Service with a smile

Local business is making customers feel at home with a friendly approach

by JOSE´A. AGUILAR

Ten employees are frantically running around on a busy Saturday afternoon at the Finish Line shoe store in Albuquerque’s Coronado Mall. As they rush to help customers asking for the latest Nike Shox and Air Jordans, you can’t help but notice the smile on their faces.

Jordan Barela is one of those merry workers. As a member of the shoe store for four years, he has seen many fresh faces come and go but the positive atmosphere has remained the same. He says it’s the quality of the staff that lights up the entrance doors.

“Most of us have worked together for a long time so we all get along,” Barela said. “Our personalities just mesh. Everyone here are really good people.”

photo by: Jose´ A. Aguilar

The welcoming doors of the Finish Line

With a mix of people from different cultures and age groups, the fact that they work together is a sight to see. On this particular Saturday, the team is displaying its ability to get along. As Manager José Meija looks across the sales floor, he smiles as he sees his recruits joking and laughing with customers and each other. He has had a big part in making sure that there is a unique diversity and a welcoming presence in his business.

“I have always tried to have pretty good diversity in the store,” Meija said in between helping customers. “Our customer isn’t just one race or culture. By doing that I was able to service every customer that is in my area.”

Meija’s philosophy is working. According to the stores records, the Finish Line is on pace to gross over a million dollars this year. The positive numbers are encouraging for Meija.

As a Finish Line manager for almost two years, Meija moved to Albuquerque a year ago from California and was surprised to see the existing attitude of his new store.

“When I came in everybody welcomed me. The first thing that I noticed was the atmosphere in the store. Everybody got along with each other at work and outside of work,” Meija said.

From Thursday night poker games to talking sports by the water fountain, the team has been able to stay close and with each new member that comes in the bond seems to grow even stronger. The unity is what Meija believes keeps his staff together and working with an attitude that keeps customers coming in.

Customer Bobby Sena has noticed the great service in the store and how well he was treated when shopping for a new pair of shoes.

“The actual customer service is good,” Sena said. “I had a good experience there. Everyone was real friendly and it was a good scene all together.”

Customers like Sena are scattered across the sales floor when Manager in Training Brandon Morris walks through the ‘Employees Only’ back door. He has been a part of the team since the fall and like Meija was welcomed in with open arms. As a lifetime resident of Memphis, Tenn., Morris said he was glad to see the new culture he had walked into.

It was nice being from the south where everyone is the same,” Morris said as he remembered his first day on the job. “But here everyone was from a different walk of life. It is a good experience with everyone being different. Everyone has a different story to tell.”

Those stories are told throughout the day as the employees gather together during a rare break from the onslaught of customers. As the singer Akon blasts through the stores booming sound system, they take turns sharing the news in their lives. Assistant Manager John Bowers reminisces about the previous nights wild escapades as sales associate Nano Lucero listens in. New employee Alex Duran takes a break to clean his new pearly white shoes. Barela shoots a text massage from his giant smart phone and roles his eyes as Bowers continues his story.

A couple walks in pushing a stroller followed by a family of five. The employees of Finish Line rush to great them, the smiles on their faces glowing through the bright lights above. Morris steps back and thinks how fortunate he is to be a part of a team that selflessly works so well together and it dawns on him about what it is like.

“Everyone here comes together because we have the common goal of trying to get a job done,” he says. “It’s like a puzzle. We all fit together to make the puzzle complete.”

Written April 15, 2008

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