production operator

retail advisor

upholsterer

warehouse worker

retail sales associate

DFS Furniture Stores

Following a successful career in Sales & Marketing I decided to semi-retire and work part time until becoming eligible for all my pensions to be paid out. For my final 18 months I worked as a Retail Sales Adviser at DFS. Before accepting the role I had considered other similar positions locally but the gleaming showroom, clean back of house and bean to cup coffee machine swayed my choice to give DFS a chance. The team were great (Manager was long term absent) and it was relatively easy to make a good income based on 20 hours a week - however it is largely order taking so don't be put off as customers make up their own minds in their own time. You will need an eye for detail and be happy to use a tablet as mainly paper free. A willingness to relate to the public is crucial as is having a good memory as the product range and variable options are vast. The selling part only comes into play with the myriad of optional extras that DFS are paranoid about offering to everyone if they are interested or not. You will have to manage the Manager as total sales per month is not enough to satisfy the monthly review process with around 15 KPIs to score green (some counter productive such as average sale value, say £1800 pitted against your total sales of £50 rugs - hard to achieve both !) If you are strong enough to stand your ground against micro-management and the obvious disappointment shown by Management even when booking a £5000 suite of Italian leather furniture if you fail to up sell a £35 cleaning kit, then you will do well. Staff turnover is high as is sickness absence and internal politics are rife - Area management is a once a month visit with maybe "your H&S poster is out of date in the staff kitchen" the sum total of the visit with overnight Hotel stay and expenses claim submitted! Late nights can be a pain, mine were limited to 6pm but many are 8pm - money and environment can be good but adopt the "never get in the way of a good person who knows what they are doing" attitude, ignore the prepared scripts, give lip service to the box ticking review process and animated pitches, be yourself, give good service (customer service feedback pays well each month) and keep it simple. 

I started working for DFS in mid December 2019, my first impression of this company was they are a family where everyone works together as a team, support one another & encourage each other throughout the working day.

Training is absolutely fantastic, I was sent to Doncaster for one week where you gain knowledge from some extremely talented people who teach you a multitude of things from how to welcome a customer to overcoming objections, furniture care advise & so much more. We were even treated to a visit to one of the factory’s where we could see the sofas being made by hand by very talented men & women. I was also treated to an all expenses paid hotel throughout my weeks training.
The training given to me is invaluable & really sets you up for the future working as sales person.

My working day consists of meeting new people every day, finding out what the customer is looking for & selling a product suitable for the customers needs, being compliant when discussing finance options & offering optional products like extra warranty, footstools care kits etc.

My role is commission based with a basic salary which i love, it’s like running your own business within a business, the more effort you but in the more money you earn, it’s fantastic & can honestly say I’ve never earned this amount of money before anywhere, saying that money is not everything, you need to be passionate about your job too.

Management are amazing, always willing to help & very hands on.
My manager holds motivational meetings every morning which really sets you up for the day to be proactive, productive & passionate about the products you are selling.  

My hours are from 10am to 7pm with one hour for lunch & two days off a week. I find the day goes so quick because you are busy talking with customers.

If you should be offered a role within DFS I’d grab it with both hands & hold on tight for the journey of your life.

DFS sales person is a very tough and at times emotional job, as it only pays commission which you're never told about as well as that they deduct sick pay for the first few days, if you're on sick for a long period of time then they start to deduct bonus as well as that is you're not at work selling, so this will financial hurt you in the near future. 6 months out of the year you're not allowed on holiday as it's busy. On  busy seasons and period, you'll have to work 6 days with 11 hour shifts 

Any error you create you can be charged anywhere from 10% - 20% of the order. So if you order anything wrong they charge as well as losing your commission and having a warning/ disciplinary.  The company will put you down as £19k a year, if you don't hit £1500 in commission for that month, the company will top you up the difference to make sure you gross £1500 that month, however, they will take back the amount they've topped you up when you manage to make decent money. 

You're told to keeping selling force selling or else you'll be looked down upon, no help from management, Staff turn over hitting 65% Job is never stable you can get sacked for underperforming weather it's your fault or not, you cannot take any time off because its commission based only so it will eventually hurt you pocket in the following pay days. 

