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Testimonials

The Charity Retail Consultancy conducted our first ever mystery shop in August 2022. I’d not worked directly with Jayne previously, but was aware of her reputation in the charity retail sector. Our aim was to get benchmarking data out of the mystery shop visits, so that we might be able to steer our direction of travel. What we actually got was a fully personalised mystery shop programme, where it was clear that Jayne and her team had spent significant time in our stores to understand how they were working, enabling exceptional feedback that we could use with our management teams.

What followed was a bespoke training day delivered by Jayne around customer service for our management teams, that had the mystery shops woven in from start to finish. Jayne immediately had the room at ease, with her warmth and sound knowledge of our sector which she speaks about both passionately and articulately.

We couldn’t have been any happier with the package that Jayne provided for us. So much so that we’re now conducting annual mystery shops and Jayne will be returning to us this summer to do it all again!

St Giles Hospice, Emma Yates, Head of Retail

I would highly recommend the Charity Retail Consultancy in supporting and developing your charity retail team and business. Diane hit the ground running as soon as she started working with us, identifying issues through listening and talking with the team and helping us to come up with solutions. We have all benefited in some way from Diane’s experience and knowledge and have really enjoyed both working with Diane and the coaching sessions she held with us

Rainbows Hospice, Nikki Winterton, Retail Operations Manager

We really enjoy the style and industry collaboration offered through Charity Retail Consultancy programs. Our Staff have found attending sessions with an international audience incredibly useful to monitor their processes, practices and outcomes against international peers. Through working with Charity Retail Consultancy we have not only been able to update and renew our practices but have built an international network of support and individual relationships. I have no hesitation in recommending the training, consultancy and services of Charity Retail Consultancy to the industry and the Australian context.

Hobart City Mission, Jacob Miller, Retail Operations Manager

Jayne has been super helpful and engaged from the offset; offering advice and being a great sounding board helping me to decide what would be the right first move into the Charity sector. Charity retail consultancy genuinely care and that’s what makes the engagement with them so special. Both Vicki and Jayne also made sure they understood what I wanted from the next opportunity and presented me with amazing options for great charities. I’m so glad I connected with them and thoroughly recommend them.

Shivani Modha

I was impressed from the outset at how well Jayne and Vicki listened to our Charity’s needs and quickly understood who we are and what we are trying to achieve. Part of the work we then commissioned them to do was a procurement exercise to find a preferred shop fitter and this process was done efficiently and professionally. We intend to continue to seek their advice and support with any future requirements we have, and I would highly recommend them.

St Vincent de Paul Society England & Wales, Helen Voyce, Head of retail

Jayne supported us, in the early stages of the pandemic, to re-evaluate our retail business to respond to the changing needs of our customer base. She helped us to develop both reactive and proactive planning processes, with a strong focus on helping us to create a new online sales platform. The results were that we have developed a whole new aspect of our operations and this has led to us winning the Garden Centre of the Year 2020, for central England, an award we have never won before in our 36 year history. Without Jayne’s support it is unlikely that we would have been able to reach this level of success, particularly during such a difficult time.

Where Next? Matthew Gilbert, CEO

The mentoring program Jayne Cartwright delivered was a fantastic experience. Having recently stepped up in a senior role Jayne was able to support me through the transition. Jayne’s knowledge and experience in the charity retail sector was invaluable and I had complete trust in her. The biggest thing I took away from the mentoring was the confidence the process gave me to enable me to deliver in my role

Wandsworth Oasis, Iain Burnett, Head of Retail

We asked the Charity Retail consultancy to do a complete review of our retail portfolio – they were able to do this very promptly and the report was ready soon after their site visits. I was impressed with the thoroughness of the report which gave us clear recommendations to take the business forward. I would highly recommend any charity looking for experienced retailers who know where to look, who can get under the skin of your business and who can give you clarity on what to do next.

