Christmas shopping. It's a holiday activity that most of us love to hate (or hate to love).
My experience with the war zone that is my local Westfield in December usually goes a little like this:
- Head to the mall with a list of people to buy gifts for
- Spend half an hour trying to find a parking spot
- Wade through the throngs of mothers with prams, teens and various other mall-goers to search for appropriate gifts for my loved ones
- Become increasingly frustrated with the lack of sales assistants in stores, or with the lack of knowledge and/or recommendations about products I'm interested in
- Spend 2 hours trying to leave the carpark
- Get home and finally relax
- Realise I haven't bought half the gifts I went to get
Sound familiar?
I hope not, but alas, I believe it may.
Now, unfortunately, better retail sales training can't solve many of my Christmas shopping woes (forgetfulness, car spots, the general public). Though what it can solve is the lack of product knowledge in Christmas casual staff, and retail salespeople in general.
So what's a store owner to do?
Easy! You can just get everybody in for training!
Let's see... You'll need everybody in on the same day, at the same time, at some point when you're free and the store isn't trading... Or I guess you could spend double the time and split the training into two groups... And you'll have to pay them...
Get the picture?
If you know anything about running a small business, you'll understand how much of a headache training staff can turn into – especially around the busiest time of the year.
Some retailers are comfortable in the fact that they're going to make sales regardless of how well-trained their staff are, just by sheer volume. Others understand that strong product knowledge and amazing customer service = more sales.
That's why Adora Handmade Chocolates made the smart decision to get their teams squared away with all of the knowledge they need to smash their sales targets and build the Adora brand.
And, they're doing it with Yarno!
About Adora
Adora Handmade Chocolates is the delicious brainchild of two Sydney sisters with a shared passion for chocolate. Way back in 1993, the sisters couldn't imagine what business would be like in 20 years. From making chocolate part-time at home to having four stores, dozens of stockists and a corporate events catering arm – Adora has truly flourished.
And with any business expansion, unfortunately, growing pains are inevitable. And for retail stores, they usually stem from temporary staff and busy holiday periods.
Adora is one of Yarno's first small business customers and uses Yarno campaigns as an 'Introduction to Adora' campaign for onboarding and refreshing knowledge, and in previous years, as a targeted Christmas campaign to get staff skilled up to smash their sales targets.
But why mobile training? And why Yarno?
Why Adora has chosen mobile training for their retail staff
The way a Yarno campaign is designed is perfect for retail sales training. Campaigns are easy to create, the content is concise, targeted, and knowledge-packed, and casual staff can do their Yarno quizzes anywhere they like.
1. Stores are busy and sometimes understaffed
It's standard practice to hire Christmas casuals. Except sometimes, small businesses struggle to meet labour demand for their stores. This leads to small business owners being stressed, without being able to find the time to adequately train their new staff before the rush hits. Pre-boarding new employees before they hit the floor is a great way to embed critical company and product knowledge.
2. It's difficult to gather employees at the same time
More often than not, retail workers are paid hourly and work variable shifts. This means that it's incredibly hard to coordinate a whole team of people to come in for training when it's likely their day off.
Being able to train a distributed workforce is useful for small businesses to ensure consistency of product knowledge and save on the cost of paying staff to attend training.
3. Mobile training engages millennial workers
Most retail staff are comfortable with navigating software on their mobiles.
They’re all used to flicking between Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, absorbing information the whole time. They can learn almost anything from the first page of a Google search.
So, why would they want to log onto a clunky old LMS out the back to do their training?
They don't.
And since being connected by mobile is second nature – social learning and gamification elements like team leaderboards, prizes, and the ability to achieve mastery can be incorporated into mobile training to help motivate staff to learn.
4. Bite-sized learning is great for product knowledge
Learning about product features and benefits can, and should, be quick and include the most relevant information that a customer would need to make their decision.
Mobile training platforms like Yarno that use microlearning, short videos and quizzes provide learners with just the right amount of information – without overloading them with stuff they won't remember. Sounds pretty good, hey?!
Want to know more about Adora? Check out their website for store locations, their scrumptious product range and more.
And for more about how Yarno can help retail businesses kick goals – head over our Retail page!
