Retail Staff Training Materials

training multimedia elearning website header

mobile learning

retail staff training

Retail Staff Training Materials

Made-to-order retail staff training materials in the form of a training video production, interactive DVD, multimedia CD-ROM and online e-learning from training package producer Enlightenment Interactive. We have been producing training modules for retail staff since 1985, for retailers including department store chains, supermarkets, fashion retailers, furniture and electrical retailers, off licences, sports outlets, toy shops, diy stores, petrol forecourts and retail motor dealers.

These video dvd and e-learning retail productions cover topics such as induction of new retail staff; health and safety including fire, manual petrol forecourt stock management video handling, slips, trips and falls in a store environment; loss prevention and shrinkage; selling skills, sales processes and customer care; merchandising; seasonal campaigns; home deliveries; distribution systems and RFID smart tags; IT and till systems and procedures; age-related sales and Think 25; regulated credit sales.

Here are some ideas we have used as a video and multimedia producer to solve some typical retailers’ training problems .

Q: We have small stores and cannot employ resident trainers
Enlightenment can create a series of video training modules to cover the topics that would be covered by the store manager or a travelling trainer. These can be accessed online or on disk (DVD or CD-ROM) and made interactive, so that, even if the new employee is watching the training module on their own in the staff room, they are engaged.

Q:The internet link to our shops does not have enough bandwidth to carry video, but I would like to demonstrate typical sales situations on the shop floor
Intranet bandwidth is not a problem. To demonstrate selling skills and your required sales process, we can design low-bandwidth photo sequences with audio dialogue that can be distributed over the web. Alternatively we can create a hybrid solution with video, audio and retails sales training graphics on disk (either a CD-ROM or interactive DVD), capturing the new employee’s completion of training modules and tests, and relaying these as tiny packets of data to a database or as an e-mail to the training or HR manager. If no internet connection is possible or there is no access to a PC, we can make you an interactive video DVD with simple multiple choice questions and branching - for example, a customer has asked a question and the staff member is given a choice of possible replies...

Q:We only have a short time each week available for training
The training material can be broken down into short modules. If video DVD these can be made dual-purpose, so they can be used both with new starters and to illustrate the store manager’s weekly training sessions for all staff.

Q:It’s important that out staff on the shop floor can relate to the training material
We will shoot video at your premises. We find that customers raise little objection to having a video crew in the shop, although we recommend you put up some signs to warn them that you have a retail health safety training video training video in production. We can provide actors to play retail staff and customers, but we often find your own staff perform very well in front of the video camera. Even if they are not up to role playing sales situations, we find if we interview them they provide valuable tips on anything from dealing with abusive customers and complaints to selling up.

Q:We have stores in several countries; how do we deliver the training in different languages?
You cannot expect shop staff in other countries to have a fluent command of English. Even American English does not go down well in Britain. We would design the video or e-learning modules so they can be translated and reworked in foreign languages. Typically we would use a presenter speaking to camera against a graphic background; this actor would also read the voiceover explaining the documentary scenes. To produce a version in another language, we simply translate the text of the training module, hire an actor who is a native speaker and reshoot just those sections of the video where the presenter appears. This creates the impression of a dedicated training video production for the country concerned. We have used this technique successfully for a major international retailer to create versions in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Flemish and Danish. More about producing foreign language versions

Q:We need to teach a sales process that’s quite rigid. How do we make that interesting?
It needs to be as interactive as possible, so that the rules and the permissible options become imprinted and understood. For a group of building societies we created an interactive CD-ROM on selling mortgages, which had navigation tailored to the different levels of staff and what advice they could or could not give to customers. There was a dramatised mortgage and insurance sales interview shot on video, supported by a large number of interactive exercises matching customer needs to products, as well as a reference section explaining mortgage products, repayment vehicles, regulation, etc.