TRRAIN Retail Awards 2014 - Media Coverage

Alwarpet Times

Dina Edhal

Dina Vanigam

Eenadu

Maalai Sudhar

New Indian Express

News Today

Nungai Times

Rajastan Patrika

Sakshi

Trinity Mirror

Stories of Success, defying the odds!

Success Story of Kavitha

A 70% disabled person from an interior village from Bellary district.  A daughter of a farmer who totally depended on the mercy of nature to get good crops.  His daughter having passed her puc, didn’t know what to do next and spent most of her time at home. The family could manage to afford for her education in Govt school without being burdened with loans.  The family could meet only the basic needs.  The girl having tried in her surroundings for a job for survival, could not  get any as her knowledge was limited.    She was of the opinion that her life is meant to live in village. 

Once she came in contact with Pankh-Alamba Center, it was a new joy that entered in her life.  She was overjoyed to make an entry into the organization and put her best efforts to avail all the opportunities offered.  She completed her 3 month PANKH- Retail Job linked training and immediately got selected in a prestigious organization, Sangeetha Mobiles in Bangalore.  With this, her confidence level has grown to greater heights, and a new world is opened for this person who once was confined to village surroundings.   There is a bright smile on the face of this 20 year old girl whom the organization has offered the salary of  Rs 8,500/-  per month.  She is grateful to Pankh-Alamba for its efforts to put her in the main stream of life which brought dignity of life. 

Success Story of SALMA:

A 70% disabled person from an interior village from Bellary district.  A person surrounded by difficulties viz mother suffering from Asthma, no regular  source of income and as a result of which the family had to survive on the good will of the relatives and well wishers.  The girl led a life full of confusion and frustration after trying to avail some benefits from Govt departments.  Being an ignorant person, assumed that to live a life of suffering is what life has got to offer for her and her family.

Once she came in contact with Pankh-Alamba Center, it was a new joy that entered in her life.  She was overjoyed to make an entry into the organization and put her best efforts to avail all the opportunities offered.  She completed her 3 month PANKH- Retail Job linked residential training and immediately got selected in a prestigious organization, Sangeetha in Bangalore.  With this, her confidence level has grown to greater heights, and a new world is opened for this person who once thought “ My life is only to suffer.” There is a bright smile on the face of this 20 year old girl whom the organization has offered the salary of  Rs 8,500/-  per month.  The intervention of Alamba which is supported by Pankh is found to be greatly beneficial and praiseworthy. 

 Success Story of  KAVYASHREE

A person from Hiriyur with  70% disability. Having passed puc did not  know  where to go and what to do for livelihood. Her father being an auto driver was not much bothered about his daughter, in fact neglected her.  She spent most of her life in her Grand mother’s place and later in hostel.  The most unfortunate information about the girl is her own parents did not accept her but ridiculed her saying “ you are a burden to the family”  Though not her parents to encourage her, she found solace in her friends and grand mother.  This kept her going and she completed her puc successfully.  Somehow there was a fire within to prove her ability and  stand on her feet. She was waiting for an opportunity all the while.  

 The entry into the family of Pankh-Alamba Center got placed her on a new platform which her enthusiastic, hopeful.  She put her best efforts to avail all the opportunities offered.  She completed her 3 month PANKH- Retail Job linked residential training and immediately got selected in a prestigious organization, Sangeetha Mobiles in Bangalore.  With this, her confidence level has grown to greater heights, and a new world is opened for this person who once thought “I am a burden to my family.” There is a bright smile on the face of this 20 year old girl whom the organization has offered the salary of  Rs 8,500/-  per month.  The intervention of Pankh-Alamba has brought a new hope in her life. 

Success Story Kumar

 An ever smiling  person who hails from a district called Koppal.  He had to discontinue his education in between due to grave financial constraint. Being from a family which depends on agriculture for survival, he had to depend on others to guide him for career progression. His father could not help him any more for he had to spend all that he had for his Leg operation.  Though there was financial problem at home, his parent’s kept encouraging him which kept him strong.  There was a long way he had to make but didn’t know the proper way and method. 

 The training at Pankh-Alamba center with life skills did show him a way about future. He made a specific goal to achieve and he is on his way to prove to some of his friends who ridiculed him saying “you  will not be able to work.” Your education is of no use to you.”  His  best efforts brought him desired result and today he is working in Sangeetha Mobiles Stores as a Cashier.   The intervention of Pankh-Alamba has brought a new hope in his life. 

Pankh Spreads its wings wider:

Pankh opens its 16^th center launched a new Pankh centre with Vidyaranya at K R Puram, Bangalore. The training classes with be held in the premises of a church. We have 18 youths who have enrolled for the program from various rural parts of Karnataka.

The Art of Engagement

Most customers relate to people "like me" and who have similar wants, needs, and backgrounds. Knowledge is also paramount to making a sale. If a customer asks questions that no one in the store can answer, the customer will likely go to a store with associates who do know the products. Being friendly, respectful, and personable also helps make sales. Customers feel resentful when they feel a store doesn't care, and so, customers take their monies elsewhere. Building trust brings back repeat customers, even if they have to go out of their way to get a service or product.

One of the things the retail associate can do is just not state features of the product but help the customer picture owning the product. Its at this stage that the customer feel smarter and experience wonder. And say on their own, I'll take it instead of I'll look around.

