Saskia Wilson-Carey
South Yarra,VIC
Summary
With over a decade of experience as an Assistant Store Manager at Pets Wonderland on Chapel Street in Prahran, I have developed strong skills in customer engagement and animal care across various species. My positive energy and professional approach allow me to connect effectively with clients, ensuring their satisfaction and loyalty.
I excel in multitasking and visual merchandising, which has led to significant enhancements in store operations and customer experience. My proactive mentoring of staff and efficient management of store activities have consistently improved operational efficiency and strengthened customer loyalty.
My strong communication skills, attention to detail, and passion for animal welfare, make me a valuable asset to any team. I am eager to bring my expertise and enthusiasm to your organisation and I am eager to learn more and grow in the industry.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Assistant Store Manager
Pets Wonderland
184 Chapel Street, Prahran, VIC 3181
07.2014 - 07.2024
- Full time retail manager and Animal care attendant for 10 years.
- Managed a large store with a small team.
- Wrote feeding plans and guides for all Domestic Animal/Species.
- Cleaned animal enclosures for a wide range of different species every day, observing and documenting each animal daily ensuring they are healthy and happy. If concerns arise, I immediately told my supervisor in detail.
- Weekly stock orders.
- Managed cash registers efficiently, ensuring accurate transactions, balancing drawers daily, and minimizing discrepancies.
- Wrote cash up sheets and was in control of weekly banking for store.
- Developed a loyal customer base through personalized interactions, increasing repeat business in-store visits. Excellent customer service skills, greeting customers, answering phone calls, asking open ended questions to figure out what the customer was after and ensuring they were happy with the service. I have maintained many relationships with customers since my employment became redundant and am offering help for them and their pets now.
- Managed opening and closing procedures including full in-store clean at end of day and arriving to work early to set up each morning.
- Visual merchandising front window weekly to view weekly promotions and new stock arrivals.
- Enhanced store appearance for increased sales by maintaining cleanliness and implementing strategic merchandise displays.
- Rotated merchandise and displays to feature new products and promotions.
- Cleaned commercial aquariums as large as 400ltrs to cleaning and aquascaping smaller display tanks. Designing interior of aquariums to display fish and plants to benefit sales and animal enrichment.
- Worked solo shifts where a daily task may include, feeding and watering animals first thing. Then water changing up to 30 aquariums, whilst serving customers and completing sales. I am great at multitasking and am efficient at getting tasks done safely following in store policies and procedures.
- Broad knowledge for fish health and disease and illness and how to treat and care for sick fish. Understanding water parameters for different species of fish.
- Had clients where I visited their homes or schools and serviced their aquariums.
- Resolved escalated customer issues effectively leading to improved customer satisfaction rates.
- Mentored new employees on company policies, procedures, and best practices to ensure their success within the organization.
- Educating customers on how to care for all domestic animals including rodents, birds, mammals, reptiles, aquatic life, felines and dogs.
- Knowledge in many well known animal products such as pet food, parasite control, training aids, enrichment toys based on the species and information given to me from a customer, aquatic supplies and tools, reptile lighting and enclosures, small animal vitamins and food, bird training aids and enrichment and supplements ect.
- Supervised and evaluated staff to help improve skills, achieve daily objectives, and attain advancement.
- Managed a small animal boarding facility attached to the store including following feeding plans, daily enclosure cleans and rotating toys and making toys for enrichment based on the species and their needs.
- Observed and documented animal behaviours and notified my store owner of any concerns related to my findings.
- Interviewed, hired, and trained staff associates and equipped to comply with company policies and procedures.
- Developed and maintained strong relationships with suppliers and delivery companies to ensure stock arrived in time.
- Represented the store for local council pet related markets and stalls. Represented the store for Pet expos held in Melbourne. Was involved in the community representing the business to create a positive image for the store and find new customers.
- Was apart of a cat adoption weekend held in store once a month, helped the Cat People of Melbourne with their adoption process and showing new cat owners what food and parasite control they needed as well as enrichment for their new pets.
- Always researching and finding the appropriate help for customers if I wasn't sure of how to help them. Finding local vets for specific client species to ensure they had the correct help when it came to animal health. Have built relationships this way with local vets.
- Managed social media for the business and added new products to store website, managed online orders and sent off online orders using the most affordable courier companies for the business.
Junior Retail Assistant
Hunki
162 Chapel St, Prahran, VIC 3181
09.2013 - 04.2014
- Rotated merchandise and displays to feature new products and promotions.
- Engaged in friendly conversation with customer to better uncover individual needs.
- Completed monthly stock takes
- Assisted in visual merchandising, creating eye-catching displays that increased store traffic including rotating the front window display regularly.
- Processed payments for credit and debit cards and returned proper change for cash transactions.
- Maintained positive customer relationships by responding quickly to customer service inquiries.
- Unpacked new stock, created stock line in computer and placed stock onto shelves in store.
- Enhanced store presentation with regular cleaning, organization, and maintenance tasks.
- Processed transactions efficiently, ensuring accurate cash handling and prompt customer service.
Education
Certificate II in Animal Care - Animal Care
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, VIC10.2024
Diploma of Visual Merchandising -
RMIT University
Melbourne, VIC12.2014
High School Diploma -
Presentation College Windsor
Melbourne12.2011
Skills
- 10 years of Customer Service/experience and engagement
- 10 years of experience in animal care for a wide range of different species including birds, reptiles, aquatic life, cats and dogs, small animals such as mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits
- Aquarium specialist, ability to problem solve/identify aquatic illness and water parameter
- Can properly handle and restrain an animal ethically following animal welfare procedures
- Strong passion for animal welfare and educating others to care for animals correctly I have a great skill in connecting with people and communicate by asking open ended questions to ensure a customer has understood and is confident when taking home a new pet
- Store Organization
- Time Management
- Store Opening and Closing
- Attention to Detail
- Problem Solving and multitasking
- Visual merchandising skills and display set ups
- Great at adapting to new environments
- Store operations
- Stock management and rotation
- POS Systems
Timeline
Assistant Store Manager
Pets Wonderland
07.2014 - 07.2024
Junior Retail Assistant
Hunki
09.2013 - 04.2014
Certificate II in Animal Care - Animal Care
Swinburne University of Technology
Diploma of Visual Merchandising -
RMIT University
High School Diploma -
Presentation College Windsor