There are a few qualities that all employees should have, regardless of their role. Core traits, such as honesty and punctuality, are things all employers want to see in their workers. But retail employees need to have some key extra attributes too.
Coping With Stressful Scenarios
It sounds obvious, but the major one is, of course, customer service skills. A highly valued trait within this skill set is the ability to stay calm under pressure from aggressive customers. They may not come along very often, but when they do, you need to know that your staff can not only cope, but potentially win them round. If so, this will prevent the tricky customer from influencing others or disrupting the retail environment atmosphere.
Managing Time and Tasks
In retail, employees are constantly juggling and prioritizing a long list of tasks, whilst continuing to serve customers and appear calm and collected at all times. So they need to thrive on being busy and able to balance a variety of responsibilities. Additionally, it’s not a job where you can shut yourself away and focus on one thing; they will need to be able to multitask when the situation calls for it.
Flexibility around Working Hours
The key logistical way in which retail varies from office jobs is, of course, the hours required. People who have not worked in retail before may not appreciate the types of shifts and length of hours they may need to work, both during the week and at the weekend. This is another reason why experienced candidates are often a better bet for employers.
Not Being Too Sensitive!
We all know that people who come into a retail store are not always going to buy something, or they may just enjoy being difficult to sell to! So employees need to be able to shrug off rejection and disappointment whilst remaining friendly and approachable at all times. In-house training will be key to preparing them for this, but again, if they have good retail experience they should be aware of these types of situations already.
Build on What They Know
If candidates are very experienced, they may feel they know it all or their way of doing things is better than how your company does it. This isn’t the attitude you want; good retail workers are knowledgeable, but they appreciate that they can always build on that knowledge and expand the scope of their expertise.
Learn Fast
In the fast-moving retail environment, there’s not a lot of time to explain and teach new skills over and over or take too long about it. Employees who can take in information and apply it quickly and reliably are invaluable.
Represent the Brand
Whatever your industry sector, your workers will be the public face of your brand, so you need to be able to trust them to represent it effectively and positively. Ideally, they should have genuine enthusiasm for your products and brands; if so, this will come across to customers and help your sales.
Using a specialist company, such as retail recruitment agencies at www.retailchoice.com, is the best route to follow when trying to find suitable candidates for employment.