This and many more such techniques were discussed in the recent held education program with 109 F. Here are some of the testimonials from the associates-

“ I really love the session of training. Such a nice training and I learned a lot about product, grooming and visual merchandising and all store management processes” - Syed Faiz Alam

“ It was a good experience. I got confidence in 5 days training to attend customers”- Santosh Malvekar and Sayed Zohaib Ilyas

“ It was a beneficial training programme for each staff. Through training I have learnt a lot of information about industry. After this training my confidence level has also increased. This training will help me to achieve my goals in future”- Vaghamshi Kajal Rameshbhai

“ I am working with Fusion Beats from last 2 years. Before the training we didn’t have that much knowledge about the fabric and customer service. But after the training we got good fabric and customer service knowledge. Now we can attend the customer properly. Thanks for this training”- Naazneen Abdullah Shaikh

One Amongst The Retailers

One of the obvious trends in business today is increased competition. One reason for so much competition is because the World is now one single marketplace. Additionally, distribution channels like the internet now make it possible for anyone to enter the global marketplace. As a result of increased competition, the rate of change taking place in business is increasing exponentially. For example, internet usage now doubles every 100 days. If you expect to keep-up and survive in this fast paced competitive environment, you must know what the competition is doing. So how do you monitor the competition in this age of information overload? The answer is with Competitive Intelligence.

Competitive Intelligence is a process whereby you collect, analyze, and transform information into intelligence so you can manage the future. Examples of it include everything from collecting the Annual Reports of your competition to setting up automated search routines. The overall objective of Competitive Intelligence is to identify events, trends, and other issues that will impact your organization. 

The best way to implement Competitive Intelligence is to focus on critical questions confronting your organization. For example, how will this regulation change our business or how will the introduction of a competing product impact our business? You must continually monitor critical issues if you expect to compete. If you fail to implement Competitive Intelligence, than you run the risk of operating in a reactive mode. And nothing changes a company more than having to survive.

And we at TRRAIN are developing a module on Competitive Intelligence and how can a retail associate use this tool to the best of his advantage to enhance returns. In addition, through this a retailer can also monitor customer behavior in real-time and improve his understanding about various correlating factors.

To know more about the program, contact-

Abhijit Rao - abhijit.rao@trrain.org

What an Idea Sirji

In today’s job scenario, not having an equal opportunity can put you at the back of the pack. Imagine for people with disabilities; not even having an opportunity would mean that they are not being recognized and acknowledged as worthy enough. Millions of people with disabilities face barriers in finding jobs and getting promoted.

But thats not the case with Khushbu.

Khushbu Patel, a Pankh trainee from Ahmedabad is suffering from 75% locomotor disability. But that has not broken her spirit and she now works at Prime One for Ideal Cellular Ltd and earns a monthly salary of about Rs 11,000.

Here’s her inspiring story:

Idea Cellular, being an equal opportunity employer, had called Khushbu for an interview and on seeing her zeal towards life and her never say die attitude- when she literally crawled on her hands to come to the store since she couldn’t walk due to her disability- immediately recruited her as a CRS at their Prahlad Nagar, Ahmedabad’s store. Khushbu, who came aided with a wheelchair, didn’t get demotivated when she realised that the CRS design was a semi standing model with high sitting chair and low backrest; but through her sheer confidence and dedication has been able to scale all difficulties. She is now is the Front Desk Executive (FDE) attending all kinds of customers, solving their queries and complaints, actively selling Postpaid and Prepaid numbers and participating in “Guard of Honour” every morning with lot of enthusiasm and energy.

 

Khushbu giving Guard of Honor welcome to the customers of the store

“ It is very heart wrenching to see her overcome her physical limitations and actively participate in various initiatives taken at CRS Navrangpura including Guard of Honor. Her story of active contribution in postpaid and prepaid selling apart from handling regular QRC with very high levels of energy and enthusiasm is truly very inspiring,” appreciated Mr Ashish Jain, Service Delivery Head Gujarat.

A New Chapter

Pankh started a new centre at  Abhang Bhavan, Umelman Village, Vasai (West) in partnership with Jyoti Seva Sangh, an NGO working for the welfare of disabled youth.

 

16 orthopaedic-ally challenged youth are undergoing their retail training currently from this centre. which started on 20th August.

OPPORTUNITIES GALORE

This month saw new partners joining hands and recruiting our Pankh students. Thank you all for your encouragement and support.

25 of our Pankh candidates got shortlisted for Sangeetha Mobiles out of which 17 got shortlisted as sales executives and 8 as Cashiers. 

Decathlon recruited two students, as CRM Executive and Workshop Technician and Nilgiris selected five of our Dharwad candidates as Customer Sales Associates.

I ‘M Possible

Nothing Is Impossible. The Word Itself Says “I’m Possible and each of these individual have proved that through their grit and never to say die attitude. Be inspired.

Caroline, who is deaf and suffering from Cerebral Palsy along with Florita, who is deaf and partially blind have joined Soch. They are working in their warehouse and are involved in doing tagging & labelling.

Manoj parmar has 65% locomotor disability.

For these girls it is a new lease of life. They waited for around 9 months to get a job as retailers were apprehensive to recruit them. 

Our Pankh Trainee Mr. Manoj Parmar, who joined McDonalds, a few months back, is the Employee of the Quarter for his outlet!

His manager says “We see him as the manager of this outlet in the next 9 months"

 Here’s thanking retailers like Soch and McDonalads  who believe in inclusive development of such students and have given them an opportunity to shine bright.