Episode 12
A retail training session's not just for Christmas!
Remember the familiar adage, “a dog is for life, not just for Christmas”?
Welcome to Retail Reckoning. I'm Clare Bailey, founder of Retail Champion.
In this episode I'm sharing why that's relevant to one of the biggest secrets to successful Christmas trading in retail—training.
I'll explore why so many retailers panic-hire and rush new employees onto the shop floor with little to no preparation, risking poor service and damaged brand reputation.
I'll share personal stories, practical insights, and examples from leading retailers like Waitrose to show how investing in ongoing training builds trust, drives sales, and creates lasting customer loyalty.
Whether you manage a bustling chain or a local independent shop, this episode reveals why investing in your team's skills and service isn’t just an expense—it's your competitive advantage.
Timestamped summary
00:00 Proper Training Builds Better Service
06:20 Building Trust Drives Customer Loyalty
08:24 "Emotions Drive Customer Loyalty"
12:12 Retail Success Through Culture
14:50 "Trust Drives Long-Term Loyalty"
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Transcript
I'm going to share with you a secret weapon for successful
Speaker:Christmas trading.
Speaker:You remember that old slogan, a dog is for life and not just for
Speaker:Christmas. I think training deserves the same treatment.
Speaker:I've noticed every year Christmas approaches.
Speaker:What a surprise. And people seem to panic. Retailers are
Speaker:rushing to hire more people. They've not planned ahead. Seasonal temps are
Speaker:being grabbed in as fast as possible. I mean, my son's trying to get a
Speaker:retail job right now as a student and he's got an inundation of
Speaker:application opportunities. Part timers, students though,
Speaker:anyone who's going to be able to jump on the till or stack the shelves
Speaker:and keep the queues moving and the stock full. The problem
Speaker:is, without planning in this rush to
Speaker:recruit, as though Christmas came as a surprise, people
Speaker:forget to train the staff. Yeah, retail
Speaker:reckoning. Retail reckoning.
Speaker:No space for dusty shelves. Cause
Speaker:retail reckoning owns the floor.
Speaker:Okay, the Christmas stuff may only be for Christmas, fine.
Speaker:But investing in their training isn't. It's part of your brand.
Speaker:In this episode, we're going to talk about investing in skills, service and
Speaker:selling. Know how that isn't just a seasonal cost,
Speaker:it's got to be a year round competitive advantage.
Speaker:Every festive season, we've got the same pattern. A bit like shoppers panic
Speaker:buying. Retailers are panic recruiting. They grab some
Speaker:staff, give them a badge, this is how the till works. Off you
Speaker:go. And people wonder why they get poor service.
Speaker:And it's not that the staff don't care, they've just not been given
Speaker:the know how to deliver the experience that your brand promises. And
Speaker:that's an actual genuine risk. Because the
Speaker:customer doesn't see a temporary employee. They've got a badge on, they've got a
Speaker:uniform on. They see your brand and every time
Speaker:they have a faulty interaction that damages your reputation.
Speaker:It's about the consistency, it's about trust, making
Speaker:sure sales convert. And moreover, it's about loyalty. You don't
Speaker:just fill the rotor, you fill the shelves, you beat the queues
Speaker:and you build relationships. That's why I'll say it again,
Speaker:training is for life, not just for Christmas. I know
Speaker:it's an expense, but it's not really a seasonal expense. Because if that's a
Speaker:lifelong investment in your people and the culture and the profits.
Speaker:And what about if those temp staff come back next year and they're well
Speaker:trained and they're loyal because they cared that you actually took the
Speaker:time with them? Reactive training in that panic right before
Speaker:peak trading means you're as good as Firefighting.
Speaker:This should be part of the DNA. Nobody should be allowed on the shop floor
Speaker:unless they've been through a sensible induction program and
Speaker:a classroom based training where they can feel calm and confident. It
Speaker:can't be something that's done in five minutes at the till
Speaker:in front of a customer, but it often is. I do remember a
Speaker:story though where one of my family members, one of the younger family members went
Speaker:to get just a Saturday job and it was with Waitrose and
Speaker:for about a month he went in every Saturday, was paid for his
Speaker:shift and he wasn't allowed on the shop floor until he'd been through full product
Speaker:training, service standards and everything else. They treated
Speaker:him as a part time Saturday guy as well as they would a
Speaker:full timer. And I think that's important and probably why they're so well
Speaker:respected as a service brand.
