My Métier d’Excellence
I’ve been the manager of the Fred corner in the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann department store since 2015. I manage a team of four sales associates, and my role is first and foremost to support them in their day-to-day work and contribute to the sale. I’m also responsible for tracking and reporting sales, and for implementing the Maison’s commercial action plans. In addition to that, I recently helped with preparations for our new point of sale in Dubai.
What I love most about my métier
The challenge. Customers in a department store don’t always have a lot of time so you have to very quickly win their attention to meet the challenge of transforming them into buyers. This challenge is also why I actually prefer selling pieces from our new collections – such as Pretty Woman this year – rather than the iconic Fred collections.
Passing on the métier to new generations
This is something I’m always thinking about in my daily work, and not just with younger generations. It’s important for me to see the people on my team develop, and I think the best way to advance is to gain customer-facing experience. That’s why I do what I call “quick coaching” sessions with my sales associates after a customer interaction to rapidly debrief and see what they did well and what could be improved.
An anecdote
A woman wanted to give her grandson a gift, but although she clearly liked one of the pieces, there was a problem with her budget. Two of us were taking care of her, and we took time to listen carefully and understand her. Finally we proposed to have her grandson’s initials engraved on the jewel at no extra cost. That had such a strong emotional impact that she went ahead and purchased the piece. This story is instructive because it shows how much impact emotion and attention to personalization can have on the customer experience.