Running out of ideas? | A Guide to Emotional Marketing in Retail and F&B
November 2, 2022
Eid is 3 days away, It’s late at night, customers are overflowing the space, products are scattered everywhere, and the cashier line has reached the street!
A customer comes up to your employee “Ahmad” to ask about the price of an item, Ahmad takes them to Reem, Reem takes them to Khalid, who then takes them to Sarah at the cashier (further delaying the long line of waiting customers), only to check the price in the system!
Now, there are 2 questions here:
The problem is that none of the team had enough knowledge of procedures, products, or customer service!
In short: this is a prime example of a lack of training, and yes, it certainly can be avoided through proper onboarding and on-job training.
Now, What exactly do we mean here?
The systematic process of integrating new staff into the institute’s culture, management, and employees.
Involves technical and logistic components of the job. Training the new staff on their required work tasks, tools, and equipment.
The difference between these two steps is simplified by the difference between “who” the institute is and what it stands for (onboarding), and the “how” of the works (on-job-training). The two stages usually coexist and overlap in duration.
Most retail and F&B staff are either taking up these jobs as temporary positions until they can find a “real job”, or part-timers, seasonal employees/flexible (Read: 5 Reasons why companies use flexible staffing and so should you!). As a result, retail and F&B have high turnover rates.
One way of making up for that (or at least making it less time-consuming) is developing good onboarding and on-job-training programs. Although they might be time-consuming initially, they’re your best scalable way of minimizing the risks of attrition and sudden no-shows. Keep in mind that this can be outsourced, you can hire a freelancer (try Bahr, or Upwork).
Let’s put this into actual points..
Now let’s get to the meat of it!
Now that you understand what the term entails, here are a couple of important things to know:
Once you contact the new hire and inform them of their application status, make sure to provide them with the following:
2. Basic Information: this includes the information you will gather, and the information you will provide.
Download our Employee Guide template.
3. First day:
The employee’s first day is your chance to introduce them to the space and Its occupants. You should ensure that they get familiar with:
The onboarding process will continue until your new hire is well integrated into the team, and is able to represent your brand’s culture and communicate it well to your clients. Therefore, investing in this process will reap great benefits for your brand and Its clients long-term. Make sure you properly monitor your employee’s onboarding process (onboarding progress template).
Building on the onboarding process, you will start training your new hire for their new role.
Keep in mind that the point of this stage is equipping your new hire in how to navigate and utilize the tools, equipment, and appliances needed for their role.
It is very important in this stage to make sure your training program covers the role’s needed components. This brings us to:
Now that we’ve touched the surface, let’s dig deeper into what exactly are you training your new hire/employee on?
This includes training them on the mechanics of their job. Like specialized barista training, cooking training, or hostess training.
This focuses on all used equipment and tools. This step is highly sensitive and risky as it touches on the safety of your products, employees, and customers. For example, a barista who can’t use a portafilter properly could lose an eye trying to set it up!
Think of all the equipment used in your branch (this includes coffee machines, cashier register…etc).
This is one of the most important -yet highly neglected- steps!
You want to properly train your employee on customer care, and how they should talk to your customers (on every channel). Some of it will be practical, the other part will be written (like pre-written replies). It should involve training the employee on:
What other services and products do you have? How can your customers get their hands on them? pricing? …etc.
Ensuring proper training on this step will save you the ramifications of our introductory scenario!
This step is vital for safety as well. For instance, allergy precautions. Knowing the components of your products will help them guide customers to the proper choices, advise them, and ask the right questions about allergy precautions.
In short, remember that your employee efficiency will reflect well on your customers’ satisfaction and sales.
To sum up, remember our main highlights:
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