Service & Selling Coach

John Lewis Partnership; Chelmsford; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK retail employer is seeking a Service & Selling Coach to enhance the customer service experience in its shops. The role involves training and coaching team members, ensuring they have the skills necessary to provide exceptional service. Ideal candidates should possess strong coaching skills, a background in customer-facing roles, and great organizational abilities. The position offers flexible working hours and requires a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Employee ownership benefits

Qualifications

• Experience in delivering training and coaching to individuals and groups.
• Strong customer service background.
• Ability to prioritize workload efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Conduct engaging training sessions for staff.
• Provide constructive feedback for personal development.
• Plan and deliver induction training for new team members.

Skills

Coaching techniques

Customer service

Time management

Feedback delivery

Computer skills

Tools

Learning platforms (Workday)

Job description

About the role

As a Service & Selling Coach in one of our John Lewis shops, you’ll be helping to deliver a real difference to our customers through service they wouldn’t find anywhere else. You’ll be using your expert knowledge to train and coach Partners so that they have all of the tools they need to provide the very best service John Lewis is known for, ensuring customers return time and time again and earning their trust and loyalty for a lifetime.

Key Responsibilities

• Conducting engaging training/coaching sessions for Partners, both as groups or individually, to improve their service and selling skills.
• Providing Partners with constructive feedback to help their personal development.
• Being creative in the way you deliver training to cater for different learning styles.
• Planning and delivering inductions for new Partners.
• Delivering and supporting technical training needed while working on the shopfloor (for example, headsets, devices, apps, new learning platforms, etc.).
• Staying up to date with your own learning and development so you can champion the very best service associated with the John Lewis brand.

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

• Confident in delivering coaching and training in different styles, including as a group or individually and giving peer‑to‑peer feedback.
• Good computer skills enabling you to facilitate and produce training on different systems.
• Great customer service skills.
• Experience of working in a customer‑facing selling/retail environment.
• Ability to plan and prioritise own time and workload.

Desirable skills/experience you may have

• Previous experience working as part of a team.
• Understanding and experience of learning platforms such as Workday, One Place Learning, and PDW.
• Stakeholder management to build relationships with colleagues and subject‑matter experts.

37.5 hours to include alternate weekends. Earliest Start time 08:55. Latest Finish Time 18:10.

The partnership

We’re the largest employee‑owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food‑lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

Important points to note

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre‑employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third‑party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application, please contact us as soon as possible.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work‑life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.