This week’s mystery shops were all conducted by visually impaired shoppers. How many assisted shops do you get at your store? A lot. We have a bus station in our car park so people with disabilities can get dropped at the front door. We worked closely with the local bus companies, and they use our facilities as well.
What support do you get from HQ to support blind and partially sighted customers? Tesco is very committed to supporting people with any type of disability. We have some clear training for our colleagues around that shopping trip and what to expect. Our motto is nobody tries harder for customers and every little helps. And we have a lot of colleagues who enjoy helping people and who will take their time. They won’t rush and are happy to help.
How do you work out staffing allocation for requests such as these? It’s all about putting customers at the heart of what you do. We make a real point if a customer comes in with a request, we will answer it. I’ve got 150 colleagues so there is always somebody available. We work closely with the RNIB to improve shopping trips, but we know there is more we can do.
Tell us about your store. You’re in a busy area of London. What’s it like? I’m really proud to run Lewisham. This area has been heavily developed in the past decade and the one constant is this store. It’s been open for 40 years and we’ve got customers that have shopped since the day it opened. I give a lot of my time to shoppers and for some of our elderly and vulnerable shoppers, it’s comforting to come to a store they’ve been familiar with for a long time. I’ve had lots of conversations with customers about the return of the iconic blue and white stripes [for the new EDLP campaign] for example. I’ve also got a lot of colleagues who have worked in the store for a long time and have a great relationship with our customers.
Speaking of longevity, how long have you been there? I started at Tesco in 1998, it was my first job coming out of school. I’ve done pretty much all roles across Tesco, working my way up. I’ve been a store manager for six years, with two of those in Lewisham.
You launched the Whoosh proposition last year. How has that been going? It’s been fantastic. I’ve actually got one of the largest UK operations on Whoosh. It’s been around in convenience for a while, but we’ve moved into large stores and have been trialling it at volume. It’s been interesting. The volume of orders and the times that are picked shows it’s suitable for an inner London store. I cover quite a large area from my shop. First thing in the morning you can see orders coming through where perhaps parents haven’t had time to go shopping and they are buying lunch items for their children. At weekends you can really see if people are having gatherings.
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