Cynthia Cornes, sales advisor, Fenwick Colchester, a finalist for the Excellence in Housewares Retail Employee of the Year Award is in the hot seat as HousewaresNews.net asks two questions relating to festive trade and the year ahead.
What is your best advice for coping with the busy festive sales period?
“I always enjoy the festive season so my advice is to share the spirit of Christmas. Enjoy the buzz and welcome every customer. Know your products: what is selling best for Christmas and what is useful for Christmas entertaining? Be able to advise on premium quality products and be able to show customers good deals for gifts, such as sets of Global knives.
It may be busy but take time to find out your customers’ needs – for example what hob will be used for cookware.”
What’s going to be important for your business in 2020?
“Training is top of our list. I have gained so much knowledge from going to suppliers’ training events, such as Le Creuset’s masterclass, and then sharing what I’ve learnt with colleagues and through demonstrations. It is really helpful to have reps coming in to train in store too (Henckels, for example), as more of us can take part. However, training is not just learning about our products as customer service training is also very important.”
Top: Cynthia at Fenwick Colchester.
