Retail salesperson – Nicola Olsen

Hi, my name is Nicola Olsen. I come from New Zealand and I’m 27.

I was originally working in a food outlet when I saw a job advertised in the newspaper for a retail salesperson in a department store. I wanted to get away from food, but I still wanted the people contact, so I applied for this job and they employed me as a retail trainee in the clothes department.

While I was a trainee, I studied for a National Certificate in Retail. It was organised by the store trainer and we had one lesson a week and sat two exams to complete the course.

After two years in that job, I moved to another city. I worked in a department store in the clothes area and I also got to do general cosmetics. They transferred me to another branch in a different city, but after a few months I returned to Melbourne and I was employed by the department store again, but I got into a position where more knowledge and customer service was needed. 

I've been doing my current job for a year. Every day is different because you get to meet totally different types of people, and every customer you're dealing with has particular needs. It can be difficult serving difficult customers, when no matter what you say, it's wrong. It's hard to try and deal with the situation then. 

That's why it's important to have good product knowledge and customer service skills. And it can be great when you build up really good customer relations, and customers remember you when they come back to the store. 

But as well as serving customers, I also do stock counts, invoices and other paperwork. I'm trying to learn as much as I can, because in the future I want to do some kind of management in retail .