St Clare Hospice, Sarah Thompson, CEO

We were at a crossroads with our 13 charity shops. The Board had differing views on expansion, contraction, management, staffing and just about everything else in-between. I therefore looked outside for an expert who could review our current operations, understand our charity, and guide us as to the way forward.

I found a number of consultancies which had charity shops as part of their client list, but only Jayne who focused 100% on the sector. Not only that, but Jayne was the only person that I spoke to who had actually worked in a charity shop.

Jayne conducted a very efficient review of our shops, including talking with most of our staff, prepared a concise, but comprehensive report, and met with our Board to plan the way forward.

The outcome is that we have a new strategy, a new management structure and a new sense of purpose. We are beating our revenue targets, the staff have a smile on their faces and the charity is very pleased with the contribution that the shops are making to both its finances and the awareness of its work.

Revitalise Respite Holiday, John Parker, Finance Director and Company Secretary

When we decided to enter the world of retail through the opening of a charity shop we engaged Jayne Cartwright from the Charity Retail Consultancy. We are so glad that we did. As novices we were taken step by step though the process of setting up and running our shops. We can only thank the organisation for given us the benefit of their experience. We now have three successful shops across Birmingham and Solihull that we are proud to have our name over the door. We have no hesitation in commending the work of the Charity Retail Consultancy

Maureen Connolly, CEO, Birmingham and Solihull Women's Aid

Jayne’s knowledge and support provided SWT with a strategy, helpful tools and the assurance we needed to make our charity retail ambitions a reality. The Charity Retail Consultancy gave Staffordshire Wildlife Trust a real insight into charity retail and provided the head office team with constructive support and a series of helpful recommendations. Jayne was approachable, enthusiastic and accessible throughout.

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Alison Holmes Commercial Manager

Working with Jayne to develop and deliver our “Running a Profitable Retail Department” has been a real pleasure. This is someone who really knows her business and who is able to clearly share this insight with a wide range of charitable and retail organisations. Our conference was aimed at staff working and managing museum shops and Jayne gave them all some very practical advice for improvements, some thought provoking ideas to ensure on-going development and a great deal of confidence to take back to their own organisations. It comes as no surprise that in the feedback she scored the highest of all the elements.

The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Traci Dix-Williams Director of Operations

South Kent Mind worked with Jayne on developing our retail footprint. Jayne added great value to our organisation, not only in helping us understand the Charity shop landscape but also in challenging our assumptions and ideas. Jayne is great to work with, very experienced and has a style that combines great listening with thoughtful insight. Jayne adds value, works hard and cares. I would recommend Jayne to any Charity organisation in any stage of their retail evolution.

South Kent Mind, Charles Traylen

We contacted the Charity Retail Consultancy to explore how we were doing bench marked against the rest of the sector, and to help us decide if we could or should plan for growth. The report provided by Diane did exactly that, providing lots of guidance and insights which has given us a baseline to work from. Diane also supported our recruitment process for a new post which has been incredibly helpful with her knowledge and experience of the charity retail business. I would have no hesitation in recommending the Charity Retail Consultancy as a knowledgeable, professional and all round lovely team to work with.

Cerebral Palsy Cymru, Jenny Carroll, Centre Director/Consultant Physiotherapist

The reports are exactly what we need. I am truly grateful for the way you took the time to understand the support we needed, carried out the findings, and presented the reports in a very straightforward way that clearly informs us of the strategy we need to take for development. As I read your reports, I was literally saying “yes… that’s it, indeed, this is so good…”.

Kingsmeadow@MadeForever, Catherine Sama, Chief Officer

Jayne and Vicki are incredibly knowledgeable, really understood our needs and provided our charity with an excellent detailed report. They were both prompt and highly effective at carrying out the research into our pricing, product choice, CSR and marketing strategy as well as providing a great list of recommendations that will help us in achieving our long-term objectives. I would highly recommend any charity looking at developing trading income to consider them.

Chilli Studios, Bob Malpiedi, Studio Manager

The Charity Retail Consultancy completed a full review of our retail operation during the pandemic and although this provided challenges both Vicki and Jayne easily adapted to the situation.

