Awards.
Details about all the awards that we have either won, or been nominated for.
Shortlisted: Independent Footwear Retailer of the Year.
Shortlisted: Store Staff Member of the Year.
Shortlisted: Team of the Year.
Winner: Team of the Year.
It is with great pride that we were awarded Team of the Year in 2021.
At Precious Soles we take great pride in the team of professionals we have created both in store and externally. Our extensive team not only allows us to function and grow as a footwear retailing business, but our team also allows us to help and guide our customers that require assistance, towards the appropriate professional for any footwear or lower limb health problem they have.
Winner: Shop Employee of the Year (Kirsty).
In 2021, we were fortunate enough to take home two awards. Our second was for our employee, Kirsty.
This year specifically Kirsty has shown more initiative and drive to help the business thrive in a time where there is so much uncertainty and change. From being in early to disinfect everything, seemingly having eyes in the back and side of her head to know what all the curious hands in the shop have touched to be put into a quarantine zone. Kirsty has been the driving force behind why our customers are able to feel safe when visiting, and be confident that their loved ones, old or young, are able to be relaxed and not stressed about putting anyone in danger.
With retail being closed for so many weeks this year, and our shop not selling online (as we cannot fit shoes virtually), Social Media was of huge importance, no one in the shop is savvy with any kind of social media, but Kirsty took the downtime to teach herself the ins and outs of not just Facebook which is our primary social media, but also Instagram, Twitter and Google. She has taken every aspect of it in her stride and has shown so much creativity it is hard to keep up with all the ideas. Whether it is informing customers of new stock, or just a fun overview of what is happening in the shop, Kirsty is always on it.
Kirsty is also the member of staff that is a go to for everyone if we want to know what we have and do not have stock of. When a delivery comes in the best description of what occurs would be a Tasmanian Devil unpacking, organising, inputting, calling customer for special orders and shelving all the stock, whether it is one box, or 20 boxes faster than you can keep track of. When Kirsty first joined the team at Precious Soles, she would talk about how at Lidl she was the fastest unpacker of crates or at the checkouts, and now that she has learnt how the back-office system works, through her own initiative, it is one of the marvels that we as staff get to witness.
To put it very simply, if it were not for Kirsty, Precious Soles would not run as efficiently as it does today, and it would not have the atmosphere that the employees and customers know and love.
Winner: Independent Footwear Retailer of the Year.
In 2020, we took home the Independent Footwear Retailer of the Year award.
What we include that differs from any other footwear retailer is that first and foremost we are shoefitters, but in house we provided services to promote foot and lower limb health including podiatry, chiropody, pain management clinics, hypermobility clinics and injury clinics. We also have a vast array of medical partners in both the NHS and Private sectors of healthcare to ensure the people that have specialised requirements to aid their foot development, or correct issues are in the best hands possible from both the footwear and medical perspectives.
For the year of 2019 our strategy was to increase the business for adult shoes in our store. Focusing on lower limb health and styles and brands that would help ease discomforts felt in the lower limbs and back with well fitted, well-made footwear. Our aim is to always educate customers and provide expertise and added services that support the shoefitting business. We introduced a Chiropodist and Podiatrist to help with more complex customer requirements. We increased units sold from 413 pairs to 725 pairs of adult footwear from the same dates in 2018. The most positive outcome from this is that we succeeded in our strategy while still maintaining our children’s footwear sales. For the upcoming year we are launching multiple new initiatives including a new website (not for selling), new school, hospital and care home initiatives to support our local community and medical community. We have launched our own brand, Kinysi, for other specialist stockists around the UK and look to build on this aspect of our business throughout 2020 and helping those shops build specialist relationships in a similar way that we have with their local medical community.
Shortlisted: Independent Footwear Retailer of the Year.