Paola Waialeale

On a daily basis, I assist costumers with the wholesale purchase of flowers. Whether that be in the form of "walk-ins", where we input into our POS system which items the customer picked out for themselves, or helped plan for future orders and order online boxed flowers. Other responsibilities would include:

• Maintained thorough knowledge of needs, characteristics, and varieties of flowers and greenery used in shop to inform arrangement decisions and provide information to customers.
• Possess in-depth knowledge of various types of flowers and their seasonal availability.
• Drove customer satisfaction by providing recommendations for greenery and flower pairings.
• Developed positive relationships with clients and vendors to boost rapport and trust.
• Quoted, generated, and processed customer orders to meet specifications and various occasions.

I successfully ran the floral department at a corporation grocery store in Portland, Safeway. When I started, I trained on the online floral platform FTD to further boost sales that weren't happening on a everyday basis. Based off these sales, Safeway created the first Design Center at my store due to my increased sales and potential for growth. While running this Design Center and still being the Department manager, I had to be adaptable to many other parts of the job, such as:

• Monitored special orders to promote timely deliveries of floral displays, bouquets and decorative items.
• Trained employees on customer order taking and basic floral arranging.
• Inventoried plants and flower care supplies and ordered more.
• Worked closely with clients to understand their needs and design flower arrangements that perfectly match their vision.
• Skilled at working independently and collaboratively in a team environment.
• Self-motivated, with a strong sense of personal responsibility.
• Proven ability to learn quickly and adapt to new situations.
• Worked effectively in fast-paced environments.
• Managed time efficiently in order to complete all tasks within deadlines.
• Passionate about learning and committed to continual improvement.
• Proved successful working within tight deadlines and a fast-paced environment.
• Organized and detail-oriented with a strong work ethic.
• Adaptable and proficient in learning new concepts quickly and efficiently.
• Used critical thinking to break down problems, evaluate solutions and make decisions.