Indian Retail Sales Associates Get a taste Of International Retail.

Like most professionals, front-end retail associates have dreams that extend beyond the retail counter. In 2014, TRRAIN with the help of Landmark Group Dubai took these dreams to new horizons with a 3-day International  study tour for the Top 3 winners of the TRRAIN Retail Awards 2014 - Pankaj Kumar, Vinod Badoni and Farah Khan.

The objective was to give these associates an opportunity to understand retail better through an international lens, understand where they could bring about improvements in their everyday jobs and share their learning with their peers. The intensive itinerary included studying at the Landmark Retail School to expose them to some of the Best Practices adopted by international retailers.

They had an opportunity to meet Mr. Ramnathan Hariharan, CEO Max and Director Landmark Group to understand Retailing in Dubai. They conducted store visits and detailed discussions on operations with Mr. Simon Copper, COO, Centre Point, as well as studied Max stores and Carrefour stores to understand their formats and operations. In addition, they met Mr. Mederic Payne, CEO of Home Centre and visited the Mall of Emirates and Dubai Mall to study in-line stores v/s luxury stores operations.

All 3 winners acknowledged that this was their first international exposure to retail and that they were completely transformed by it. Here are some excerpts.

Q: What did this trip mean to you?  

 Farha: The trip added to my experience. Going to these stores has helped me learn new things. It is totally different from India and was a great eye opener and a great learning.

Pankaj: My life has changed not only professionally, but also personally. I had the chance to meet the senior level people of the Landmark group. It’s like a dream come true.

Vinod: This trip was so great for us.  We learnt a lot of new things in this trip. Especially about Dubai's business culture.

 Q: After this trip, what would you like to share with your other associates in retail? 

Farha: Work harder and with more sincerity and honesty and success will eventually be yours.

Pankaj: Keep doing the good work and always delight your customers. Even you could win the TRRAIN Retail Award and make your company proud. 

Vinod: I keep motivating my colleagues also to perform their best and do something good for others without any expectations.

Q: How do you feel about winning the TRRAIN Retail Awards and getting a chance to visit Dubai?

Farha:  My family is more proud of me and respect me as an individual. My parents are extremely happy. Winning the award has increased my self-esteem and confidence. Life has more meaning. I feel like I have my own identity now.

Pankaj:  Now, everyone in my company knows me by my name, not only in Titan but also across all Tata companies.

Vinod: This trip is one of the greatest achievements of my life and I believe that the knowledge and experience I have gained during this trip will help me to grow in my career and take me to the higher level. I am very thankful to TRRAIN for this lifetime opportunity. After this trip as a National Winner of the TRRAIN Retail Awards 2014, I felt more motivated and confident in my working areas.

A big initiative which has made an even bigger difference. TRRAIN’s commitment to retail employees will continue to break new ground which will encourage every one of them across the country to deliver great customer service.

Say Hello to Three of the World’s Best Sales Associates.

Inspired by the TRRAIN Retail Awards, World's Best Sales Associate awards were launched by The World Department Store Forum to recognize outstanding work in the retail sphere across the globe.

The Award Ceremony held in April 2015 in Rome awarded 3 finalists who were selected by a panel of experts, led by B S Nagesh from TRRAIN. The jury’s goal was to honour exceptional performances by a sales associate in fulfilling customer expectations, commitment beyond duty, product knowledge, team work and commercial results. Eva Bunzel, from The KaDeWe Group, won the trophy and shared some examples which demonstrated her passion and dedication to exceptional customer service. She was joined on stage by her CEO André Maeder.

Picking up from where we left off, we’re now going to share the inspiring stories of the 3 winners in the World's Best Sales Associate 2015 award category.

Eva Bunzel from the Kadewe Group - Winner

Eva pioneered the concept of ‘Wellness Shopping’. When the idea was in its pilot stage, she tested it by inviting a regular customer and her friend to a presentation of the latest collections. She combined this presentation with Shiseido beauty treatment as well as catering. That’s where Wellness Shopping all began. She followed up this experiment by inviting twenty best regular customers to the Wellness Shopping session. In cases where the ladies took part with their entire families, Eva organized a tasting in the wine department of the legendary gourmet floor for the men. While their husbands were busy tasting fine wine, their better halves were advised in the latest fashion trends. At the end of that day, a purchase of approximately $ 15,000 was made. The women bought clothing, makeup and shoes and their men bought wines and multimedia products.

Two years ago, Eva received a request from an architect. He wanted her to set-up an apartment for a customer with the assistance of Eva’s personalized shopping service. The request demanded that she arrange everything for the entire apartment, from towels to crockery and cutlery to linens and kitchen appliances. What’s more, the customer had given no budget! Eva took up the challenge and with the help of some hardworking colleagues, successfully completed this job. For this assignment, she transacted about $70,000 and even secured a follow-up order for the decoration of a house.

