Overcome retail industry training challenges with a mobile learning app

While online shopping has become the go-to for seasoned shoppers, there are some that still adore the experience of walking into a brick and mortar store. They actually want to see a product in person and deal with the sales associate directly. But that being said, it’s not always a breezy experience. Customers might believe that they know more than the sales associate about the products or vice versa. Of course, there are customers that like dealing with sales associates who have gone through the product information thoroughly and can answer questions without delay. Unfortunately, there are a number of training challenges that the retail industry faces. This article will explain how you can use a mobile learning app to overcome these training challenges.

Here’s how a mobile learning app can help!

1. Train your deskless retail workforce

That’s exactly what retail employees are. They don’t work from behind a desk since their workplace is the sales floor. They are constantly busy and often don’t have time to take breaks. That means training them becomes a major challenge. Asking them to access training online via a computer at home, after an already long day, is unfeasible and unfair. Therefore, it would be better to find a more flexible way to train.

Additionally, retail employees need to be updated regularly on product updates and amendments to in-store policies. Given that over 90% of them won’t even have an official email id, it will be impossible to update all of them effectively. To add to it, they need to be able to train when they have time to spare. When you think about it, the training content should cover all they need to know but not be overwhelmingly long. Making it bite-sized and uploading it to a mobile learning app like HandyTrain will definitely help ease those training woes.

2. Train your dispersed retail workforce

There are two ways of looking at this. A dispersed workforce in the retail industry could refer to — 1. retail workers that work in shifts or 2. work for the same retail organization but in outlets across the country. Training employees that work in shifts using old-school methods is impossible. There’s a chance that many will miss out on the training and have to catch up. Then you have the added issue of ensuring that all receive the same training so that there’s no drop in the quality of service to customers. With employees that work across the country, scheduling training will be impossible because not everyone will be able to attend.

Here’s where a mobile learning app like HandyTrain can solve your problems. Creating simple, easy-to-understand retail-based training content can be done hassle-free. There’s no need for scheduled or rigid training. You can create standardized training content that employees can access from anywhere and anytime. You can even send out notifications to employees about updates and new content through the mobile learning app.

3. Up-skill or re-skill your retail workforce

Let’s face it. Working in retail is not easy. You need to have and juggle a number of skills in order to do an efficient job at customer service. Having proper product knowledge is awesome but it’s only part of the job. In order to close a sale, your powers of persuasion, communication skills, and etiquette also need to be on point. A mobile learning app can help you with all of this.

Take HandyTrain for example. Besides being able to create training content for products and services your organization offers, you can also create programs that focus on teaching or enhancing soft skills. You can create this content using images, text, short instructional videos, or even interactive videos using the templates available on the mobile learning app.