Repeated training crucial for assured improvement in service

Staff training is not new for Kays Jewels, which has been conducting in-house and professional training sessions for its staff since last 10 years.  Of late, the top management has seen improvements in performance of sales staff by increasing the frequency  of training.

Speaking about the importance of training, Ravi Kapoor, managing director, Kays Jewels, said, “It is important to brush the skills of the employees in regular intervals to get the desired performance level improvements. There is a lot happening in the industry, which has made staff training more important. You cannot train a person for one day and expect to get good results every time,” he said, maintaining how repeated suggestions have been more effective for this Kanpur-based brand in its current range of sessions the year round.

 The in-house training of Kay’s Jewels is being conducted once a month, where all staff members meet and discuss the performance of the last month. The senior staff members and management share vital tips with the other staff members to improve their performance. The professional training, on the other hand, happens once a year on personal grooming, greeting etiquettes and sales techniques. There are lots of knowledge sessions that continue for multiple days wherein the staff is trained on the product they are selling. “The last year’s training sessions on Zoom went for almost 15 days. Apart from professional training, a Forevermark team visits the showroom once a year to train on Forevermark diamond jewellery,” said Kapoor

According to Ravi Kapoor, the in-house training happens in batches whereas, during the professional training sessions, the management makes sure that all staff members irrespective of their categories of expertises such as gold, diamond, silver or colourstones, must take part together in the training sessions. The management believes that customers are mostly the same for all the categories, so each staff has to be trained to understand the needs of customers across demand types.

Whenever a new joinee comes in, s/he is deployed to all departments from time to time so as to gain sound understanding of each category. This helps the management spot talent for certain departments, where the person concerned is shifted permanently as a specialist. There are 75 staff members in the Kanpur store of Kays Jewels and another 75 employees have been recently added to the new store. These employees will undergo the special training program for top-notch service at the new showroom.

Over the years, the brand has observed a big change in the body language and behaviour of the staff post-training sessions. The staff has become more polite and their interaction with the customers has improved significantly, which is compulsory for sales conversion.

That’s not the end of the road for Kays’ emphasis on excellence, as the brand is planning to introduce an evaluation system after every training session to gauge the retention capacity of staff.

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller India News