News Training success at Blue Diamond
products in their own department and their colleagues’ areas, too, offering them an enhanced knowledge of the garden centre retail sector as a whole. He continued, ‘In a competitive market, the customer needs to feel confident about a product to make a purchase so our staff need to fully understand the unique selling points of products and match those to our customers’ needs.’ Penny Evans, HTA Training and
careers manager, said, ‘It’s great to see businesses who invest in their staff development and aim to set high standards of product knowledge and ability to give good customer advice. Ultimately this will lead to improved sales – people still buy from people.’
Following the fantastic panel debate at last year’s Garden Futures Conference, which concluded that people are the key to garden retail success, Alan Roper, MD of the Blue Diamond Group, has focused his sundries staff on improving their product knowledge and customer service. Working with the HTA, the Blue Diamond team reviewed the existing one-day Garden Care Certificate of Competence course, choosing to tailor and extend this to two days for a greater level of detail. One delegate commented, ‘I thought the course was about products but it covered more horticultural areas than I’d imagined.’
The course was delivered by HTA training partner Chris Whitelock to 26 staff during January and February this year. The staff undertook a challenging test and in recognition of their achievements received an accredited certificate from the HTA and Warwickshire College. Alan Roper commented, ‘We are lucky
to have many long-serving employees and this is a reflection of our commitment to investing in staff training and development. The benefit this brings to staff motivation, personal development, morale and job satisfaction cannot be underestimated. Staff also increase their knowledge of the
Event report RBIS visit to Lime Cross Stunning plant displays at Lime Cross
The Retail Business Improvement Scheme (RBIS) South East group met recently at Lime Cross garden centre in East Sussex. Members discussed merchandising strategies and tips along with photos of good examples to help them improve their own stores. There was also a discussion of particular products as well as the economy as a whole. A key part of the RBIS is a chance for members to benchmark their business against other members in the group as well as against the national average. After submitting sales data, the HTA consultant of the group collates the figures for discussion at the meeting. This helps members gain an insight into the strengths of their business and put their own performance into context.
10 HTAnews I May 2013 I
www.the-hta.org.uk At each RBIS meeting the hosting
garden centre receives helpful and constructive feedback on their business from the other members. After a delicious lunch at the Lime Cross café, the members went on a tour of the garden centre. Feedback ranged from the centre’s layout to the products stocked and even future expansion plans. As well as being a friendly gathering,
all of the members who attended seemed to find the meeting very helpful. It was agreed that one of the best things about the scheme is the opportunity to receive objective expert advice from other garden retail professionals.
_For more information about the RBIS email
rbis@the-hta.org.uk
Blue Diamond Group MD Alan Roper
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