The countdown to the new year is on. Have you thought about your training goals yet? How well you train your employees can make or break not only their future success, but yours as well, so make sure you’re setting clear and manageable goals for training your staff. To help jumpstart your goal planning, here are our top 5 training topics for convenience stores as we head into the new year:
Alcohol & Tobacco Training
While compliance issues are nothing new to the convenience store industry, more and more individual states are beginning to issue mandates related to training for tobacco sales and alcohol sales. Be sure you know the regulations for your state, and whether or not your training meets those expectations. Keep in mind, your staff can never be too trained on these topics; in addition to ensuring they know the rules now – and are prepared for any changes that may come later – make sure they’re receiving refresher training periodically, so they stay up to date on their training and your store is always in compliance.
Customer Service and Sales
Improving customer loyalty and increasing sales are on the top of every convenience store manager’s mind. To improve customer loyalty, consider your approach to customer service training. The Be Our Guest customer service training program teaches employees how to treat customers like guests. This online program uses the GUEST acronym to improve service: Greet, Understand, Eye Contact, Speed of Service, and Thank You. Once you have customers in the store, increasing sales becomes paramount. Our Suggestive Selling convenience store training series covers specific sales and service strategies such as suggesting add-on products, promoting special offers, recommending new products, and encouraging participation in loyalty programs.
Harassment in the Workplace
One of the greatest risks to the growth of a company is the behavior of its employees. If one of your managers or employees engages in harassing behavior, you could lose your business and potentially be held liable if you did nothing to stop it. That’s why harassment training is so important and, in many states, mandatory. New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, and Maine are just a few of the states who have already passed mandates that require all companies to train employees on harassment prevention. If it’s not yet required in your state, it may very well be soon. Get prepared now — and protect your business — with easy-to-implement online training.
Safety & Security
Keeping your employees and customers safe has always been a priority for convenience store managers. Unfortunately, some convenience stores wait until something bad happens to train their employees. Don’t make that mistake. Prevention is the key to safety in convenience stores. Take a look at a few of our most popular safety and security training courses: Severe Weather Preparedness, Safe Lifting, Ladder Safety, Slips & Falls Prevention, Basics of Workplace Safety, Propane Safety and First Aid & Emergency Preparedness.
Leadership Development
Turnover and staff retention are still plaguing the convenience store industry. One way to attract and maintain employees is by helping them create a successful career path. Keep in mind that leaderships development isn’t just for managers. Employees with management potential can learn a lot from leadership and management courses. Not only does it allow them to explore their options for advancement, it also gives you chance to see if they’re a good fit to move up. Take a look at our Specialist and Leadership online training courses that could make difference to your team next year.
Convenience Store Training
The right training prepares your employees for the challenges they face on the job. Our convenience store training programs teach the skills your employees need to succeed in the new year and beyond.