Speaker:Moreover, training that means that everybody's at the same
Speaker:basic minimum standard is going to build that competency
Speaker:and pride in themselves and then that makes the staff member
Speaker:feel much more inclined to give that better service. And
Speaker:obviously the better service leads to better sales. And I think that
Speaker:people feel that when they've been invested in, they want to do a good job
Speaker:in return because they feel respected. And we must
Speaker:remember, especially with the younger generation, they don't just turn up for
Speaker:the pay slip. They like to feel wanted and valued.
Speaker:There's a lot of reports out there about the importance of employer brand
Speaker:and how young people, the students and the sort of Gen Z
Speaker:generation are looking towards those brands that
Speaker:they identify with from far more than just how much they get paid,
Speaker:it's how they get treated, what other people say about them and their brand
Speaker:reputation. So that's important to bear in mind as well.
Speaker:Another topic to consider is selling,
Speaker:because a lot of people think that selling is
Speaker:divorced from customer service, but it really isn't.
Speaker:Customer service is the foundation of selling. As I mentioned, Waitrose, one of the
Speaker:best retailers, they understand consultative selling and also
Speaker:silent selling. So good product information, great imagery,
Speaker:point of sale, well laid out stores, things that guide people through the
Speaker:store and if they have to go and ask, oh, could you just help me
Speaker:with this product, the staff know what they're doing, they know what they're talking
Speaker:about. And so I'm a strong believer that the best
Speaker:retailers use curated and consultative selling. So
Speaker:rather than pushing customers to any old thing just to get the
Speaker:highest possible sale, they talk to them and understand what they want and they guide
Speaker:them to the right thing that satisfies their needs and wants.
Speaker:And that's when that investment in the training becomes
Speaker:gold dust because it's product knowledge. And how can anybody do
Speaker:a curated or consultative sell if they haven't got a clue what they're selling?
Speaker:Many of the multiple stores team members haven't got
Speaker:a clue about the range. They don't know what it does, why you'd
Speaker:buy it, why it's different. They can't hold a
Speaker:meaningful conversation and make confident recommendations. I mean consumer
Speaker:electronics are one of my bugbears because if grandma is going
Speaker:in to buy a laptop for someone, grandma hasn't got
Speaker:the knowledge about what a processor does or how much RAM they
Speaker:might need. It's just down to the salesperson to
Speaker:say, well, who's it for? How old are they? What are they going to use
Speaker:it for? And have that sensible discussion. And then grandma
Speaker:can trust them that they know more than she does and she can buy the
Speaker:right thing and grandchild when they receive their
Speaker:gift will be really happy and not go, this isn't
Speaker:suitable. And I think that once you've got the trust,
Speaker:that's when upsells and cross sells can happen naturally. And that's not
Speaker:because they've been told, do you want fries with that?
Speaker:Talking off a script, but it's because the person is
Speaker:beginning to build the relationship with the customer and the customer likes and trusts
Speaker:them. So as they walk around the store, back to the
Speaker:laptop example, would you like a wireless mouse? Would you like a
Speaker:case? Do you need this? Do you need that?
Speaker:And the customer might go, oh, that's a good idea, I hadn't thought of that.
Speaker:So when they like the person and believe that they're getting good advice,
Speaker:the customer tends to reward that with either bigger
Speaker:basket size or they recommend or they'll come
Speaker:back again next time. Conversely, if they feel
Speaker:oversold to pushed and pressured, chances are they went quite the
Speaker:opposite. Customer experience
Speaker:isn't just about one big wow moment.
