Why Retail?

One question I get from time to time is, “Why retail?” I can understand the confusion; it doesn’t seem to fit with all the other experience I have, and it certainly isn’t related to the public policy career I aspire toward. However, I don’t believe that retail experience (depending on what it is) should always be brushed off as useless. In fact, many of the skills one learns as a customer service associate are skills that are necessary to succeed in the nonprofit world.

It’s true! Stop laughing!

Customer service associates — speaking from my own personal experience; I know that not every company is the same — have to be professional and friendly, they have to know how the operation works on a number of levels (the stock room, the cash wrap, maintenance, and so on), and they must have excellent verbal communication skills to properly understand their customers’ needs and be able to meet them to the best of their ability. Sometimes they have to deliver bad news, work with difficult people, or otherwise navigate through a problem in a professional manner. To keep the visual maintenance and price point changes up to date, the associate must also have attention to detail and be able to shift through a lot of paperwork (not-fun, not-fun-at-all tedium) to ensure that everything is accurate. Every monetary transaction must be properly documented and, if the associate works the closing shift, tallied at the end of the night and compared with the books, to ensure there has not been any financial loss. When it comes to meeting sales quotas, the associate must know how to sell the benefits of various items (or promotions) that customers may not otherwise be inclined to purchase (or take part in) without being pushy or obnoxious. Their ultimate goal is to build and maintain customer relationships, often with a diverse population. If customers don’t come back, they can’t make their sales quotas, and then they’re out of luck! All this has to be done in a fast-paced environment — and I’m not even going to go into interstore or interdepartment relations.

Now, envision a modest-sized NPO instead of a retail shop. Instead of a customer service associate, imagine a program manager who is trying to keep her/his particular program afloat in terms of participation and/or funding. What kinds of skills would this person need to have in order to build and maintain relationships with the community and sell the benefits of volunteering or donations/sponsorships to individuals and local businesses? I’m thinking all of the above. Additionally, it is probably likely that this program manager also has to serve multiple roles, such as office manager or treasurer.

Now, it does seem like a bit of a stretch because the content area is vastly different. It’s not quite the same thing to resolve a mismanaged incident on the sales floor and resolve tensions between another NPO that wants to hold their annual fundraiser on the same weekend as yours, but the same skill set is necessary to effectively navigate through each of these situations. Being able to interact well with the public is extremely important.

On a more personal level, I decided to give retail a shot because I had always been painfully shy — nervous stutter and all! I would have loved an office job where I could hide behind my cubicle and rarely have to interact with anyone else; I’d just get my work done and go. While I would be comfortable, I knew that I would never be able to build up the communication and interpersonal skills that would be helpful, if not vital, to my future career success. It seemed like the best course of action would be for me to throw myself into customer service, where I would be interacting with strangers 6 to 8 hours a day. “Terrified” would not be a strong enough word to describe how I felt about this, but over time, it became easier for me. Now I don’t even think about going up to a stranger and striking up a conversation. It’s still not completely natural for me, but I have definitely come a long way. “You’re shy?” someone asked me once. “You’ve got to be kidding.” I don’t think that I’d have much of a chance in public policy if I was still just as nervous and shy as I was a few years ago… I don’t know if I’d have much of a chance working with the community at all, really. So, while it isn’t something that is relevant to what I want to do in the future, it has served me very well on a number of levels, and I think that anyone who would brush off retail experience may be brushing off a valuable opportunity and skill set.