We've had a different week: we were only in school for three days rather than five due to parent-teacher conferences and we had two important sales on our days off. I say important because the sales were crucial to inform parents about our product and generate the further integration of the community. Yes, we sold a lot and were successful, but most important of all, we made mistakes, faced challenges and learned. The most salient aspect is that we're flexible and adapt successfully to unexpected situations. For one, we were supposed to be four people at the stand during each shift but due to communication issues, we weren't. So, for the first part of my shift, we were only three people working: two smoothie makers and the cashier; we were missing the delivery person in charge of taking smoothies to teachers who had pre-ordered. For this, the three of us had to adapt as well as we could in order to satisfy our customers, so we switched up roles: the cashier delivered and the smoothie makers turned into cashiers. This was not our ideal situation but we had to make do with who we had at the moment. We had another hiccup. We only had S/. 5 coins and bills as change, not the S/. 2 that everybody seemed to need. There is nothing more annoying than going to a store, trying to buy something and getting asked "tiene sencillo" by the cashier, resulting in the impossibility of making a purchase because you don't have small change. We were in situations in which we had to owe customers their change or customers even ended up buying more smoothies than they intended to. These situations were not 100% negative for us because it was an opportunity to start building trust with our customers but they also had the chance of giving us a bad rep for being unorganized and unprofessional. After these two situations and challenges, we realized that we can adapt in situations were it is necessary and make the best of what we have. After each sale we have, we make a list of what went well and what not so well. In my opinion, we don't use these to their fullest potential. First of all, they're not looked at again after we have finished talking about things. Second of all, they should be compiled into one big list that can be turned into a checklist we follow each time we have a sale. Yes, we have used checklists before but they tended to be one general checklist, something that was not efficient. What we really need are short checklists that focus on different aspects of the sale such as setting up, things the cashier needs, materials the smoothie makers need, etc. I have been reading "The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right" by Atul Gawande, a surgeon, author and public health researcher. This book focuses on the use of checklists at a personal, daily level and at a professional level. I have always been a fan of using checklists because they allow me to become more organized regarding things I need to accomplish. But when it comes to using checklists for Blendz, we either don't make them detailed enough or just disregard them because of the basic connotation they have. Yes, they are basic but they are crucial to getting things right.
1 Comment
Corey Topf
11/2/2014 05:05:26 am
I think you're right, and this might be something you suggest to Auggie. As we get volunteers and workers, it would be helpful for them to have a checklist of things to do. The cashier needs one, the smoothie maker needs one, and we all do. :)
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June 2015
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