How to create a learning and development strategy in retail
Managing a retail business can be tough and the challenges don’t seem to be slowing down. Shops are constantly faced with high staff turnover rates, new compliance regulations, changing attitudes of customers and new digital competition.
Retailers thought the end of the turbulent journey was over when they happily waved goodbye to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the aftermath of this world disaster has left its mark. Supply chain issues are rife, customers have changed their shopping habits and furlough has destroyed employee engagement. To top it all off, the UK is now facing a recession which could explode at the end of 2022.
Whilst this sounds like a blackhole of disasters which retailers will struggle to climb out of, it can be looked at as an opportunity to rise above the competition during such a difficult time and come out on top. Retailers can do this by leveraging the power of their learning and development teams.
By creating a winning strategy you’ll be able to coach your employees to achieve the business success you need to stay afloat during such unsettled times. So, if you want to take a proactive approach and catapult your retail business to success, follow our quick steps on how to create a learning and development strategy in retail.
A step-by-step guide on how to create a winning learning and development strategy in retail
Define your retail business goals
We know, this one sounds obvious, but we can’t stress how important it is to define your overall retail business goals before you create your L&D strategy. Think about where your business is now and what you really need to drill down on to succeed during the tough times ahead. You can do this by looking at your previous year’s performance.
This should encompass everything from employee performance to sales history. Analyse the numbers to work out the growth rate you need for your business to scale and progress. Now, create an annual target and divide it by 12 to set your monthly sales goals. Then determine what it will take for you to achieve those goals.
If your footfall is good but your conversion rate says otherwise, it’s time to ramp up your customer service.
If your sales numbers are superb then you should think about amplifying those but drilling down on upselling and cross-selling.
If your absence rate is high, you’ll need to focus on employee engagement.
Now turn those goals into S.M.A.R.T goals. This means they should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
2. Define what success looks like
Now you’ve got your S.M.A.R.T goals, it’s time to think about what success would look like if you managed to achieve those goals. An easy way to do this is to close your eyes and visualise;
What would your store would look like
How would your employees act
What would your employees be saying
How would your customers would behave
For example, think about how your employees would behave if your goal is to increase up-selling and cross-selling. They would need to be confident, knowledgeable and friendly and the majority of their time would be spent talking to customers.
Or perhaps you need to increase footfall in your store, this means you might have more ‘offer posters’ up in your window or you may have an amazing display to lure customers in.
Whatever success looks like, write it down and use it to map out the learning journey your employees need to take in order to achieve the success you’re looking for. Let’s talk about this in more detail in the point below.
3. Plan out the learning journey
Now you’ve got your vision of success, it’s time to start mapping out what your employees need to learn for you to get there. You can do this by thinking about the customer journey from start to finish.
Let’s look at an example.
If your goal is to improve customer service you need to note down every interaction your customer has when they walk past your store and enter. Think about the following questions
What has brought them into the store?
Who do they first speak to when they walk in?
How long does it take for an employee to approach them?
What is the attitude of the person that approaches them?
Does the employee have the knowledge they need to answer the customer’s questions? If not, do they know who to ask for the correct answer?
Does the customer look frustrated, bored or unhappy during any part of their journey?
Now think about the training you’d need to introduce in response to these goal-orientated questions. I’ll put an example of the type of training you’d want next to the questions below.
What has brought them into the store? Visual merchandising training for managers.
Who do they first speak to when they walk in? Customer interaction training for employees (how and when to approach customers) and people placement training for managers (how to strategically place employees across the shop floor for the best customer service journey).
How long does it take for an employee to approach them? Customer interaction training (when to approach customers and what to say).
What is the attitude of the person that approaches them? Employee engagement training for managers (how to keep employees engaged and happy) and personal development training for employees (training on how to stay positive and motivated whilst at work).
Does the employee have the knowledge they need to answer the customer’s questions? If not, do they know who to ask for the correct answer? Product knowledge training for employees and managers (training around the product or service you offer which is updated in line with your product or service releases.
Does the customer look frustrated, bored or unhappy during any part of their journey? Customer interaction training (how to deal with unhappy customers).
4. Plan out the training in detail
Now you’ve got a general idea of the types of training you’ll need to achieve success in retail, it’s time to flesh them out.
Go in-depth about the skills and knowledge your employees will need and ensure you follow the 70:20:10 learning framework. This means that 70 per cent of learning is done on the job, 20 per cent through interaction and collaboration, and the remaining 10 per cent through formal-learning procedures such as classroom or digital training.
Let’s take customer interaction training as an example. This might include:
How to greet customers in the store.
Key questions to ask customers during their visit.
Tips for persuading your customer to buy.
How to spot an unhappy customer.
How to ensure a positive in-store experience for your customers.
Now decide how you’re going to split this training up to ensure maximum understanding. Will it include learning on the job, interaction training, classroom training or a mix of all three?
5. Make a note of your current KPIs
A learning strategy’s impact should be measured using key performance indicators (KPIs). Decide which indicators are closely linked to your learning goals and note down the current numbers. You can use these as a benchmark for success once your learning programme is up and running. Your KPIs could be:
Sales per square foot
Average transaction value
Customer retention
Conversion rate
Inventory turnover
Gross margins return on investment
Foot traffic and digital traffic
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5. Tailor the training around the needs of your employees
A lot of companies go wrong with their learning and development strategies because they focus on the needs of the business rather than the needs of the employee. This means they create their learning programmes and use a one-size-fits-all approach. They’ll make every employee follow the same learning path, disregarding the competence and individual needs of their staff.
This will lead to disengagement and poor uptake of your training initiative. Your success will suffer as a result and you won’t be able to achieve your all-important business goals.
So how do you tailor your training to the needs of your employees?
It starts by doing staff observations on the shop floor so you can carry out a skills gap analysis.
You can easily do this with our employee observations app. The app makes it easy for managers to carry out observations which are mapped to employees’ training needs. They simply make their way through a speedy digital form which asks questions about an employee’s competence in relation to the skills needed to achieve your business goals.
For example
Does the employee greet the customer?
How is their attitude?
Are they offering their customer a seat whilst they wait?
Once the manager has completed the observation an automatic report will be generated highlighting which areas the employee needs more improvement. The manager can use this to assign the relevant training to the employee.
What’s even better is that the manager can set tasks for the employee as they go. This is great because it saves time and ensures that training tasks aren’t forgotten. These tasks will show up for the employee on their section of the app so they know exactly what they need to do. So, if the manager notices that the employee needs to do their staff interaction training, they can set it as a task with a deadline to complete and this can all be done whilst the manager is carrying out the observation.
Your learning and development strategy made easy
Creating a learning and development strategy is one thing but actually implementing it and seeing it through is another. Make sure you persist with yours to get the results you want and do this easily with our learning and development platform specifically created for retail sales teams.
Join the likes of Victoria’s Secret, Next and Virgin Media 02 who are using our app to boost sales every day.
