Kim and I have the pleasure of supporting all of our online retail training subscribers on a daily basis. We field calls and emails from store team members and store managers all the time, so we hear the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to what’s happening out in retail stores from a training perspective. Plus, we’ve both had ‘past lives’ in retail store operations, so we are wise to the pitfalls and hurdles when it comes to keeping training alive!
Let’s look at the #1 things that seem to be standing in the way and dragging your training initiatives down.
No Time
There is a perception at store level that there isn’t enough time to complete any ongoing training. For sure, retail is task heavy. We push a lot of ‘to do’s’ down to the stores. It’s confusing sometimes for store managers to prioritize because everything seems to be at the top of the list and, oh ya, don’t forget to blow your sales goals out of the water while you’re at it too! Stop. Take a breath. You aren’t saving any lives in retail, so keep things in perspective.
We all know that the customer is the #1 priority, so that clears a lot of things up when we remember that. Next, your staff is your internal customers, so helping them be the best they can be should be high on the ‘to do’ list every day; so in turn they love what they do, don’t quit and have the confidence and skills to get out there and have meaningful conversations (and close sales) with your customers.
So, when we hear that there’s no time for training, our goal is to dial things back and help store managers realize that training is on-going, it’s not a race and there’s always time for great training moments in between customers and during quieter times in the store. If you change the way you think about training and adopt a new approach with your internal customers (your staff), you will be able to make a difference in their lives. Build them up, help them grow and don’t think about training as just another task you have to check off your list!
With our new vision at Graff Retail, I wanted to put a spotlight on how to live this new approach through the training you are providing for your frontline teams. Stay tuned for next week’s blog for more Blah Busting Tips…say NO to training blahs and join us in this new approach! Please send in your stories on how you are relating to your staff in your day-to-day training moments…we want to hear your voice!
