Christmas is a key time of year for sales for retailers but it also brings with it the added problem of bringing in temporary staff to cover this very busy time of year. The problem that many retailers experience is that the temporary staff do not get exposed to the same level of training as the full time staff and therefore sales can be adversely affected.

One retailer decided to overcome this problem by introducing an induction programme for the ‘peak’ sales staff who were employed to cover the busy Christmas period. The course formed part of a ‘pilot’ to identify the benefits and returns generated by induction training.

Beyond The Box was brought in to deliver this induction training with the goal being increased awareness of solution selling techniques and an upturn in sales. NAME from Comet said, “We wanted to offer our ‘peak’ staff the same advantages in selling solutions that our full time staff had. It was an absolute priority that these people understood how to increase the average selling price, sell our warranty products and also feel that they were valued by the organisation.”

The results of the induction training speak for themselves. The number of sales per hour increased by 4% with the average transaction value increasing by 19%. Warranty sales improved by 0.6% and the average selling price rose by 10%. The course also had an affect on the overall happiness of staff with those who attended the course saying that they were proud to work at Comet and were also less likely to leave in the early days of employment.

Commenting on the results of the induction training, Christine Knott, Managing Director of Beyond the Box said, “The people who attended our training course were more at ease with solution based selling techniques and felt confident with customers. The sales figures achieved by those staff who attended the training course were very pleasing for the trainers. This demonstrates that induction training is a very effective way of helping new employees understand the retail environment and how customers purchase.”

As a result of these results Beyond The Box was asked to return and design an induction course for all Comet staff.

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Call centres throughout the UK are one of the busiest working environments and yet they are also very high on the list when it comes to training needs. Because the people employed in the call centres are coming into contact with the general public it is essential that their training needs are identified and then met by good quality and well delivered training courses that actually provide the skill sets required. Beyond The Box Ltd was commissioned by Comet to identify the training needs of its call centre staff and then to design a training programme that would cover all three levels of sales staff expertise – entry level, mid level and expert level.

Before designing the course Christine Knott, managing director of Beyond The Box, spent time researching at Comet. She observed all the various departments of the call centre, identifying the content for the modules of the training programme and how it should be designed. The overall learning programme had to link to Comets’ promotional and development programme with all levels needing to be completed by members of staff before the training course could be completed.

Each of the levels designed by Beyond The Box used a modular format with up to six modules per level for both customer care and sales. Each module has been designed for a Comet trainer to deliver either a group training session or a one to one training session and it also provides an option where the trainer can monitor the employee in a self study programme.

To end each module the delegate has to deliver an action plan on how they intend to implement their new learning on a daily basis. This allows Comet trainers to identify whether all key aspects of the training have been understood and whether the delegate is taking the correct elements of the training into the daily tasks that they have to perform.

Commenting on the training course Beyond The Box designed, Christine Knott said, “It was important the course design was able to deliver training in short modules. The time constraints on call centre staff is particularly restrictive when it comes to training so the modules had to deliver the required elements in short, snappy bursts that would be retained by all the delegates, no matter what level they were at. The research we carried out initially was key to this. It enabled us to understand the restrictions of the training programme and how the learning would need to be implemented on a daily basis.”

Julie Simpson, Training and Development Manager at the Comet Customer Information Centre said, “We are delighted with the programme that Beyond The Box designed for us. We use our own in-house trainers to deliver the solution provided by Christine and her team and all of our staff have completed different elements of the training. It was important to us that the training programme reflected our promotional and development programme and this modulated approach allows us to do exactly that whilst also monitoring all our staff in terms of further training requirements.”

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Beyond The Box, one of the UK’s leading specialist training companies, has recently secured a new project with electrical retail giant, Currys.

This will see Beyond The Box design a bespoke training package for the launch of a new range of communication products that will be available in Currys stores later this year.

Christine Knott, managing director of Beyond The Box, comments, “We have a proven track record in the consumer electronics market and have worked within the retail sector on a number of occasions. The courses that we run are designed to be effective and informative and provide our clients with a very high level of service. The fact that Currys have come to us to provide training for this new range of products is testament to our commitment to delivering effective training courses that are accessible at all levels.”

Commenting on the awarding of the project to Beyond The Box, Currys Product Training Manager, Chris Barrell said, “We have worked with Christine and her company before and are delighted to have the opportunity to work with her again. Beyond The Box offers bespoke training that provides our colleagues with tools designed to ensure our customers enjoy an exceptional shopping experience.”

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Beyond The Box are now matching their offline advances, and are embracing new technology online!

At Beyond The Box, we use the latest tools and techniques to make retail training and shop floor reporting as easy and efficient as possible. We like to stay ahead of the game, and we’ll now be reporting on our efforts in our blog.

So we will be adding posts regularly, where we’ll be discussing stories from the shop floor, latest technology and techniques in staff training, retail and merchandising news, and news about Beyond The Box.

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