Updated June 25, 2024
6 min read
Quoted Expert
Cynthia Krom
A keyholder is responsible for ensuring the store's daily security before and after the operation. Keyholders' duties include assisting with administrative tasks, handling customers' inquiries, managing and escalating customers' complaints, monitoring the alarm system, keeping track of the deliveries, supporting staff training, cooperating in company's events, and recommending operational strategies to meet business goals and objectives. A keyholder must have excellent customer service and time-management skills, as well as the ability to multi-task, especially during high customer volume.
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Key holder responsibilities
Key holders play a vital role in maintaining store operations and ensuring customer satisfaction. They often oversee daily front-of-store activities, ensuring optimum levels of customer service and building consumer relationships. Their responsibilities may also include supervising other associates, maintaining store cleanliness, and executing small-scale visual merchandising tasks. Cynthia Krom, Associate Professor and Department Chair at Franklin and Marshall College, emphasizes the importance of professional certifications, stating, "Professional certifications matter. If your profession has a certification, you need to have that certification to be competitive." Furthermore, key holders are often involved in merchandise handling, such as go-backs, markdowns, price management, and stocking. They may also assist managers in daily operations, dealing with customer complaints and creating alternative solutions.
Here are examples of responsibilities from real key holder resumes:
- Achieve and exceed store and company sales and KPI goals.
- Manage monetary transactions and POS operations.
- Used upselling techniques daily when selling gaming systems and accessories.
- Maintain operational duties in the manager's absence including scheduling and review of KPI reports.
- Used social networking, such as Facebook, to keep customers update on new arrivals and merchandise.
- Maintain a cleanly environment for customers, employees, and other animals, especially after any pet messes.
- Take the best care of all types of animals and help customers with all of their pet needs.
- Ensure service clerks are accounted for and providing fast and friendly service while bagging groceries and providing service to vehicles.
- Train staff in outside marketing, inside sales, upselling products and add-on services, customer relations and overall branch operations.
- Process payroll and personnel information.
- Process payroll accurately and efficiently according to correct procedure.
- Ensure appropriate store regulations, including alarm readiness, accountability of registers and cleanliness standards are satisfied.
- Supervise other associates while also servicing customers, maintaining store cleanliness, and execute small-scale visual merchandising tasks.
- Process merchandise information through store computer system, POS register system and complete all require paperwork according to policy.
- Demonstrate track record of accountability, integrity, collaboration, leadership and service that result in a recent promotion.
Key holder skills and personality traits
We calculated that 18% of Key Holders are proficient in Sales Floor, Product Knowledge, and Visual Standards. They’re also known for soft skills such as Physical strength, Customer-service skills, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Key Holders that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Sales Floor, 18%
General Housekeeping responsibilities including straightening merchandise, cleaning and organizing sales floor and back room areas.
- Product Knowledge, 11%
Facilitated and actively participated with in-store and privately held events by presenting product knowledge, cutting-edge research and new developments.
- Visual Standards, 9%
Mentored and provided training for staff regarding corporate visual standards and customer service excellence.
- Bank Deposits, 7%
Perform opening and closing routines including execution of bank deposits, receipt of shipment, and interpret/disseminate company directive.
- Loss Prevention, 7%
Follow designated loss prevention, security and safety practices according to policy and correct or report non-compliance of appropriate procedures/policies.
- Store Management, 6%
Partnered and communicated with store management on additional responsibilities and productivity to ensure personal and company goals are in alignment.
Most key holders use their skills in "sales floor," "product knowledge," and "visual standards" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential key holder responsibilities here:
Physical strength. One of the key soft skills for a key holder to have is physical strength. You can see how this relates to what key holders do because "postal service workers must be able to lift heavy mail bags and parcels without injuring themselves." Additionally, a key holder resume shows how key holders use physical strength: "supported and assumed responsibility for loss prevention, risk management, and physical inventory. "
Customer-service skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling key holder duties is customer-service skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "postal service workers, particularly clerks, regularly interact with customers." According to a key holder resume, here's how key holders can utilize customer-service skills in their job responsibilities: "provide consistent communication and continual feedback regarding customers, zone coverage, loss prevention issues and up-to-date sales information. "
Most common key holder skills
The three companies that hire the most key holders are:
- Bath & Body Works1,259 key holders jobs
- Kirkland's680 key holders jobs
- Jo-Ann Stores618 key holders jobs
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Compare different key holders
Key holder vs. Merchandising associate
Merchandise associates ensure that customers get a complete shopping experience. They pleasantly arrange and stock merchandise on shelves for customers to purchase. Also, they assemble product displays and make sure popular and on-sale products are visible to customers. Part of their duty is to place the appropriate sales tag on items and record new developments in the store's inventory. Skills required for the job include excellent customer service, being detail-oriented, and relevant experience in sales.
