Kini Le, a salesperson who works at the S-market on Rantakatu in Joensuu, is known for providing exceptional customer service with a smile. Now they share their cheer with the general public through social media, both at work and during their leisure time.

I’ve enjoyed working at S Group and PKO for the ten years I’ve been here. It feels like just yesterday that I started my on-the-job training here, from which I moved on to summer work and then to a permanent position. Luckily, I decided to come here and had the courage to change lanes from working as a cook to the supermarket when I was 19. I felt strongly that I was more in my element as a store customer service employee than in the restaurant kitchen. I like cooking, and that’s why I went to culinary school, but I wanted people and customers around me. Smiling is my thing; it comes completely naturally, as does my desire to serve customers. I enjoy it when I get customers in a good mood and help them. I talk to them and focus on the encounters.

I’ve mostly worked at the Rantakatu S-market in Joensuu, and a lot at the food market. At the same time, I’ve become a jack of all trades. I’ve wanted to do that because I like variety, and I like to know how to do a little bit of everything. I’ll go where I’m needed: S-market, Sokos – no problem. I also applied to be part of PKO’s social media team in 2017 because I like variety. I liked to use social media in my free time, so I was excited as soon as I had the opportunity to post for PKO, too. The idea was that we would have a small team posting about behind-the-scenes topics that were interesting to both customers and staff. We would work a couple of hours a week without serious goals. Well, that's where it started.

Recently, I’ve started spending an average of one workday a week on social media activities. At the beginning of the year, I got an excellent opportunity to work on social media and other marketing and advertising full time, filling in for our social media content producer, who is on study leave for six months. This is one of the best things about being part of S Group: it’s possible to develop yourself and try new work.