Shop talk

Words are powerful. They can lift your flagging spirits or bring them to their lowest point. They can excite every emotion from hatred to love, and they can hurt, heal or inspire. I often wonder if we take words and wording seriously enough in the world of selling (or at least outside of the mega-marketing, language-analysing, focus-group-reliant retailing giants) and especially where plants and garden related sales are concerned. It could be argued that we live in a PC-ified, boring world where bland information exchange is more important than emotion-driven emphatic speech, not helped by the rise of electronic unemotive communication where even if you can appreciate and understand the language, the emphasis, tone and emotion are lost. (Hence the need for emoticons in our electronic chatter of course!

Should we look at changing the actual words we use as a starting point to a revolution in how we get our message across in the garden retail sector? Perhaps it’s time that we changed not what we are trying to say, but how we say it, as the actual words and language we use are a crucial part of hiring, inspiring and training staff, and therefore reflect on how they, in turn, communicate and interact with customers.

In most retail businesses the first impression that the customer has of your store is their initial contact with your workforce. This can be as simple as a greeting from a staff member, be customer-instigated when they enquire about a product or service you provide, or it can be a little more indirect, as it may be a customer’s interaction with a staff member’s product display that is their first tangible involvement with your store. Either way, frontline staff are heavily involved in your image and product sales, so they are one of the most important contact points in any business. Indeed it’s one that can either make or break your relationship with that customer for life.

So obviously it’s important that training is carried out and that it’s presented in a way that engages and excites staff members – with the end result of stimulating sales. Quite often when standard employee training is completed it doesn’t motivate staff members in any meaningful way, as many of the titles and ideas that are trotted out are overused to the point of banality. I wonder have titles such as ‘Customer Care’ and ‘Horticultural Knowledge’, which are dropped into most CVs, job advertisements and job specs become sterile and almost meaningless to employers and employees and therefore become yawn-inducing when used in training?

For example, look at the two words ‘Horticulturist’ and ‘Plantsperson’. These two words are perhaps a good snapshot of what may be wrong with the hiring and training system currently in use in many stores. Think about those two words and the feelings, emotions and thoughts they arouse. It isn’t hard to see which title is the more customer-friendly and approachable.

You might think that I am being smart by picking those words, and perhaps I am, but if we consider adding to them and instead of saying, ‘Trained Horticulturist’ we say ‘Passionate Plantsperson’ then, if I were a retailer, I know who I’d prefer to have to interact with my customers, or for that matter who I would be more likely to employ if I saw it written on a CV. So perhaps you should instigate change by using words like these when advertising for staff?

We need to get clever with words and language. We all use tired, meaningless and just plain wrong words to communicate – and by extension to teach – in this sector. Frontline staff, who are the soldiers in the battle to educate and instill a passion for gardening in the general public, are often not given the verbal ammunition to deal with the task.

As a kick-start to this better communication let’s consider four of the main attributes that retail employers require in their staff; customer care; product knowledge; salesmanship and merchandising skills. These are all clear in the definitions to those of us in-the-know but what do we actually imply by these titles and can we translate them into something stronger, more meaningful and sexier? If we can reboot the actual meaning of these marketing/management titles when we look to hire and then train staff, then we can improve how they in turn communicate with and inspire customers who will spend more money with more confidence.

Let’s look at them one by one…

CAN WE TURN HORTICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE INTO PLANT PASSION?

As mentioned already, knowledge needs to be seen as the communication of a person’s passion for plants and the words used to hire, train and motivate your staff need to reflect this. So you hire passionate plantspeople, then train them how to convert that passion by communicating their love of gardening to the customer. Think of all those positive words that are connected to plants such as; fragrant; beautiful; colourful; gorgeous; fresh; bright; healthy; etc. The list is endless, so plant selling sta” need to be taught to use these words on a regular basis with conviction, enthusiasm and honesty. Customers want to know the positive benefits of buying plants not be confused by Latin names, their origins and what not to do with a plant. For example, we need to remember that a Vaccinium corymbosum is just a Blueberry and that it is not lime-hating but acid-loving – the meaning for the plant is similar but the connotation and language when emphasised to customers are different, one is positive and one is negative.

SHOULD WE THINK OF CUSTOMER CARE AS SYMPATHETIC PROBLEM-SOLVING?

