Summary
The Garden Centre Sales Associate at 1170 Heron Road Ottawa works in a fast-paced environment that involves constant interaction with customers to deliver friendly and courteous service while explaining features and benefits of lawn and garden products. This role also involves garden centre maintenance (watering and caring for annuals, perennials and nursery stock), stocking shelves, merchandising, customer carry outs, helping to offload trucks and general housekeeping. As part of the Garden Center Team, you will be working weekends and closing no more than 3 shifts/week. This position is a short-term opportunity for the garden center season starting mid April to early July
Responsibilities and Tasks
Customer Service
· Provides excellent customer service to all customers entering the garden centre, by educating them in the care and maintenance of annuals, perennials, nursery stock and related products.
· Smiles, makes eye contact with and greets customers.
· Guides customer to the location of requested items. Locates products in the warehouse.
· Answers questions and provides friendly advice and services to customers.
· Suggests value-added and related products to customers to ensure they go home with what they need.
· Ends the discussion with the customer using a closing statement (e.g., “Is there anything else I can do for you today?” “Did you find everything you were looking for?” “Thank you for shopping at Canadian Tire”).
· Responds to and handles customer inquiries, requests and concerns in a timely manner, over the phone and in person.
· Handles multiple customers in an effective and efficient manner.
· Deals with challenging situations in a professional manner.
· Learns about new lawn and garden products on a regular basis.
· Keeps up to date with in-store promotions, in-store deals and product locations.
Operations
· Ensures that retail basics tasks are executed efficiently (e.g., stocking, labels, facing, etc.).
· Stocks shelves and merchandise display areas using best practices, modules and planograms as guidelines.
· Walks their assigned sections to understand what needs to be accomplished on a daily basis.
· Maintains inventory accuracy (e.g., hole check and bin cap analysis) and identifies/reports low stock levels.
· Maintains and rotates annuals, perennials and nursery stock to ensure they are fresh and appealing.
· Keeps the garden centre neat and tidy. Assists in the receipt of garden centre products.
· Advises management of slow and fast moving products.
· Verifies that all UPCs, Dealer costs and selling price are accurate.
· Ensures that all merchandise to be purchased is rung through the cash register. Reconciles all carry-out purchases.
· Reports stolen and damaged goods to Management.
· Operates computer and RF gun, and enters all relevant coding in Canadian Tire systems.
· Plays an active role in the Garden Centre team by openly sharing opinions and ideas on how to improve department success, and by participating in meetings and all training as required.
· Engages in learning activities and listens to feedback to improve their own abilities.
· Complies with company, store, and Garden Centre policies.
· Abides by all health and safety programs and regulations. Reports any observed or potential hazards immediately.
· Uses professional language and maintains a professional appearance (uniform, hygiene, grooming, and name tag) when interacting with others.
· Completes other tasks, as required.
Requirements
· Experience in a horticultural customer service role and/or in a customer service role is considered an asset.
· A good working knowledge of nursery stock and horticultural products.
· Pesticide handling license, where applicable.
· Ability to work under minimal supervision with computerized systems. (i.e., POS systems, AS-400, RF Guns and PCs).
· Basic math and typing skills.
· Experience with Canadian Tire store and cash register experience are considered an asset.
Required Skills and Abilities
Successful candidates will demonstrate the following competencies :
· Strong orientation towards customer service excellence.
· Highly approachable, customer-oriented individual who thrives on offering exceptional service to customers.
· Strong ability to plan and organize the Garden Center’s activities and projects.
· Strong belief in the Canadian Tire Values of honesty, integrity and respect.
· Effective written and oral communication skills (e.g., probing, listening, etc.) and the ability to maintain professional communication, even in challenging situations.
· Ability to complete detail-oriented retail tasks according to instructions and to demonstrate responsibility for outcomes.
· Ability to work in a fast-paced team environment that provides assistance and support to co-workers to achieve common goals.
· Ability to resolve retail and/or customer issues.
· Ability to multitask, adapt and cope with challenging situations.
· Positive attitude, punctuality and solid work ethic.
Potential Career Opportunities
· Next levels: Garden Center Manager, Department Manager and Store Manager.
· Other retail, customer service and management opportunities in a large network of more than 485 Canadian Tire stores across the country.
· Career opportunities across the larger Canadian Tire family (Canadian Tire Petroleum, PartSource, Mark’s, FGL Sports Ltd, Canadian Tire Corporation Limited and Canadian Tire Financial Services.
Physical Demands and Working Conditions
In compliance with the store’s Health and Safety Policies and Procedures:
· Standing/walking for 8 hours.
· Lifting and/or carrying of merchandise items, as required, on a regular, frequent and unassisted basis. Merchandise items may vary in weight from “light” to “heavy”.
· Lifting and turning repeatedly throughout the shift. Lifting above the shoulder, from floor to shoulder and floor to waist.
· Walking and carrying at the same time and pushing/pulling, as required.
· Twisting, turning, reaching and working above shoulder level.
· Ability to go up and down a ladder while carrying merchandise.