Speaker:It's all the hundreds of tiny ones and it's about the
Speaker:consistency. So that every time you walk in
Speaker:someone greets you with a smile. If it's a small independent, they might know
Speaker:you by name and say hello Mrs. So and so. Oh, and they might know
Speaker:that you've got a kid in the local football team. How did the team do
Speaker:this week? And that personalization means buckets
Speaker:to these people. It's difficult to build relationship if you're in
Speaker:a high volume store and it's easier if you're an independent local store,
Speaker:but it doesn't hurt people in the bigger stores to still meet
Speaker:with at least a minimum of a smile, then you've got to
Speaker:remember all the silent selling factors. I mentioned that in terms of the guide
Speaker:of the around the store and the imagery and the product descriptions. But
Speaker:there's more to it than that and there's so much science that goes into
Speaker:way that the store looks and feels as a minimum, it's got to be
Speaker:tidy and welcoming. But it's how the lighting is,
Speaker:the sound, the aromas, everything around the
Speaker:sensory aspect that trigger emotional responses.
Speaker:And also depending on who the ideal customer is, that
Speaker:could change. So you might have softer
Speaker:lighting and carpets if you want people to linger
Speaker:longer, hard flooring if you want people to move through more
Speaker:quickly, and different music and lighting effects
Speaker:for different product types and ideal customer age ranges.
Speaker:The other thing is about being honest and
Speaker:authentic. So if a team member, let's say you've tried
Speaker:something on in a fitting room, says that suits you and they actually
Speaker:mean it and you can see that they mean it, that's going to build
Speaker:that sense of trust and I guess the emotional trigger.
Speaker:So you've got the sort of passive emotional triggers from the sensory
Speaker:side and then there's the active ones from how people treat you. But
Speaker:emotional reaction is your brand loyalty,
Speaker:otherwise it's just transactional and people are fickle. So
Speaker:as far as I'm concerned, whether they're part time, full time or a
Speaker:Christmas temp, or how the staff treat the customers
Speaker:maintain the store environment and are
Speaker:is really fundamental to the loyalty on long term.
Speaker:And that comes down to back to the beginning training
Speaker:where staff don't feel confident and maybe they don't know how to describe the
Speaker:products or they don't understand the business values. That's the other thing. A lot
Speaker:of businesses never bother to sit down and say, this is our mission, this is
Speaker:our beliefs, this is our values. The gap really
Speaker:shows because they can't buy into that and live those
Speaker:values. And I know from personal experience
Speaker:when you feel let down, it's very hard to justify
Speaker:going back and giving people a second chance. And if you get let down
Speaker:twice, pretty much you're never going back. So
Speaker:in my mind, training is not negotiable because your
Speaker:customers don't care at all what level of contract
Speaker:they're on. They just want to get that good experience.
Speaker:The truth is, if training feels expensive,
Speaker:well, it is until you count the cost of not doing it.
Speaker:Untrained staff can cost you things like a missed upsell.
Speaker:Yes, that's the back to my laptop, that's a i5
Speaker:processor. But you'd be better off with an i7 given what you've described to
Speaker:me me about the usage. Immediately you've got an upsell, a lost sale,
Speaker:the person didn't know what they were talking about, so the customer
Speaker:walked out. A bad review. People do like to complain
Speaker:if they've had bad service, they tend to take to social media and have good
Speaker:odd moan about it. Or worse, you get the situation where
Speaker:a customer never comes back because they just think, I can't be doing with that
Speaker:rubbish. If you then look at that by every
Speaker:day of the year, across every store you've got now, that's
Speaker:an expensive option because if that's happening at
Speaker:store level daily and you've got even just 10
Speaker:stores, that's 3,650 instances
Speaker:of problems a year. 3,650 lost
Speaker:customers. Yeah, you can't afford to do that. But the confident,
Speaker:trained team, they create energy, they convert
Speaker:more, they make the customer customers smile, they increase sales
Speaker:and they stay longer. And the cost of
Speaker:recruitment and the challenges in recruitment and retention and
Speaker:retail at the moment are really high. So training is a win
Speaker:win. I just finished that point off on when anybody ever says
Speaker:to me, we can't afford training, the answer is,
Speaker:you can't afford not to. Then we look at things like culture.
