Lisa James Crowned Sales Colleague of the Year

September 27, 2022

Supervisor Lisa James from Blakemore Retail’s Beddau store in Pontypridd has been crowned Sales Colleague of the Year at The Convenience Awards.

The national awards celebrated the leading people and businesses across the convenience industry at an event on 13th September at The Londoner Hotel in London.

Lisa was recognised for her outstanding customer service and contribution to the Beddau store. She has introduced top-selling lines and helped lead the shop’s home delivery service.

Judges said: “A fifteen-year veteran of the business, Lisa is involved in every aspect of the store, including recruitment, delivery and the foodservice departments.

“Lisa was described as an amazing member of staff that is loved by customers and staff at all levels and is a true asset to the business.”

Lisa, who has been with SPAR for 15 years, frequently goes the extra mile for her customers. “There’s a lovely old lady that comes into our store, and on the first lockdown she was struggling, so she was coming in just to have a little bit of a conversation as her family lived in London,” explained Lisa. “She came in one day really upset, and so I arranged to have FaceTime with her daughters on my mobile phone – she was over the moon!”

As well as supporting customers in-store during the pandemic, Lisa also had the challenge of getting to grips with the new Snappy Shopper delivery system.  

She promotes the service by posting regularly on local hubs and websites and makes a point of regularly asking for feedback. “A lot of it is asking your customers what they want,” said Lisa. “So when I go to the hubs and I’m posting about Snappy Shopper, I will just ask on that post ‘Is there something that we’ve missed? Is this something you would like to order but you can’t find on the menu?’ It is just a case of kind of making it a little bit more bespoke for your customer base.” 

The delivery service generates £7,000 of sales a week and Lisa and her team have also managed to get Snappy Shopper up and running at another store. 

As well as introducing new services, Lisa has also introduced new ranges to the store. Lisa sourced local supplier The Cheesecake Lady via Facebook. “We didn’t have much of a range of dessert as such,” she said, “so I approached the supplier and asked if they wanted to have a little meeting and we’d talk about what we could do for each other.”

The treats were so popular that they have since been introduced to several more Blakemore stores.

Beyond the requirements of her supervisor role, Lisa has also shown an interest in the store’s foodservice offer, which meant that she was able to cover for the Subway manager when they were away on maternity leave.

In the future she may even become a store owner. “At the moment this position suits me,” she said. “But, in time, I probably would love to go off and maybe have my own store. The ambition is definitely there.”
 

Lisa James (centre) accepting her award from event host Katie Piper (left) and Convenience Store Deputy Editor Sarah Britton (right)

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