It’s not surprising John Lester joined the retail sector straight from school. Sales, he says, runs in the family. His grandparents worked at Woolworths in the 1950s and, after being recruited by Sainsbury’s where his mother had been employed, he then worked for Tesco for several years before managing a floor at Harrods, the world-famous department store in London.
Then seven years ago he saw a vacancy in Edinburgh for Richer Sounds, the renowned hi-fi, home cinema and TV company. He decided it was time to move from food and beverages into electronics.
Quickly appointed assistant manager, he is now manager of the company’s Glasgow store.
Whatever the retail commodity, John points out that skills are readily transferable in the High Street, whether it’s dealing with accounts, inventory or, most importantly, the customer – in other words, if you fancy a retail role, you need to have a high degree of multi-tasking.
There are 53 Richer Sounds stores in the UK, but a lot of autonomy is delegated to store managers.
“It’s not technically a franchise but that’s almost how I treat it in terms of the store’s performance,” he says. “I get products from Richer Sounds and it’s very much my responsibility to make money, to ensure that all aspects of health and safety are complied with and that my staff are fully trained so the business is a successful and sustainable one.”
It’s a recipe that’s certainly working. John says the Glasgow store is consistently one of the top three performers in the UK and in some weeks the busiest nationwide.
It’s clearly a very demanding sector and John says that key to the company’s – and his own store’s – longstanding success is a commitment to continual training and development. In fact, the first three hours of every working day are dedicated to staff training, following up on enquiries and making phone calls to make sure customers are happy with their recent purchases.
He stresses the personal touch is what’s needed to attract people away from the apparently quick-and-easy option of “click and buy” online.
“With the kind of products we sell, trends and specs change almost every week,” he points out, “so as a specialist shop our staff must be up to speed. This means they can give the best advice to the customer – and if it this involves talking to them for 20 minutes or more, we’re happy to do that.
“We also practice the ‘Kaizen’ culture of continuous improvement: a philosophy that involves all our employees. Put very simply, if something’s not working, we change it – and we all understand why we’re doing that.”
John adds it can be a real challenge in today’s retail sector to get people into the store.
He says: “They can be making a substantial purchase, which can be quite daunting, so an ethical approach is important – we won’t sell a product we think is not right for the customer.
“People work hard for their money and we’re privileged to be entrusted with a sale. We live and breathe these products all day long and it’s extremely rewarding to us that customers leave with the product that’s best for them – and we follow up to make sure of that.”
For those looking for a retail career John has some succinct advice: “When I take people on, the important factors include a willingness to learn, an outgoing attitude, an appetite for hard work, immaculate presentation and good timekeeping.
“Everyone at Richer Sounds starts on the shop floor and from there the sky is the limit as far as career prospects are concerned – including becoming a member of our board of directors.”
If meeting John has inspired you to embark on an electrifying new career in retail, charge ahead with the latest vacancies from s1jobs.