Keep staff up-to-speed in spring

Staff training and communications can quickly fall by the wayside when the insanity of spring hits. Under ideal circumstances, your staff will be trained-up and in-the-know before the onset of spring traffic. In reality, however, it can be tough to keep everyone on the same page this time of year. Heavy traffic aside, you owe it to your customers to keep your communication channels open through the spring season.
 

Sales Command Central (SCC)

If you haven’t already, install a communications board in a communal staff area where important directives for the day, selected add-on-sales products, specials and new inventory updates are posted at the end of every day or as information changes for the following business day. Instruct staff that it is mandatory they check in at SCC each morning before their work day begins.
 

Put words in their mouth

Staff can harbor a lot of anxiety about key policies or procedures if they aren’t sure exactly what to say. Write out scripts for a multitude of customer scenarios that include both potential customer comments and questions and acceptable staff answers.
 

5 in 5

Five minutes of training a day can go a long way, especially for seasonal staff. Task a team member from each staff group to provide 5 tips in 5 minutes to all staff working that day pre-opening or post-closing. Rotate through each staff group through the week. Tips can cover specific plants or products, procedures, register or phone tips, special pricing, customer information, weather alerts and more.
 

Staff enews

Are you sending out a staff-only enewsletter? If not, you could be missing out on a great way to communicate with all of your staff during busy times. A weekly email directly to staff can help keep everyone up-to-date on policy, pricing, new inventory, product knowledge, staff updates and customer opportunities.
 

Cheat sheets

These were a favorite of mine during my garden center days. It can be tough for cashiers and sales staff to remember individual pricing for a multitude of bagged goods, planting fees, delivery zone fees and more. We’d create a small booklet of laminated cheat sheets for cashiers and sales staff to keep in their aprons. They can save a lot of time and stress.
 

Don't cancel the meeting

Lastly, but most importantly, don’t abandon your weekly sales meetings just because it’s spring. A weekly pre-opening staff meeting to review important information and sales training is key to keeping staff engaged. Be sure to rotate staff regularly for meeting day. My staff was always invited to attend and clock in for our Friday morning meetings, even if they weren’t scheduled to work that day. Assign a note-taker for each meeting and be sure the meeting notes make it into the weekly enews.

Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, digital content marketing, branding design, advertising and social media support for green industry companies. www.lesliehalleck.com