Michelle - Assistant Manager - Leek

What made you want to join Superdrug?

Ever since such a young age I have always been interested in cosmetics and beauty products, with the dream of being a buyer for L'Oreal, why that particular brand I do not know. So, at the age of sixteen, with still a year left at school, I set out on the journey to achieving my goal, choosing Superdrug because the staff had always been really approachable when shopping in the store. Everyone always seemed to be enjoying their role and I desired this fulfilment in my job.

What's your favourite part of your job?

My favourite part of being an Assistant Manager is the people I get to work with. When I open the store doors in the morning I know I work as part of a great team who all understand and work together to achieve a common goal; delivering excellent customer service to get to know our customers, identify their needs and go above and beyond to ensure each and every customer leaves happy.

What's it like to work for Superdrug?

Throughout my whole career at Superdrug I have been blessed with such great opportunities, which I have taken with both hands and put all of my effort into. I joined in 2005, where I began with Retail Academy, I went on to achieve a gold star award in 2006 for the brilliant Beauty Specialist book I produced. As a Beauty Specialist, I was invited with managers to beauty road shows which were fantastic to learn about new products and to also celebrate success and set future targets in a fun and friendly environment. Later in 2007 I moved to the Tunstall store, which was smaller but offered me a better opportunity: to work a greater amount of hours, and to meet new people. In this store I made some friends for life and I was able to further my knowledge when I became Team Leader in 2011, having taken a year out to bring my lovely daughter into the world. Since becoming a team leader early on in 2011 I successfully made it on to the Retail Management Training programme in the middle of the year and graduated from this in November. I was also very proud to achieve an outstanding achievement award, which was very moving but also gives me the motivation to yet again further by knowledge of a company I love to work for. This is why my next step, as I am Now Assistant Manager, I will be applying to join Commercial Academy, another fantastic opportunity available. The network of support everyone has in Superdrug is immense, if I ever need any help, information or just a general Superdrug chat I could pick up the phone and on the other end would be another happy team member waiting help.

What sort of qualities do you need to work at Superdrug?

To work at Superdrug you need to be a great team player, everyone works together to achieve a goal of making our customers happy. If we do not work as a team in every aspect of the company we will not work as effectively. You also need to be hands on and creative, as managers we are given all of the tools available to make our stores a success, it's about taking those tools and using them in the best adapted way to our store to achieve a great success. Motivation is also a key quality which we can use to our benefit; we need to be self-motivated which has the effect of a motivated team who go on to achieve success.

What is the funniest thing that a customer has asked you?

After working for Superdrug for nearly 7 years now, I have been asked so many weird and wonderful questions. The most recent bizarre question of all; Do you sell anything to kill ants with? This is not something I could offer an alternative to, but we did have a nice long chat about some ants and the customer left happy.

What are your future career opportunities?

I want to achieve my best in everything I do, whilst also thoroughly broadening my knowledge of Superdrug specifically I have been studying at University to look at Business in general, and now in receipt of my Ba (hons) International Business Management Degree, I hope to successfully join Commercial Academy and become one step closer to my childhood dream.

Sum up what Superdrug means to you in three words!

Fun successful team .

Ty - Area Manager

What made you want to join Superdrug?

I joined Superdrug as I saw them as a major High Street retailer who clearly had a business plan to work through this tough economic environment. The brand has a plan and is working to the plan which involves everyone at all levels. This I saw as a great opportunity to be part of a team who work hard to and deliver success.

What's it like to work for Superdrug?

Superdrug is High Street retailing competing against some very large companies. This makes it as it is always good to outperform the giants! As a business Superdrug is very fair and appreciates that new employees are developing in their role and post induction the "Real" training begins when you are live in your position.

What sort of qualities do you need to work at Superdrug?

Strong organisational skills are a must to plan your time and task effectively and in a proactive manner. Effective communication skills are important to deliver the right message to the right people and to motivate the teams. Being in different locations on a daily basis delegation plays an important part of the day to day running of an area and also supports the team through additional roles and responsibilities.

Sum up what Superdrug means to you in three words!

Energetic, Evolving, Dynamic.