Books and Bygones
Period:
1 July 2011 to 30 November 2016
5 years and 5 months
City/Town: Port Elizabeth
Type of Business: Books and antique dealer
Position: Shop Assistant
Reason for leaving: The owner sold his business lock, stock and barrel
Duties:
- Front office
- Over the counter sales
- Cashier
- Packing books per category and in alphabetical order
- Affixing price tags as stipulated by the owner
- Email monitoring
- Processing orders received via email
- Processing orders received via phone
- Processing orders received online
- Quotations
- Invoicing
- Forwarding invoice by email
- Confirm payments with the owner
- Preparing parcel
- Handing the parcel and posting costs over to the domestic aid for posting
- On occasion, I had to walk to the Post Office to post a parcel
- Answering the phone, assisting the caller if necessary or forwarding the call to the owner or taking a message if required – passing messages on
- Returning the call regarding feedback on an item
- Secretarial duties
- General office administration
- Changing printer cartridges and fixing minor printer related problems
- I welcomed and helped walk-in customers to locate books or items they were looking for as well as giving prices for the items they wish to buy. If I did not know the price of an item, I would consult the owner. I also had to open locked cabinets that contained valuable items and stand guard to see that nothing is being stolen.
- There was the occasional scenario when I had to assist when a customer sold an item, such as a Kruger Rand or valuable Silver coins. I had to phone the gold and silver dealer, get a price from him, bargain a higher price with the customer, and then buy the item should the customer be happy with everything. All done on behalf of the owner.
- I also had to practice security measures by traversing the floor in order to prevent theft.
- Photocopying
- Scans
- Receiving faxes
- Sending faxes
- Writing manual invoices if needed using a standard invoice book
- Taking charge of the shop when the owner is out of the office or out of town
- Opening and closing the shop if the owner is on leave
- Helping the domestic aid to move heavy furniture when cleaning
- Assisting customers in loading their purchases into their car
- Cashing up at the end of the day
- Sealing the earnings of the day and slipping it into the drop safe
- Website development
- Writing down full details of daily sales in a counter book (example book title & author)
- Assisting with and documenting Lay-Buys
- Capturing daily sales figures onto an Excel sheet at month-end
- Making tea or coffee if the domestic aid is off for that day
- Allocating and keeping books aside for collection after a phone call
- Screening potential risky customers before opening the gate with the buzzer
- Always trying to help the first customer as fast and efficient as possible to be able to move on to the next customer
- Many times it was only me and the domestic aid in the shop. During peak or busy periods, the pressure was extremely high keeping all the customers on the floor happy while working on the till. I had to practice a lot of patience and my time management had to be excellent to prevent a customer from waiting for too long.
- Handling difficult customers discreetly
- If the owner was on leave and I needed a price on an item, I had to WhatsApp a picture to the owner in order for him to supply me with a price. Skype was also used in some cases.