Meet the team: Donna Butt - Retail Supervisor
Many of you will recognise the team as you wander around, but our trading team are often the first faces you will see during your visit. This month, we introduce Retail Assistant Donna Butt to you. As a lover of photography and genuinely one of the nicest people you will meet, she certainly knows how to give visitors a warm welcome!
When we first asked Donna to tell us her story and share more about her role, she wasn't so sure. But we're so glad she did as her lovely tone and enthusiasm for customer service shines through her words! Enjoy a snippet into her world...
Hi Donna, thanks for chatting to us! We'll start with asking, how long have you worked at WWT Washington?
I started working here in February 2022. I’d been a member for about a year and frequently visited with family, I think my youngest knows the site as well as me. I originally started as a casual retail assistant, but when the position for the Retail Supervisor role came up I didn’t hesitate in applying.
What inspired you to become a Retail Supervisor?
After working for a number of years within retail and customer service roles, stepping up to being a supervisor was the next step for me. Being able to become more involved in the operations of the shop and admissions and doing what I’m good at is where I love to be.
Can you describe a typical day?
A typical day will start with me setting up for the day, checking e-mails and anything from the site which may need passing onto visitors or staff members. If there are any other team members in, we’ll discuss anything that may be of importance for the day ahead.
There’s a couple of sides to my role, one being on admissions where I greet any visitors coming to the site and welcome them by explaining what we have on site, what there is to see and enjoy while they’re here. Signing people up to become members and putting the wildlife sightings on our website which are given to us by the reserve team each morning.
We have a lot of lovely members who are regulars and it's nice to be in an environment where you can get to know people and their passions, and have a chat about what they’ve done or seen on their visit.
My other role involves the shop - not just selling things, but restocking (placing orders) and processing deliveries. We have a display table which I change every couple of months depending on event themes or season. I’m forever moving things around too, it keeps things looking ‘fresh’ and its nice to see someone stop and say, “Oh, is that new?” pulling them into the shop. I do love it when we get new stock in, especially socks... staff love a new pair, you can never have too many!
What are the most rewarding aspects of your job?
Getting feedback from visitors who have enjoyed their day and hearing from excited children about what they’ve seen and been up to. Having people sign up to a membership after they’ve been around the site is like a ‘pat on the back‘ to the whole team!
What kind of training, experience or education is required to become a Retail Supervisor and what advice would to give to someone wanting to work in a similar role?
It’s not easy! Customer Service skills are key, things like communication, working well under pressure, team work, time management and commercial awareness, product knowledge, empathy – the list goes on – its not as simple as pressing a few buttons on the till. I gained a lot of relevant skills through experience working within previous retail and customer service rolls. I also completed an NVQ LEVEL 2 in Customer Service when I worked for the Early Learning Centre.
To anyone thinking about becoming a Retail supervisor I’d say go for it. You need to be motivated and certainly up for a challenge sometimes, but it's rewarding. I’m extremely lucky now to be where I can honestly say I love my job and I’m still learning new skills.
Can you tell us of any challenges in your role and how you overcome them?
Being front of house means we get to interact with visitors who have a lot of questions that sometimes I don’t know the answers to, say Bird ID. Luckily we have a great team on hand and there's always one of them at the end of the radio who is willing to help. We can always call on help if we are busy with visitors and need help with queue busting or talking people through our site map.
What has been your favourite time/project/occasion that you’ve been involved with at the centre and why?
I have had the opportunity to get involved with some very memorable things during my time here, such as enjoying a walk around with the collection team, where I got to help with the morning animal feeds, held a duckling and got up close to the southern screamers.
The site celebrated its 50th Anniversary last year and, in May, Wet Wood was reopened after ten years of being closed to the public. As a ‘grand opening’, we had cupcakes and drinks at Hunters Creek - it was lovely being a part of that and seeing the first few visitors going around the woodlands, as well as seeing and hearing about peoples memories over the last 50 years. I also had my acting skills tested when we had a news reporter come in to chat about WWT Washington's future plans around the Washington area... my 5 minutes of fame, haha!
What’s the best location on site to you?
For me its the walk through the west side of the site, starting at the reedbed shelter, going through Hollowood and the reservoir. There’s a lovely spot there which looks over to Penshaw Monument and it's so peaceful and scenic, I have a million photos from over the years and seasons! Then there’s Hawthorn wood hide where you can sit for ages watching all the birds on the feeders.
If you could swap roles for one day with a colleague, who would it be and why?
If there was any other role I would probably enjoy just as much, it would be our volunteer photographer, Ian's. I’m constantly snapping pictures and looking thinking, “Oh that’d be a good shot!”.
Do you have a favourite animal on site?
Can I have a few?! I love watching the barnacle geese in the stream channel, they’re so funny to watch pottering around. Its funny watching them at feed time following the collection team all in a row waddling along as if they’re in a conga and when they’re having a good wash splashing and rolling over.
The nenes are so friendly in Ganderland too, they make the sweetest noise and are so nosey. And of course there’s Musa and Buster the otters, they’re just so fun and lovely to see playing and listening to them squeaking away, we have a fab pic of Musa up in the shop playing with his pebble and it always makes me smile.
Fancy meeting more of our team?
We're introducing you to the team here at WWT Washington who are from a variety of roles within the trust, and who have a plethora of career and education backgrounds.
Meet the team