Got rid of all the nice hard working managers that made it an enjoyable place to work and filled it will backside licking managers that will step on each others toes just to get a pat on the back, and when things are going wrong management blame the sales team. Changeover, you're force to work, 9 hours lifting heavy furniture as well as keeping an eye out for customers so you can at least make money. DOG EAT DOG and a COWBOY behaviour. Free for All type of attitude is what they want.

When you can't or don't sell the extras the manager will have a meeting in the morning and basically humiliate you and other who didn't do too great  the day before. The manager will also interrupt your client interaction which is unprofessional, also to review how you're selling they will sit listening to how you're selling which is pretty normal but to be texting you everything you got wrong in the sale from how you say something and not having the correct knowledge on something. The manager will spend half of the working day outside smoking cigarettes and talking to his wife and dogs over facetime. One time I ask the manager for help and his reply was "I'm not meant to be here today so I won't be able to help you today" they  came back the following days with a script that was so robotic and filled to the brim with spelling mistakes and bad grammar that didn't help me whats so ever. The manager tried to get involved in my private life way too often telling me how I should live my life and getting annoyed with the decisions I made for my life out of work the sort of things that should concern this person. I felt there was an instance of systematic racism in the work place one day I had for my hair to be done and I need to put on some products on my hair and leave it covered so I wore my durag for the day he asked me to removed it and 3 times called it A hairnet after I had corrected him about what it is and soon backed off when I said I would be going to HR about the issue at hand. I will add colleague to manager confidentiality doesn't exist to this particular person and will throw you under the bus at any given moment to save themselves. Avoid the this manager at all cost he wont better your life.

DFS is a good place to work and in an enjoyable environment the majority of the time. Management are good and supportive and there is good company benefits, e.g. company car, Christmas bonus. There is, however, a massive lack of career progression within the company from the area of the company i work in, service. There is only one real position available for promotion which is not looking likely to be available for any time in the near future. I am a driven individual looking to have personal goals set ahead of me that I can strive for. 

A typical day at work consists of heading out and visiting any customers that have complained about their purchases. Deciding if their is a manufacturing fault or if there is any work that can be carried out that will help the customer. I would then be reporting these issues back to the supplier and explaining how it was resolved and debit back to the supplier when required. 

I would be going out to visit customers on my own whilst also coming back to the warehouse or store and working alongside my service team and also the sales, admin and distribution teams to make sure the whole process is running smoothly and everyone is playing their part.

The job can be difficult and stressful at times when things do go wrong or when facing challenging customers in their own home. I am now used to working with the public so know how to deal with confrontation and difficult situations with a wide variety of people. It brings a lot of satisfaction to me when I greet a customer who is unhappy with their investment and by the end of the visit, they are completely happy with it due to any work I have done.

I thoroughly enjoy working with the public all in all and am very comfortable meeting new people.

I enjoy working at DFS because it is a relaxed selling environment wherein you have the chance to progress yourself at your own pace. A typical day at work would be coming into store and dealing with customer accounts and queries first thing. Once the accounts are all settled you spend your day talking to customers about their homes, sofas, pets and children gaining the knowledge of what would suit the customers needs and selling them their dream couch. 

I have gained an array of knowledge about the industry from the materials we use to make the couches, manufacturing proccesses, sales techniques, self accountability and I learn something new every day. Management are here to support you in all aspects of the job and the team is smaller which means you can spend more time aiding each other when needed. 

DFS prides itself on having an inclusive and diverse work culture and works alongside many charities and foundations to do their part to support the local communities and causes close to their employees hearts. It is a forward thinking company that value their employees and provide support and encouragement to all. 

The hardest part of the job would be lifting and wrapping furniture. We do this regularly when the showrooms have new stock and can be quite a strenuous day. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is the social aspect of working in the team and meeting new people from different walks of life everyday. 

