February 14, 2024
Elmore Roots Nursery
759 Symonds Mill Road
Elmore, VT 05680
Job Opening – Customer Service and Sales Representative
Our goal is to create a healthy, respectful place to learn and do work that helps make the world better. We value being part of a team that is considerate, communicative, quality-oriented, reliable, hardworking, and “can-do.”
Job Description:
Tasks vary from season-to-season and day-to-day based on weather, customer needs and more. The job is never boring or too repetitive!
The Customer Service and Sales Manager works closely with our seasoned staff people to perform a variety of the following tasks:
- Being welcoming and available for customers in person, by phone and online.
- Upkeeping the “Valley Root” display and pick-up area for customers.
- Responding in a timely and helpful manner to customer questions. Offering clarity around Elmore Roots policies in regards to returns, deliveries, pricing and more. Working to problem solve with staff when issues arise. Keeping track of customer feedback and work to improve our service and systems.
- Offering resources such as our digital planting guides, books, our catalog, etc to help customers build their dream orchards and berry patches.
- Ringing up sales using the Elmore Roots online store via ipad.
- Assisting customers in loading up their vehicles with trees, plants, tools and other materials. These items could occasionally weigh up to 50 lbs.
- Becoming familiar with our online inventory to better assist customers in finding plants.
- Becoming familiar with the many plant areas of our farm to help find plants for customers, or to show customers what the plants we sell look like at maturity.
- Working closely with the Operations Manager to keep track of incoming online and phone orders. Assuring those orders are filled in a timely and organized manner.
- Communicating with customers to let them know when their order is ready for pick-up, or about to be delivered.
- Keeping customers informed on tools and plant care materials that we carry. Keep David informed on when stock of these items need to be re-ordered before they get too low.
- Using a push behind mower and a weed trimmer to keep our display area looking good.
- Filling orders, potting plants, weeding pots, harvesting berries and other miscellaneous tasks when customer visits are low.
Qualifications:
- You are reliable. We count on you to be on time and ready for work.
- You have experience working in customer service, and are comfortable communicating in person, by phone and email.
- You pay attention to detail and can keep well organized records. Familiarity with Shopify or similar sales platforms is a plus.
- You are gentle with people, plants, wildlife and the hillside where we all work.
- You are comfortable working both independently and collaboratively as part of a team.
- You are comfortable working outdoors in all weather conditions – rain, cold, heat, humidity.
- You are physically capable of assisting customers load plants and/or bags of planting materials (up to 50 lbs.) into their vehicles.
Schedule
2024 season dates: Approximately March 26 - Nov 20. A full-time work week at Elmore Roots ranges between 30-35 hours per week.
Our work centers around a five-day work week – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sundays– typically from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Lunch is ½ hour*. Some flexibility is required due to the nature of farming, weather, and a customer-centered seasonal business. Sometimes employees may be asked to start earlier or stay later. *Once or twice a week, the crew will eat together.
Sundays are an important day in the spring months of April, May and June and you will definitely be asked to work on some Sundays. This will be planned out as best as possible. Sometimes extenuating circumstances and the nature of being a farm makes this difficult.
Also, please note that historically Sunday is the day when families and many customers come to Elmore Roots as it is the one day we are open on the weekend. Elmore Roots is closed on Saturdays because of spiritual practice.
Compensation and Benefits
The Nursery Assistant, if committing full-time for the entire 2024 season, will be paid $17/hr which raises to $17.50/hr after a successful first month.
Full time employees receive a 20% discount on plants and 10% discount on other nursery items such as tools. Full-time employees are also given one paid day off of their choosing in September. Employees receive a large amount of certified organic, locally grown winter storage vegetables towards the end of the season.
Employees are eligible for unemployment benefits during the off season.
Equal Opportunity Employer: Elmore Roots is an Equal Opportunity Employer that supports diversity and inclusion.
About Elmore Roots
We are a small certified organic nursery with a big heart and over 40 years of experience. The farm is family owned and operated along with a devoted, friendly crew of plant lovers. The nursery, located in the rolling hills of Elmore, is a unique landscape made up of food forests, fruit groves, native plants, a high tunnel, state-of-the-art gravel beds and more.
Our mission is “To be a nourishing place for the earth, the customer, our crew, and the life all around us by growing and offering the hardiest and most productive plants possible.” In our efforts to help customers realize their vision of a home orchard or berry patch, we’ve sourced, tested and propagated the cultivars that do best in our northern climate. We propagate many of our plants from our own orchards, as well as partner with trusted distributors.
How to Apply:
Please send a brief cover letter, resume, and three references by email to elmorerootsishiring@gmail.com Position is open until filled.
No phone calls please.