This is a classic example of how Eva used initiative and innovation to take customer experience to new levels of amazing!

To read the stories of the other 2 finalists in this category, click here.

Roosevelt from Macy’s - Finalist

Roosevelt is no ordinary retail associate; he’s a retail ninja. That’s because Roosevelt exceeds his customers’ expectations every single day. While helping a couple select outfits for an upcoming cruise, Roosevelt took the time to offer multiple options and made sure that they would be the best-dressed couple on the boat. This initiative led the couple to send Roosevelt text messages and pictures saying, "Everyone wants to know where we got our outfits from. We told them they need to go see Roosevelt at Macy’s, White Marsh. Thank you for making us feel like a million bucks. We will be back soon to see you!"

On another occasion, Roosevelt helped a young man who came to shop for an upcoming interview. Roosevelt made sure to dress him from head to toe and even dropped some advice on what to say in the interview. Suffice to say, the young man was thrilled and also landed the job!

Roosevelt is a powerhouse combination of customer care and product knowledge. He consistently offers his customers style options and educates them on the best and most appropriate accessories for their outfits. His YouTube video series, Roosevelt Knot, which demonstrates his excellent skills in tying ties has gone viral.

On one occasion, he went beyond the "call of duty" and ran the Home Store during the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, while an Executive was out. Now, Roosevelt serves as Sales Supervisor during the Holiday Season.

Little wonder why, for 2014, Roosevelt's sales were nearly $100,000 more than the previous year.

John Kirby from Selfridges - Finalist

What happens when determination, time management, multi-tasking, trend knowledge, drive and strong client networking converge? John Kirby; that’s what happens.

When presented with the opportunity to service a VIP client, who prefers to shop out of business hours and stays until well after midnight, John took up the client and went well out of his way to assist the customer. Additionally, when this client was hosting a party John arranged for her favourite celebrity to attend it.

With expansive product knowledge at his disposal, John was able to create massive amount of product and buying options for his customers. This helped him in increase YTD sales per hour to $635.00 compared to the department average of $269.00.

With a client book of 1000+ members, John continually strives to offer them specially tailored and useful services. Once a client informed John about how he broke his back in an accident. John immediately sent him a get well card and kept him up-to-date with images of new products throughout his recovery, so that he didn’t miss out on anything while he was bed-ridden. Post recovery, the client spent a great deal of money in the store. What’s more, his wife is now John’s client too.

This level of personalization combined with John’s extensive product knowledge has resulted in sales totaling $1m, exceeding his previous year's sales performance by +25%.  

Initiative, insight, innovation and imagination; these are the qualities that make successful leaders. Stay tuned to our next newsletter! Until then, we hope these three stories have inspired you to write your own story. 

Meet the Pankh Rockers!

These Retail Associates Prove That A Disability Can’t Affect Your Ability To Succeed.

When your work is outstanding, acknowledgement naturally follows. That’s exactly what Sandip Makare, Rakesh Dhakta and Veerayya S Halgimath have proven time and again. What’s exceptional is not that all three of them are superstars in their own right, but rather that they are so despite their disabilities.

From Housekeeper to 2-Time Star Performer.

Sandip Makare, who is speech & hearing impaired, completed his training with Pankh in October 2014. Since then, he’s been employed with Reliance Retail - Value format at Nerul, Mumbai. He has consistently displayed hard work, dedication & retail acumen; little wonder why he’s bagged the Star Performer Award twice already.

Meet The Superstar of NM Chocoholics.

Another such example is Rakesh Dhakta. While he has a speech and hearing impediment, his enthusiasm is far from affected by it. Rakesh, a Malad East resident, enrolled for training at the Pankh Smart Center, Santacruz in January 2015. Post training, he has developed innovative ways to communicate with customers like using graphic illustrations for pricing, among others. He works at NM Chocoholics, Hiranandani Garden, Powai, and sometimes single handedly manages the shop too. 

From Associate to 2-Time Star Award Winner and Future Team Leader.

Then there’s Veerayya, a differently abled but highly talented youngster from Dharwad, Karnataka. He found out about Pankh-Samarthanam retail training through a newspaper advertisement and enrolled himself in order to support his poverty-stricken family. That was a good choice for Veerayya whose dedication and consistency at Mega Mart, Bangalore where he is employed, has earned him two Star awards for excellent customer service and one appreciation letter too. He is highly motivated and aims to become a Manager.

Someone once said, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude”. And judging by their attitudes, we’d say they’re empowered!

If you would like a Pankh trainee to become your next superstar employee call us on 022-28443256 (or) write to us at info@trrain.org (or) visit us at www.pankhindia.org