I worked at Stockport dfs for under 6 months and developed depression and ptsd from the toxic workplace. May I add I am 17 years old and was 16 at the time of working there. I resigned due to the fact I couldn’t handle anything at the Stockport workplace anymore. The company is amazing but the Stockport store have recruited toxic toxic individuals. I now suffer from ptsd and anxiety due to the fact I was constantly bullied and belittled. My time there made me drop into severe depression and I felt there was no escape until I spoke to the amazing management and I was released before my life became even more unbearable. I would not recommend working here at all because if there are still certain individuals that work there I doubt anything has changed. Gossip is the main thing at the Stockport store and bullying followed. I felt unwelcome and always judged at my time there. To the point I was so afraid to take a day off because I’d be slandered for it that I would force myself self in to work multiple times when being physically sick. Biggest mistake of my life so far because I now have anxiety which I am unable to over come and suffer from ptsd flashbacks. I always kept a smile on my face and respected every individual but I held everything in And risked loosing myself and my family loosing me. I have plenty more to say but I felt  I must express my frustration as i revived no justice from what I went through. Good luck in there ! I a 16 year old girl was severely depressed because of the work environment and my colleagues.

Too much inbound for warehouse to cope with so nothing gets checked. The vans are loaded dangerously and management just say get them on knowing its dangerous. There are people doin all different shifts so people resent others through the stupid process they have in place. Warehouse get away with not doin there job properly but van staff are expected to do it all perfectly and have to work every other saturday and then in certain times they are expected to work your saturdays off aswel. The management are only bothered about getting deliverys out any way they can. When your partner is off they get anybody in from agencys and put them out on the vans when they cant lift properly and have never delivered before. They have been told problems by warehouse and van staff but they just ignore them until theres an accident then they try n cover it up. Pay rises are an absolute disgrace. Shifts are rubbish and when problems are reported to people from head office like bullying n racist name calling nothing happened. Work and life balance is rubbish they bring shifts in that you work till 7 at night during week and work every other saturday and say its so you have more time at home with your family its a total farce full off lies. Good points sick pay provided you been there years up to 12 weeks paid sick.

Worst company to work for ever. After approaching 3 years of service i had a back injury and took two weeks of requested by my doctor. After asking to use some of my holiday up as not to lose pay i was refused. After returning to work everyone had booked there summer holidays and i could only book in September or October. Your not allowed even book holidays in November or December as it is the preparation for the Christmas rush. So i handed in my notice. I even emailed the C.E.O regarding this and was ignored!!

They try to load 12 deliveries on a daily basis and expect them all to be done regardless of what time you finish. This is crazy as your official hours every other week is 7am til 4pm. If any mistakes are made down the chain regarding deliveries the crew are expected to rectify it all the time. Managers lie to staff and customers on a daily basis. The work atmosphere is truly toxic with a pass the blame culture. Also bullying tactics to make you works all the hours.

All this company are interested in doing is selling sofas and making sure they are successfully delivered and signed for....nothing else. Once they have had the customers money or signed finance contract they could not care less They also could not care less for your health/well being or your home life.

Trust me stay away!!

I can not emphasise this enough ....DFS DO NOT DESERVE YOU!!! !! Quite simply they expect you to work long shifts with no breaks, be flexible around an ever-changing rota, manipulate the public into buying 'extras' they don't want and take on all the administrative tasks that our admin used to do before being made redundant. Nothing is ever good enough, there is no motivation or encouragement ... It is a totally negative environment..In my 10 months in the company, I am the 3rd person to leave my store ... All with stress and anxiety bought on by work-related issues. Our Branch Manager left months ago and has never been replaced. Over the bank holiday weekend we were left with just 2 of us in store dealing with a store full of customers wanting to buy, and also dealing with all complaints and admin. No breaks of course ... It bought me to my knees and I resigned. Dreadful company, no support from management and my pay has been abysmal. I believe DFS was a good company to work for once - but not now. No-one should have to work under these conditions. I have worked in stressful conditions during my previous career which was for over 26 years, but nothing like this ... And it appears to be getting worse. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Production operator 35 salaries reported	£22,560 per year
Retail advisor 3 salaries reported	£23,323 per year
Upholsterer 24 salaries reported	£29,928 per year
Warehouse worker 2 salaries reported	£22,359 per year
Retail sales associate 7 salaries reported	£14,928 per year

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