As a convenience store manager, a robbery occurring in your store is probably one of your worst nightmares, and for good reason. Robberies can harm customers and employees both physically and mentally, cause property damage, and cause countless other issues. Naturally, you want to prevent robberies if at all possible. There are a lot of ways you could do this, but first you need to make sure your employees can take advantage of your preparations.
Robbery Prevention Methods
Preventing robberies in your convenience store requires a certain level of buy in from your employees. Here are three ways you and your employees can actively work to prevent robberies from occurring:
Increase lighting around your store: By increasing how much lighting is around your store, and therefore the visibility around your store, potential robbers may be dissuaded from attempting a robbery. They might be too intimidated to approach the store, since your employees will be able to spot them from a greater distance, and they will also be more visible from the outside for any potential passersby.
Greet customers: If your employees greet customers as they walk in, it will not only create a more friendly atmosphere, but it will also let potential robbers know that the employees are aware of their presence.
Check everyone in employee-only areas: At some point in time your store will need to have a maintenance crew come by to fix something, whether it’s the A/C, the refrigerators, or kitchen equipment. For creative individuals, this creates an easy way into the store without suspicion, if they act like maintenance workers your employees may just assume that they’re supposed to be there. You need to train your employees to check everyone they don’t recognize, regardless of how much they look like they belong.
Leveraging Your LMS
Greeting customers and verifying the identities of those in employee-only areas are where your employees need to act. While some will be naturals, others might be a bit more shy, or need training about the proper ways to do it. Take advantage of your learning management system (LMS) to ensure all of your employees are on the same page with their training. Using an LMS with blended learning capabilities is even better when discussing, or role-playing, actions that employees will need to take, like the actions mentioned above. Prevention is also only half the battle, there’s still a chance that a robbery could occur anyway, so it is also important to train your employees on robbery protocol as well.
Online Training for Robbery Deterrence
As part of our comprehensive Convenience Store Training suite, our Robbery Prevention and Safety training presents clear information about robbery deterrence with a focus on employee safety – delivered through our trainingGrid® learning management system. This flexible system comes with a variety of robust features customizable to fit your needs in addition to built-in reporting and certification tools to help maintain compliance.