The annual salary of merchandising associates is $1,422 higher than the average salary of key holders.While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both key holder and merchandising associate positions are skilled in sales floor, product knowledge, and visual standards.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between key holders and merchandising associate. For instance, key holder responsibilities require skills such as "bank deposits," "retail store," "store sales," and "retail sales." Whereas a merchandising associate is skilled in "customer satisfaction," "basic math," "pallets," and "drive sales." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Merchandising associates tend to make the most money working in the manufacturing industry, where they earn an average salary of $33,557. In contrast, key holders make the biggest average salary, $30,477, in the manufacturing industry.The education levels that merchandising associates earn slightly differ from key holders. In particular, merchandising associates are 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a key holder. Additionally, they're 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.
Learn more about key holders vs merchandising associates.
Key holder vs. Customer service retail associate
A customer service retail associate is responsible for providing the highest customer service for the store's customers by responding to their inquiries and concerns and recommending them goods and services that would fit their needs. Customer service retail associates support the marketing campaigns and promotional strategies of the store by offering and demonstrating products to the customers, as well as arranging stock displays, and monitoring the adequacy of inventories. They also escalate high-level complaints to management for immediate resolution and assist with product replacement and issuing refunds as needed.
Customer service retail associate positions earn lower pay than key holder roles. They earn a $1,777 lower salary than key holders per year.A few skills overlap for key holders and customer service retail associates. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "sales floor," "product knowledge," and "bank deposits. "
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, key holder responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "visual standards," "store management," "store sales," and "cleanliness." Meanwhile, a customer service retail associate has duties that require skills in areas such as "customer orders," "retail environment," "product line," and "fedex." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, customer service retail associates earn a lower salary than key holders. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, customer service retail associates earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $32,384. Whereas key holders have higher pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $30,477.customer service retail associates earn similar levels of education than key holders in general. They're 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.
Learn more about key holders vs customer service retail associates.
Key holder vs. Manager trainee
A manager trainee's primary function is to observe and gain practical experience from working with senior staff or managers and following their daily directives. Most of the tasks will be administrative support related, which will involve preparing reports and assessments, keeping and updating records, creating presentations, and crafting strategies alongside supervising officers. Furthermore, a manager trainee must attend training sessions, meetings, and workshops to learn more about managerial duties. It is also essential to understand and uphold all policies and regulations of the company, implementing them when the time comes.
On average scale, managers trainee bring in higher salaries than key holders. In fact, they earn a $17,414 higher salary per year.By looking over several key holders and managers trainee resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "sales floor," "product knowledge," and "bank deposits." But beyond that, the careers look very different.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, key holders are more likely to have skills like "visual standards," "retail store," "store sales," and "retail sales." But a manager trainee is more likely to have skills like "management," "management position," "customer orders," and "customer satisfaction."
Managers trainee earn the highest salary when working in the pharmaceutical industry, where they receive an average salary of $54,220. Comparatively, key holders have the highest earning potential in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $30,477.Most managers trainee achieve a similar degree level compared to key holders. For example, they're 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.
Learn more about key holders vs manager trainees.
Key holder vs. Assistant manager trainee
An assistant manager trainee is responsible for helping the manager in charge of plotting the schedule of employees, training and development of new employees, and hiring new employees. Depending on the line of the business industry they are working with, they may also be asked to handle customer complaints as they mostly work in a customer-facing role. As a trainee, it is expected that your assistance is needed in making sure the team adheres to company policies, and customer complaints are resolved.
Assistant managers trainee average a lower salary than the annual salary of key holders. The difference is about $285 per year.While their salaries may vary, key holders and assistant managers trainee both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "sales floor," "product knowledge," and "bank deposits. "
Even though a few skill sets overlap between key holders and assistant managers trainee, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a key holder might have more use for skills like "visual standards," "store management," "retail sales," and "pet." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of assistant managers trainee require skills like "provides supervision," "food preparation," "customer satisfaction," and "upselling. "
The transportation industry tends to pay the highest salaries for assistant managers trainee, with average annual pay of $32,858. Comparatively, the highest key holder annual salary comes from the manufacturing industry.assistant managers trainee reach similar levels of education compared to key holders, in general. The difference is that they're 1.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.
Learn more about key holders vs assistant manager trainees.
Types of key holder
Updated June 25, 2024
Zippia Team
Editorial Staff
The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.
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Updated June 25, 2024
