Image: Edmond Dantès

 

Morale is vital to the success of retail: Happy employees make customers feel welcome.

And during times when customers are hesitant about making shopping trips to brick and mortar stores, retailers are wise to address reasons for dissatisfaction among associates.

Retail is always shifting, and even more so during COVID-19.

Investing in your team with training will improve morale and simultaneously boost productivity.

Here are 3 benefits of investing in your team with training in retail and POS skills.

 

Improve employee efficiency

Image: Polina Zimmerman

 

Speak to your employees to learn what they view as the team’s operational shortcomings.

Rather than prescribing what they need to learn, ask for their perception and work from there.

Often, they know where they need to improve, but don’t have the tools to do so.

Provide those tools and they will be more confident, and you’ll get a better employee.

Train new employees on important POS features in Retail Pro Prism with structured or on-demand training on the My Retail Pro resource portal, available free with an active Software Assurance plan.

You can download the POS video user guide from My Retail Pro to help your team in walking through the deep features in Retail Pro POS.

Better training at the POS increases transaction speed and improves the checkout experience for your customers.

With curbside pickup, some retailers are using mobile POS to allow customers to pay for orders reserved online from the convenience of their car when they pull up for curbside pickup.

Training on Retail Pro prepares employees for the switch to mobile POS as well, since you get access to all the same tools, whether on mobile or desktop.

 

Expand team skillsets

 

Cross-training employees for different jobs boosts morale and protects your business.

An employee who learns various jobs picks up more skills.

That puts an associate in a position for favorable recognition for different talents.

Cross-training also alleviates employee boredom because they’re not in a rut, performing the same tasks every day. 

Periodic cleaning to keep your team and customers safe may not feel like a high-skill job, but putting this task in the right perspective – as something that adds to customers’ ease and experience in your store – helps employees see more value in the task.

Employees who have been with your team longer and are more in tune with store needs can be trained to take up other operations tasks, like X and Z out reports and physical inventory tasks.

 

Increase employee retention

Employees who feel outdated are generally less happy than those who are up to date on their industry.

Offering employees the chance to learn new skills and improve existing ones makes them more invested in your business, and more likely to continue growing with you.

Your workers feel appreciated and appreciate the opportunity to grow.

In addition, training employees on new technologies and industry changes helps them stay current and do their jobs well.

Training in clienteling skills, too, can increase employee effectiveness on the sales floor and their interest in putting forth more and better customer support.

 

 

Customer history tools in Retail Pro Prism offer insights on past purchases and customer statistics to help your associates make more relevant suggestions and land a sale.

With COVID-19’s shift to online shopping, in-store associates have had more occasion to pivot on their daily tasks, with new responsibilities in cleaning and curbside pickup, among others.

Empowering your team to do their jobs well with Retail Pro training keep morale higher and associates happier.