Improving Communication Skills in Retail: A Self-Reflection Report

This report details a student's personal experience working in a retail store, specifically Tesco, and the communication challenges encountered. The student reflects on a situation involving a language barrier with Chinese-speaking customers, leading to a moment of humiliation and a realization of the...Read More

CW1

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Main Body...................................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
The act of transferring data from one person, place or group is referred to as communication.
Each possesses a sender and a receiver who are liable for sending as well as receiving a message
(Buil, Catalán and Martínez, 2020). While working in an organization this aspect plays a critical
role as it enables to share view point with others colleagues or other individuals. This essay
comprises of work experience in retail store with respect to different situations which prevails.
Main Body
Communication is a skill which amplifies personality of an individual and leads to creation
of enhanced experience on those with whom they are communicating. Thus, it is important to
have a strong control over this skill. To analyse the situations which were encountered by me,
Driscoll model is being utilised which revolves around three major aspects, what, so what and
now what. By understanding these it will become easy to analyse problems which are faced and
ways in which they can be handled (Carliner, 2020). This section involves ‘what’ of model-
details about things that happened. Being a fresher I started working as a store guide within
Tesco which is a retail store. It seems easy at initial phase but this was not so. When people who
belong to UK came then I was able to give effective guidelines as per questions asked by them.
But once I have Chinese visitors to a store who do not speak English. Now the major problem
was I was not able to understand what they were saying so I got blank and they were asking.
Then, manager came and helped them out. At this instance I felt like improvement is required to
sustain within this market otherwise I might be terminated from job.
The rationale behind improvement was to earn for my livelihood so that I can sustain and
accomplish my desires. When this situation occurred nothing was to me but a meeting was
conducted in which other employees were also there. Each individual had knowledge about other
languages though they were not perfect but still they understood that (Chan, 2020). I was
humiliated as manager yelled at me which was right as they might have lost their customer. My
team was not happy with me as they also had face harsh words from management. Some
colleagues gave me advice and some blamed as they were not at fault but each have to face the
anger.
This section involves ‘So what’ aspects of the model. When this situation occurred I was
embarrassed as I was scolded in front of everyone even whom I don’t know. The feeling was

absolutely different as I was at fault and no one else was. But it was not a fault; this can be said
as I lack communication skills. What I felt when situation occurred and after that is identical as
in both the cases I am humiliated. At some moment of time, it was like I should leave the job but
that was not a solution to deal with it as how many times this can be repeated. The event was
troubling as same situation can be repeated again and if manager was not there then how
situation would be managed (Crawford and et. al, 2020).
It created an affirmative impact on my behaviour as I didn’t ran away from the problem but
I stood and thought to enhance my abilities so that such kind of situation do not occur again. This
shows that I am not a weak person or a giver who can easily run away from situation instead I
was affirmative. Apart from this, patience was also reflected as manager and other colleagues
were also saying something but I accepted my mistake. Some gave me advice either to leave a
job or look for opportunities where bilingual skills are not required. This might be a better option
as I don’t have to do anything except finding a job. But it is always not mandatory that situations
will be favourable every time. So would be better to look for alternatives.
This section comprises “Now What”. As per the situation, which occurred it became
crucial to learn new languages. So, I thought to learn different languages with respect to people
who visit the place mostly like German, French and Chinese as this was the only option I do
have. Butit would be a time taking process. But it was essential to identify sources through which
this can be done (Hoadley and Baumann, 2020). I opted for making use of online classes and
giving tests. This is the feasible option at this moment of time as it provides a flexibility and
entirely depends upon me that what time will be preferable for this. Apart from this, as working
environment became familiar I made friends with whom interaction was carried out in different
languages. This was done with respect to customers who visited mostly. The reason behind this
was that it is not possible to learn three languages simultaneously as things can be misunderstood
and mixed up which only leads to confusion.
Though I faced same but they were not exactly similar situations again due to confusion as
some words have pronunciation so I usually get confused. But this was a learning period and
from mistakes we learn (Buil, Catalán and Martínez, 2020). The efforts which were made by me will
definitely provide affirmative results sooner or later. Best part of situation which occurred was it helped
me to identify my weaknesses which I should have analyzed or identified at college only so that such

thing can be avoided. It is important to learn from mistakes which are made rather than running away
from them as time may not give other chance to gain knowledge.
Conclusion
From above it can be concluded that, it is important for individuals to have impelling
communication skills as this leads to give message as well as receive it. But communication
doesn’t involve this only as it is important to understand what is being said otherwise it leads to
confusion and end result will not be as per what is required. Thus each individual must have
adequate skills through which they can interact with others. It is important understand what is
lacking so that it can be improvised instead of running away from situations.

References
Books & Journals
Buil, I., Catalán, S. and Martínez, E., 2020. Engagement in business simulation games: A self‐
system model of motivational development. British Journal of Educational
Technology, 51(1), pp.297-311.
Carliner, S., 2020. Client Service: The Essence of the Technical Communication
Business. Intercom.
Chan, M., 2020. English for Business Communication. Routledge.
Crawford, I. and et. al, 2020. It's a small world after all: an intercultural experiential exercise in
business communication.
Hoadley, S. and Baumann, C., 2020. Developing Sustainability Discourse Skills for Business.
In Industry and Higher Education (pp. 291-314). Springer, Singapore.