5 Reasons Why Retail Staff Training is Vital

Your retail staff are frontline troops in the battle to win and keep customers.

So it makes sense to pay close attention to the way they interact with customers and close a sale.

It can take years for young employees to acquire top-notch customer service through ‘on the job’ learning alone.

Why not speed up the process with retail staff training designed to hone their skills and develop the presentation so essential for great customer interaction?

Let’s take a look at five major benefits of a staff training program in your store.

1. Increase staff effectiveness

The right kind of training can help your staff develop stronger sales skills and greatly increase their productivity.

Enable your staff to make the distinction between a customer looking for assistance and one who wants to be left to browse undisturbed. Sometimes this is a hard call to make, but training can help your employees learn to assess what customers really want.

2. Improve customer perceptions

This is hugely important, as clumsy or insensitive sales staff can lose you customers left, right and centre. And in these days of instant sharing, you can find your store receiving unfavourable reviews on social media.

It’s a simple equation. If your staff offer a warm and welcoming environment to shop in, customers are far more likely to buy, as well as telling their friends. And isn’t that what retail is all about?

3. Maintain employee and customer safety

While these vary according to your trade, there are some essential things your retail staff will need to know to keep themselves and your customers safe.

Life on the sales floor requires a lot of stamina, and it’s vital your employees are taught how to bend, lift and carry correctly to avoid back problems. They need to minimise risk from slipping and tripping over objects left lying around, and store overhead items carefully so they don’t fall and hit someone.

Employees should also be trained if working with hazardous materials or ladders.

4. Retain your best talent

Training programs can reduce retail staff turnover and hiring costs in two important ways. Firstly, if your employees feel recognised and valued, it gives them a clear reason to stay in your business. And secondly, if your staff are performing at their optimum level, there’s no reason at all to be moving them on.

5. Bring out strengths and weaknesses.

Training can bring out your employees’ latent talents and problem areas. It will shine a light on which staff have genuine retail aptitude and those employees who have problems negotiating sales and customer skills.

So stay in touch with retail training trends and consult one of our specialist consultants for further assistance with choosing the right retail staff.