By: Kristin Evenrud, Front End Manager and Nate Furler, Marketing Manager
Our Front End staff are fortunate to greet, converse with, and wish well each individual that walks through the doors of our
member-owned, cooperative grocery store. It is a service we train for and take pride in. We are eager to make your experience the best in Decorah – with a focus on kindness, accuracy, and efficiency.
The Co-op serves not only member/owners, but also the larger community of northeast Iowa and beyond. When we fall short, which hopefully doesn’t happen often, we appreciate customer feedback so we can work to improve our systems and our service appropriately. We want each and every customer of the Co-op to leave in a better mood than they arrived.
If you are not already aware, there are several avenues for giving feedback. There is an online form on our website – oneotacoop.com. Additionally, at our customer service desk you will find a stack of comment cards and a box to submit them in. Each week our management team reads through these comments and the appropriate person leaves the meeting with that item to address. These comments range from product and recipe requests, to questions and complaints about products and services we offer at the Co-op. It is important to us that we are able to address these items to their full extent. Because of this we appreciate the willingness of people to include their name and how to get in touch with them with any further questions we may have about their comment or issue. These comments help us understand our customers better and increase the level of service we are able to provide.
At the recent Annual Meeting of Co-op Membership we received specific feedback regarding our credit card machines and the speed at which they are able to process transactions. We understand and share this frustration and are exploring options to speed up and streamline the process. However, one thing we want to share with everyone is that the system we have, being separate from our point of sale system, is the most secure system available. It creates a closed loop between our terminals and our processor. (Now if we could just get them to remove the words “thank you” from the screen before the transaction is complete. Honestly, we’ve been asking them to fix this for years.)
Through discussions at this past Annual Meeting, we also discovered that many customers and member/owners are not aware of certain benefits that exist at the Co-op for member/owners. Here are a few of them most often overlooked or forgotten:
• Senior Discount Mondays – Some of us like to call it the “wisdom discount”. It is a benefit available to any member/owner over the age of 60 years. Member/owners over the age of 60 receive an additional 5% off most items in the store when they shop on any Monday. (Some restrictions apply.) Note that we do not keep record of member/owner ages, so it is up to you to let us know when you hit this milestone.
• I.O.U. – Member/owners have the option to utilize a $10 credit limit on our system which is then paid back the next time they shop. Many of our member/owners shop multiple times per day – perhaps having coffee in the Deli in the morning, lunch at the Deli, and then shopping for their evening meal ingredients after that. It also comes in handy if you are dangerously hungry and need a snack from the Deli so you don’t shop on empty and get home with lots of impulse buys.
• Wellness Wednesdays – This benefit is automatic and you only have to be a member/owner to receive it. The first Wednesday of every month our Wellness department is 5% off – with a few exclusions.
• Once-A-Month 5% Discount – Any member/owner in-good-standing has the option of taking 5% off any single shop during the month. This 5% discount can be combined with Wellness Wednesday discounts, Senior discounts, and Member Appreciation Day (MAD) discounts. (Some restrictions apply here as well.)
• Declining Gift Card Balances – Think of this as a gift card that you can put money on to be used at a later date at the Co-op. This is an internal gift card where our POS keeps track of the money put on account. This is probably the speediest way to check out and pay for groceries. Some member/owners put their food budget for the month into this account and then use it each time they shop. Parents also find it handy to put money on their account for their kids to use for after school snacks. Even some college students are lucky to find funds on their account put there by loved ones across the country.
Other benefits we offer at the Oneota Co-op are:
• Member discount on classes – see class listings for member/owner rates
• Member discount on Kitchen Classroom rental
• Buy six bottles of wine and receive 10% off those bottles
• Discounted ads in our “Scoop” printed newsletter
• 15% off retail pricing for Special Orders (case quantities and restrictions apply)
• Write checks for $20 over the amount of transactions for cash back
• Vote for Board Members and Referenda in annual elections
• Running for a seat on our Board of Directors
Our mission in the Front End is: We are friendly, courteous, customer service superstars always cultivating a welcoming shopping experience for all.
Again, let us know how we are doing utilizing the comments cards at the Customer Service Desk at the front of the store, or our online form at oneotacoop.com. With your help we can continue to develop our staff, our store, and our community.
Want to become a member/owner of the Oneota Co-op? A share in the Co-op is $140 payable in one lump sum or seven annual payments of $20 (plus a one-time $5 administrative fee). Shares are fully refundable – at the discretion of the Board. These funds build the Co-op’s equity and are used for improvements over the lifetime of the Co-op.
*member/owner benefits require in-good-standing status – meaning share payments must be up-to-date as of March 1st of that year.