So this is a more worthy – if wordy – meaning for customer care and is perhaps best looked at as needing to be on the same wavelength as the customer, so as to know their requirements and understand their requests – and also being better able to deal with their grievances if the need arises. Taken to a worse case scenario, empathising in a genuine way is one of the key methods to dissipate a customer complaint, as well as the less confrontational situation of how you relate to what a customer wants in order to fulfill their needs. We need to ask ourselves has the ethos of ‘customer care’ been lost due to those two words being overused by too many consultants, retail books and managers? I think that maybe it has and therefore the terminology needs to be changed to reinvigorate the basic concept. Empathy, listening, understanding and solution-finding are better and more important words in my opinion, even if they are also clichéd to a degree.

IS SELLING THE PROMOTING OF PLANTS… & MORE?

Making a sale should be looked at as advising the customer on the benefit of a specific plant – and plants in general – and the advantages of the all important add-on sale. It should be a profitable interaction for both the consumer and the business, erring on the side of honesty and the customer’s perceived needs. The customer needs to leave the establishment feeling that they have bought the right plants and care products they came in for – and maybe a little more – and to have gained knowledge in the process. They should never feel they had anything ‘sold’ to them. It needs to be a positive experience. The word ‘selling’ does not conjure up this feeling, and so should be used minimally if at all when training staff. Promoters are always better than sellers in our plant
orientated retail environment.

COULD WE TEACH MERCHANDISING AS BEING INSPIRATIONAL PLANT PRESENTATION?

Merchandising is more than just stacking goods in a sellable display. Of course, the products need to be shoppable but a display also needs to be inspirational, enticing and appealing. Again the words we use are important, as we want drama, entertainment, engagement and even interaction in our displays. We need to make employees think of displays as an almost theatrical production where – to illustrate the analogy – we find the right shop location (the theatre), then add the benching & props (the stage & scenery), incorporate signage (the show posters), display the product (the star of the show) and finally add the link sales (the concessions). Is this not an easier and more inspiring use of words and a way of teaching staff what merchandising should be?

Of course, employees need to be trained in other retail disciplines too but the focus should always be on the words, language and expressions that are used, in order to make gardening fun, interesting and pleasurable. Not everything can be taught, like the ability to communicate on a number of levels, the need to be flexible and open to change – perhaps even an instigator of change – are equally important to all of the above points. Indeed without also having these traits, it would be almost impossible to be a frontline staff member. This applies to other retail departments too from outdoor leisure products to food-related goods.

So perhaps it’s time we throw out some of the trite, banal and overused expressions we have trotted out for the last 20 or so years and look at changing the words we use to better motivate employees as to what you – as gardening retailers – are trying to achieve through them, your passionate plantspeople, green geniuses, gardening gurus or whatever term you fancy!

Ironically many the words and phrases I use in this article are quite possibly redundant, meaningless and in need of change, as several of them fall into the same trap of overuse. But that’s the point – we all need to change, and keep changing. Our vocabulary needs to be in a constant state of flux, regular revision and renewal are needed. My argument is as basic as changing new words for old ones, or perhaps more accurately to think about the words and terms that are currently used and see if they have lost their meaning and need to be replaced – on an on-going basis – in order that words retain their power

Of course, there’s more to communication than just words, as body language, facial expressions and listening amongst other topics are just as important, but the starting point for change needs to be verbal communication – the actual language we use – then the rest will follow. If we can revolutionise the words we use then we are on the right track for bigger changes in how we interact with customers, we just need to think a little more about what we are trying to say…

As I said at the start, words are important. ✽

LIAM KELLY was general manager of one of the largest garden centres in the country, where he was instrumental in transforming it into a large lifestyle store. He established Retail Services & Solutions in 2007 and has since worked with many garden centres, nurseries and hardware stores in Ireland. He has experienced every aspect of garden centre work from maintenance to sales and purchasing to management. This combined with his problem-solving ability; honesty and hands-on work ethic make him unique in his area. He can appreciate the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day running of a garden centre better than most, as he knows the products, mindset and ethos of the Irish garden retail sector. Liam Kelly, Retail Services & Solutions, 118 Dolmen Gardens, Pollerton, Carlow. 086 8221494 or 059 9130176 lksolutions@eircom.net, www.lksolutions.blogspot.com