National Customer Service Week is October 3-7. In 1992, the U.S. Congress proclaimed Customer Service Week a nationally recognized event, celebrated annually during the first full week in October. Customer Service Week is a celebration of the importance of customer service and the people who devote their career to working with customers. To celebrate the hard work our Retail Operations Department team members put in each day, we are participating in this year’s Customer Service Week. It is our great honor to celebrate and recognize our retail employees and their efforts and their contribution to our bottom line to be able to support the Key Training Center’s mission of helping adults with developmental disabilities to have the opportunity to choose and realize their goals of learning, living, working, and playing in their community.
The Key Center opened its first thrift store in 1965 in downtown Crystal River with its second store in 1983 in Inverness. Fifty-three years later, the Key Center operates three large thrift stores and one upscale resale store. With customers support, our thrift stores have received the honor of the Citrus County Chronicle’s Best of Best award for nine years straight. This is due to our key players in our Retail Operations Department to include the front-line service store clerks, the back end donation processing store clerks, the distribution drivers, support staff, and leadership.
Many staff in our Retail Operations Department have the pleasure of working and having meaningful relationships with the over 300 adults with developmental disabilities we serve on a year-round basis which only reinforces the staff’s critical role of generating sustaining funds to support their needed support services. Currently, the Retail Operations Department generates nearly 30% of the Key Center’s annual operating budget. Our retail store revenues are vital to meet the needs of our clients today and into the future.
To all our Retail Department staff, thank you for your extraordinary efforts and thank you for choosing the Key Training Center as a place to share your talents and provide excellent service to our customers. Please join us in celebrating those that have chosen to make a difference in our community.
Sincerely,
Melissa Walker
Executive Director