What is Ian's customer service role at Hamleys? Listen to Ian to find out and, as you do, listen out for these three phrases mean: ground floor, front line customer service and demonstration lines.

Why do you think they mean?

 The company

My name is Ian Millen. I'm the ground floor manager at Hamleys, Regent Street, in London, which is the finest toy store in the world. Also, it's the largest toy store in Europe.

 The Job

Basically it's a front line customer service based job while managing a very, very busy retail environment. The difference between this and a normal retail environment is that we have a lot of activity and a lot of customer interaction through the demonstration lines that we sell within the store. So as well as being a retail experience to make money, it's also, for a child, like going to a fairground. So we're into a different level of retail.

 The Customer

Well you need a customer service strategy to evaluate the needs of your customers. It's about providing a quality service with a quality product. I mean, if a customer comes in you need to identify what they want quickly, enable them to get that quickly; and a customer service department is there to define those needs and then transfer that down to the shop floor where the staff can actually carry out the role.

Quiz

Did you work what those words meant? Well, test yourself with this quick quiz. Click on the answers that you think are right and then press 'Check Answers'.

ground floor		the floor of a building when you walk up the first set of stairs
		the floor of a building that you reach when you walk through the main entrance
front line customer service		customer service desk at the entrance to a shop
		customer service directed at people as they walk into a shop
demonstration lines		groups of people standing around complaining about something
		products that the shops sells being shown to customers by staff

Tip 1:

Ok, my first tip would be for the relevant company to identify their market place and their particular customers' needs because every product or every trade has a different need and a different potential.

Tip 2:

A second tip would be the training of staff members in relation to the product. I mean every company's product is different so you have to develop that training within that product scale.

Tip 3:

Another tip; whereas with existing staff you need to retrain, when employing all new staff you need to be aware of the company's new customer service policy, and they need to be hired within that structure and their ability needs to reflect that.

Tip 4:

I think it's the old adage; the final tip is basically, you know, to look after your customers, treat them as if they are special, regardless of whether you agree with what they have to say. If you look after them, smile at them and give then a hundred percent, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, a potential customer will buy something based purely on how you talk to them and how you treat them.