Speaker:The best retailers are not treating training just as a have I
Speaker:filled in a form? Have they done the manual handling? Have I given them a
Speaker:health and safety document? Have they signed the employee handbook? That's
Speaker:not how it works, it's cultural. They like to
Speaker:talk about the knowledge. They get the suppliers in to do presentations
Speaker:on new products that are going to be introduced and let them do
Speaker:demonstrations and bring staff in to actually see how they can
Speaker:sell that product and who it's for and what it does. Also,
Speaker:there's the culture of celebrating success and talking about,
Speaker:you know, top salesperson of the week or top store of
Speaker:the month. You then get really good management who spot
Speaker:opportunities to give a little bit of corrective coaching on the shop floor
Speaker:quietly, away from anybody who might think you're getting told off. But
Speaker:it's really important. If you spot something in the moment and can correct
Speaker:it there and then, then that person will be grateful for
Speaker:not having failed and for having had that investment
Speaker:from their management. So it's as important to
Speaker:put time towards management training and leadership as it is towards
Speaker:the shop floor stuff. It makes them feel proud.
Speaker:And it isn't just about the pay packet is it? It's about
Speaker:feeling really good about yourself. Wanting to go to work in the morning because you
Speaker:know that your customers are happy. You know, you get on with your colleagues. And
Speaker:as I've said before, when you do a job you love, you'll never work
Speaker:a day in your life. And I think that's really important. Now, I can't say
Speaker:that everybody's going to absolutely love working on a shop floor in retail,
Speaker:but it doesn't have to be all bad. The other part, I
Speaker:believe is really important to consider. It comes along with culture as well,
Speaker:is about integrity. Because
Speaker:not making a sale today because it's not the right
Speaker:thing for a customer, and explaining to the customer that you
Speaker:know you can't make the sale today because you've not got the right product to
Speaker:meet their needs means that they're more likely to give positive reviews
Speaker:and come back later.
Speaker:It's not just about shifting stock or making margins. It's about
Speaker:making sure their needs are met honestly. For
Speaker:instance, I heard a story a few years ago about a lady who was in
Speaker:B2B printer sales. She was not able to fulfill
Speaker:a customer's requirement, so she recommended a competitor
Speaker:because she knew the customer needed that product and she couldn't service them
Speaker:anyway. By doing that, that meant that the
Speaker:competitor then phoned up and said, that's really kind, thank you, we'll do the same
Speaker:if it happens the other way. And the customer gave them an
Speaker:absolutely glowing review. So they lost the sale today, but
Speaker:maybe tomorrow they received a referral from the competitor who was
Speaker:now actually a collaborator really, and they got a great review from the
Speaker:customer. And it could be about a cheaper option that's better for the
Speaker:customer. It doesn't necessarily make the company as much money, but it's the right
Speaker:thing to do. And doing the right thing again
Speaker:underpins that long term loyalty, the kind that you
Speaker:know you don't get from gift cards and stamp cards and points.
Speaker:Another saying I use a lot is people buy from people and
Speaker:especially from people they trust. And to me, trust is
Speaker:all about that consistency, that certainty
Speaker:and feeling that you're not going to get ripped
Speaker:off. And all of that starts with training.
Speaker:So as we head into the busiest trading season of the year, please
Speaker:remember this Christmas staff may come and go, but they
Speaker:leave a lasting impression far beyond December when it comes to your
Speaker:customers. So this is not a seasonal extra.
Speaker:Investing in their training before you let them loose on the shop floor
Speaker:is in fact a secret weapon to drive sales.
Speaker:Brand loyalty and to make sure that you
Speaker:maximize the opportunity that those customers
Speaker:walking into your store present. Because it doesn't really matter how
Speaker:good the products are, if people are just not engaging and they just
Speaker:go grrr. At the customer, they'll probably turn around, walk out the
Speaker:door and go to somebody who can treat them better. If you've enjoyed
Speaker:today's episode, please share it with a fellow retailer. Because I want you to remember,
Speaker:training's not just for Christmas, it's for life. I'm
Speaker:Claire Bailey, the retail champion, and this has been retail reckoning.
Speaker:Yeah, retail reckoning.
Speaker:Retail reckoning. No space for
Speaker:dust, these shelves.