Vicki then worked closely with the Retail Advisory Committee and presented some very clear recommendations to the Board of Trustees. The guidance and support along with the huge wealth of knowledge that we were able to benefit from by engaging the services of The Charity Retail Consultancy has been so valuable in the development of our retail strategy.

Vicki was so engaging and easy to work with and her expertise gave us the confidence to push forward with some tough decisions.

The retail team also made good use of the training courses available to them during furlough. We are looking forward to continuing our working relationship with The Charity Retail Consultancy and highly recommend their services.

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, Donna Lee, Head of Retail

The Charity Retail Consultancy reviewed our retail chain, providing a very thorough insight into all aspects of the operation, as well as a helpful and detailed overview of the sector as a whole. Their work helped us to make informed choices about how best to move forwards and solve the issues that had been holding us back. They provided mentoring and guidance to our Retail Manager throughout lockdown, helping to ensure a safe and timely reopening plan and keeping us on track within a rapidly changing environment. The CRC also advised on volunteering materials and processes for us to implement, helping us build a better framework for managing volunteers in the future. I would highly recommend their services to anyone wanting to make the most of their charity retail operation.

Cancer Research Wales, Rhodri Conway Davies, Head of Income Generation, Marketing & Communications

I gave your training to one of my furloughed staff to try out, and they think its fab. Lots of useful content, doesn’t reinvent the wheel but gives useful, practical suggestions.
The fact that both you and Jayne have so much experience really shines through. They love how “empowering” it is, which is the culture of my department. Looking forward to rolling it out across my team later this week.
Thanks for such a good resource.

Severn Hospice, Ross Henderson, Head of Retail

Jayne and Vicki were very enthusiastic, full of ideas and pragmatic solutions to the challenges we face at Saint Francis Hospice in developing a modern retail experience, whilst maintaining a motivated and engaged, mainly volunteer, workforce!
They were asked to give practical, operational solutions to help support our journey and they delivered some really sound advice alongside practical steps in achieving this, including benchmarking and modelling organisational change, profitability measurement and management of bespoke training solutions.
I really liked how they performed a targeted needs analysis and they knew our market very well, coming up with practical solutions to take us to the next stage of our retail journey.
We will definitely be taking the training forward from our review to continue on our journey with the ever evolving world of charity Retail and would highly recommend The Charity Retail Consultancy for their extensive experience and expertise in their field – they were extremely approachable and the information invaluable!

St Francis Hospice. Michelle Nichols, Director of Retail and Trading

Working with Vicki was a very positive experience. She took the time to understand our unique needs and as a consequence I felt she understood where we were coming from and where we wanted to be. We received tailored advice to help improve, and monitor, both our retail and visitor engagement offer. It was also useful to know what we were doing right and how we could build on this for the future.

Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust, Pauline Massey, Visitor Centre Manager

We were very pleased with the results of a retail analysis that Jayne Cartwright undertook for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Jayne’s attention to detail, deep investigation of our current operation & resource, and of course her retail expertise led to the creation of an extremely useful report that helped to shape our retail activity to maximise our charity income. We would definitely use Jayne again in the future.

Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Miranda Williams Public Fundraising Manager

Jayne supported Cats Protection Retail through a huge period of change. From advising and assisting with the recruitment of a new Head of Retail to delivering workshops and plenary sessions at our first ever Retail Conference, her support and depth knowledge was invaluable.
Jayne strikes exactly the right balance of professionalism and approachability, and has superb interpersonal skills. These attributes combine to make her a first class communicator at all levels, throughout any organisation.

Cat’s Protection, Lewis Coghlin - Director of Fundraising

We commissioned Jayne to produce a report supporting a strategic review of our events, community and corporate fundraising teams and to recommend a strategy and structure that could deliver long-term income growth.

Jayne maintained a high level of professionalism and sensitivity throughout the process, whilst engaging fully with key members of the team. We highly recommend her.

Andrew – Cystic Fibrosis Trust