Customer experience:
Smiles, makes eye contact with, and greets customers. Walks the customer to the requested product. Answers questions and provides friendly advice and service to customers. Suggests value-added and related products to customers to ensure they go home with what they need. Ends the discussion with the customer using a closing statement (e.g., “Is there anything else I can do for you today?” “Did you find everything you needed today?” “Thank you for shopping at Canadian Tire”). Always prioritizes serving customers over other retail tasks. Listens to feedback related to customer service and changes required behaviours. Handles multiple customers and is considerate of customers’ time. Provides excellent customer service to all customers, even when customers’ questions are related to another department, and knows when to refer to another colleague or ask for help. Follows guidelines, policies and procedures, emphasizing the customers-first rule. Learns about new products on a regular basis. Shares ideas and suggestions with the Management Team on how to attract customers and helps execute those ideas.
Honesty, integrity, respect:
Respects the line of authority. Openly shares opinions with managers and suggests constructive feedback. Readily admits own mistakes, does not hide facts to avoid negative consequences and learns from them. Is open, fair and treats others equally. Speaks respectfully to team members, customers and managers by using a professional tone of voice and language. Shows respect for cultural and religious differences. Follows the systems and procedures that protect the confidentiality and privacy of customers. Recognizes and reports negative behaviours that hurt the store, customers and other important policies.
Leading and managing:
Guides other team members in areas of expertise. Works in collaboration with other team members and shares tips and personal learning to help colleagues. Communicates clearly with others. Works independently on tasks and helping customers, is resourceful and shows ability to find answers. Displays a positive attitude and good work ethic and executes tasks in a timely manner. Attends to both customers and tasks and always tries to do his/her best. Understands and executes Management Team goals and objectives.
Growing the business:
Ensures that retail basics are executed effectively and understands how they relate to sales and profitability (e.g., sales lost as a result of missing labels, incorrect pricing, holes not filled, deals not ready, products not faced properly, etc.). Places products with a higher margin in high impact spots in the store. Understands how own actions, suggestions and sales efforts contribute to overall sales numbers and shares ideas with managers on how to improve productivity. Uses tools available to refer cost and retail issues back to the Department Manager (e.g., coding in CT system, etc.). Has a general understanding of budget allocation, cost, retail principles and retail competitors’ factors that influence sales and overall store success.
Problem solving and decision making:
Resolves issues related to retail execution (e.g., merchandising problems, inconsistent inventory, product misplacement, missing labels, etc.) in a timely manner. Uses product knowledge to resolve customers' problems or questions about products. Knows when to make a decision independently and when to get approval from the Management Team. Comes up with different suggestions to resolve customer’s problems. Knows where and how to find relevant information to resolve customer issues. Understands and applies rules and guidelines to find an acceptable solution to customer issues in the best interest of the store.
Motivating and coaching:
Shares best practices, tips and personal learning to help colleagues improve their performance and tell them when they do a good job. Offers to help others and helps new employees to learn about products, policies and procedures. Is open to feedback and gaining new experience, sees coaching as a learning tool and learns from more experienced team members. Completes training with personal interest and motivation.
Adaptable:
Works to find solutions to issues and conflicts and suggests changes that could make the store function better. Communicates politely and respectfully with others despite frustrating situations, remains calm when under pressure and stays focused on assigned responsibilities and tasks in a positive way. Adapts to different managers' management and communication styles. Is open and optimistic when faced with changes, willingly tries new work methods or stops working on current task to suit changing circumstances. Understands own limits and its impact on others and knows when to ask for help. Moves ahead with work in a positive way despite setbacks.
Work as a team:
Is considerate towards everyone in the store and gets along well with others. Develops effective and supportive relationships within the store, at all levels (management, team members, etc.). Adapts interpersonal style to suit others. Plays an active role within the team by openly sharing opinions and ideas, pitching in to help others get their work done and participating in activities organized by the Management Team and/or Social Committee.
Plans, organizes, delegates, follows up:
Executes work in a logical and organized way, step by step, to get work done right the first time and avoid unproductive work. Follows direction and works on task lists created by the Department Manager in order to meet goals. Walks their assigned sections to understand what they have to accomplish on a daily basis and uses task lists to organize their work. Asks for clarity on how to prioritize multiple demands and tasks. Multitasks by focusing on both customer service and executing work, and avoiding unproductive work. Follows up with Department Manager when tasks assigned are completed.
Takes action and delivers results:
Takes ownership and accepts responsibility of assigned tasks. Takes daily actions to achieve goals based on the direction given by Department Manager and provides regular updates on progress. Accepts challenging tasks focused on achieving results and gets things done as quickly as possible, in a safe and efficient manner. Displays a desire to achieve results for the Garden Centre and always looks for ways to work more efficiently. Understands Garden Centre goals and executes an action plan to improve store success.
Accountable:
Follows directions from the Senior Management Team and complies with management decisions, even when in disagreement. Learns and follows the rules, policies and procedures that need to be respected in the store and understands the consequences of not complying with them. Accomplishes tasks according to Health and Safety rules and regulations. Shares health and safety concerns with Department Manager.
