Staff
Whether your staff is all volunteer, all paid, or a mix of the two, you need to treat everyone the same way. According to Jim Dion, a psychologist with over 30 years experience in retail, there should be no difference between how volunteers and employees are treated and what is expected of them. Museum gift shops are frequently volunteer run and work under this model.
While this may have a corporate flavor to it, it is actually pretty insightful as guidelines for how to give your volunteers / employees the best experience possible. Not only that, but you are helping give them practical job skills.
Your Staff IS Your Shop
- How people precieve your organization is entirely up to the staff. They are your shop, so how they represent themselves is reflects directly on you.
- Not every frog is a prince. Therefore not everyone can handle working / volunteering in your shop -- regardless of training.
- Some people just can't be motivated no matter what you do.
- With rare exceptions, staff is not interchangeable recognize and help them focus on their specialties.
- View staff as an asset instead of an expense.
- Make sure the mission is clear; deliver the best experience to people walking in the door.
- Marketing money is wasted if the current staff can't handle the resulting customers.
- Not so much in the community bike shop, but in regular bike shops a sales associate will sell 1 million worth of product. So hiring them needs to be considered a 1 million dollar decision, ideally their salary should be 14-15% of that.