Lyndsey Nelms has worked in every size of store during her 20 years with Waitrose. But she admits that Waitrose Lymington, with its spacious aisles and “lovely” 183-strong team is by far her favourite. Our mystery shopper was impressed too, with Lymington taking store of the week in our New Forest mystery shop.
Nelms been leading the lively store for the past few weeks during its busiest summer tourist peak while general manager Kevin Wearn is on holiday. She spoke to The Grocer about, the fun of being a seasonal store, what ‘great’ customer service actually looks like, and why having an M&S on their doorstep is not a bad thing.
What makes this store unique? I’ve only been in Lymington four months, covering for the deputy manager who is on long leave, but I can honestly say it’s the favourite store I’ve worked in during my 20 years with Waitrose. We have lovely regulars and partners. It’s spacious, with nice wide aisles and a great assortment. Our manager Kevin is away on holiday, but he’s worked really hard to create a culture that’s delights customers. It’s really special to be part of and I’ll be really sad to leave in October.
Who is the typical Lymington shopper? Our normal customer base is typically of an older demographic. However, we’re one of around 20 destination branches in the business. Lots of people come to the New Forest for summer vacation. We are in our peak now and volume has picked up significantly.
You can guess what they’re buying, beers, wine, crisps and where we’ve had the hot weather, picky bits, Ice cream and BBQ. They very much want food that is instant and easy. The store has been here 20 years, and had a store on the high street before, so Waitrose has been a big part of the community for a long time.
Do you celebrate local products and suppliers as a store? We have a small range, but here’s definitely an opportunity for us to do more in the future.
The New Forest is currently experiencing wildfires, has the store been affected? Thankfully no. It’s the sort of thing you read about on the news, but don’t expect it to be so close to home! We’re very lucky that it hasn’t affected the shop, although it has affected the traffic coming in and out of the New Forest.
On the theme of heatwaves, how have you coped more generally? Again, we’ve been really lucky to have had minimal disruption in terms of refrigeration.We’ve been handing out ice lollies to store partners and drivers. That’s not just because it’s hot, sometimes people just need a morale boost when it’s so warm. We haven’t needed to hand out any free ice cream to get customers into store!
I’ve definitely noticed people spending a little longer in the store than they usually would because it’s a nice cool place to be. There’s been a real community vibe.
M&S is your nearest competitor store, what’s competition like? A lot of our shoppers will shop with us both. They’ll come to us both for different things. We’re a much bigger store. When it comes to competition the team know the area really well, they keep me updated on what’s going on at our various competitors. I’m really proud of the service counters in this shop. They are absolutely stunning every day of the week. Because we kind of have that local feel, we have a lot of shoppers that like that one-to-one service. It’s definitely a draw to get people in.
‘Great’ customer service is easy to talk about but harder to deliver, what’s the secret here? We are partners, it’s our business, so I think that automatically makes it part of our ethos. But we’ve also got a wealth of experience in our management team and with our level 10 partners – one of whom has just celebrated 40 years with the business. We’re living and breathing it.
As managers we role model it, and fundamentally we give really honest feedback. So, if partners are not delivering that in the way that they should, we’re going to tell them. Hopefully customers will then see that that when they come in.
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