Real caring for customers: Passionate about people

When staff at Damart, the fashion retailer for over 50s, realised that some of their customers needed extra support due to dementia, they decided to do something about it. 

‘I had a customer who I was contacting for around two months to try to collect a payment, as her account had fallen into arrears,’ says Michelle Rhodes, who has worked at Damart’s head office in Bingley, West Yorkshire, for 12 years. 

‘She kept forgetting to make her payments even after repeat reminders. I felt she was genuine but suspected she was vulnerable.’ 

Since the customer had mentioned having no family, Michelle contacted social services to make sure she was getting the right support. This person did have dementia, and social services helped her to set up repayments that she could afford, avoiding any more chasing. 

‘Our average customer is 74 years old,’ says Michelle. ‘We deal with a lot of vulnerable people, and supporting them is something we are very passionate about.’

Training and support 

However, this was just the beginning. Michelle and her colleagues saw there were many people who needed similar understanding and support. 

Eve Martin, Michelle’s teammate, says, ‘We started to recognise signs of vulnerability with other customers and wanted to ensure that we could all help them with sensitivity.’ 

After approaching Alzheimer’s Society, everyone on Damart’s Credit team attended our training course called Supporting people with dementia on the phone. 

‘We’ve found it easier to recognise when someone might have dementia,’ says Michelle. 

‘We had amazing feedback from the employees who attended,’ says Eve, ‘and people found it helpful with their day-to-day interactions. We decided to roll this course out to as many of our employees as possible – about 150 people. 

‘Hearing them open up about their own experiences with dementia showed that, not only did the course provide guidance and support for when they were dealing with vulnerable customers, it also helped our employees on a personal level.’ 

Michelle says, ‘We’ve found it easier to recognise when someone might have dementia, and this has made our jobs noticeably less challenging. We know who to contact if we are unsure of how to proceed.’

Raising funds 

As well as improving their support for customers affected by dementia, Michelle and Eve have regularly involved their colleagues in raising funds to fight the condition. 

‘We took part in Cupcake Day 2017 and raised close to £300,’ says Michelle. ‘This led to further fundraising through two Elf Days, where donations combined came to almost £1,000!’ 

Earlier this year, Damart also donated £5,000 towards our Side by Side service. This means we can connect more people who have dementia with Side by Side volunteers, to help them carry on doing the things that they enjoy. 

‘We would love to continue to support the charity wherever possible,’ says Eve, ‘and we hope to take part in Elf Day again this year.’ 

‘Just knowing that members of our staff are now trained to be reassuring and friendly when a person feels so vulnerable makes it all worthwhile,’ adds Michelle.