A Day in the life of a Quality Save Manager

6.30am- Get to store to work with fill shift team & see how they are performing with the new training package issued by the company. 7.30am- Getting stuck in with the team, a couple of staff have phoned in sick so it’s all hands to the pump. (Memo to self, two back to work interviews to be scheduled in). We have a big delivery today which all needs putting out by 11am so it’s going to be a hectic morning. 8.15am- Leave the delivery for ten minutes to hold my morning team brief before we open the doors in fifteen minutes. Go through the previous days sales results (good!) & what our target is for the day. During the briefing I also go through the latest promotions & talk about the speed / service on the tills, I’ve noticed we are a bit slower than usual due to training new staff. Our till supervisor is confident we can get to the required level in the next few days so it’s something I will monitor closely. We finish the briefing on a high praising our best performing member of staff for the previous day and open the doors to the waiting customers. 9.30am- Seem to be improving my juggling skills! As well as helping with the delivery I have spoken to head office, spoken to my area manager and 3 customers all in the space of ten minutes…Time for a coffee I think. 10.40am- Didn’t get the coffee, just a shoplifter who thought we would not notice him walking out the door with a lawn mower! The delivery is nearly finished thanks to everyone going the extra mile. Time to check that the merchandising is to standard & the ticketing of all the stock has been done. 11.10am- My area manager arrives it’s time to do my regular store visit report with him. It takes a couple of hours to do and covers all aspects of the store from sales performance to administration/security. It’s good to do these as it gives me pointers on areas to improve & things I am doing better than in other stores! I’m very competitive & recently won the company incentive where all the team were treated to a Hollywood night out. 1.30pm- Area manager has gone and was happy with the store visit report. To be honest I could have done with him not being here this morning as we were staff short but hey ho it’s done now & after a quick sandwich plus that elusive coffee it’s onto the normal daily tasks I need to get done. 2.00pm- Checked the sales figures, so far today and we are up on last week and last year so all good. 3.25pm - Just finished our daily check of the stock files to make sure the system is accurate, also interviewed for a fill shift supervisor (our last one was promoted to assistant manager).I saw three people & I have picked a good person with a strong background. Can’t wait for them to start as this is a vital part of the management team in store. In my store I have an assistant manager, till supervisor and fill shift supervisor which shows you how busy we are. People who join us find it difficult to believe the volume of product we sell everyday and it can take them some time to get used to how fast paced this store/company is, I love being busy and getting stuck in as well as managing, you have to be really hands on and able to delegate/prioritize to survive…but if you can do that the worlds your oyster. 5.15pm- It’s been a long day and my feet are aching! No time to sit in the office in this job. Facing up the shelves for the morning now so that when the fill shift start at 6.30am it’s easier for them to put product out. We have been really busy today so the place is trashed, we have a big job on our hands to get everything tidy for the morning but the good thing is today’s sales bring me closer to target which equals bonus and believe me I’ve got big plans for my bonus this quarter! 6.00pm - Going home at last. Although I don’t usually work nearly 12 hours a day it’s just one of those things you have to do every so often. If I had to sum up being a store manager I would say you are the ringmaster in a circus you have to know everything that’s going on and be able to put on the best show for the customers even if in the background it’s been a bit chaotic getting the show going. I love working with people and love retail so for me it’s great!