a quick sale?
- What questions could you ask to find out what someone really needs?
- Would you like a job where you meet so many different people in a day?