An empowered, knowledgable staff is the ultimate differentiator.
When we say our b8ta testers offer world-class service, that’s not hyperbole. Staffing is how we stand out.
This post is written by b8ta CEO Vibhu Norby. It’s the fifth of eight installments chronicling his store tour and sharing insights from the retail sales floor.
Day five. Houston.
Today began at the Houston Galleria. b8ta Houston opened just a few weeks ago and is our first enclosed mall store (as opposed to outdoor). Houston is an underrated city for retail. It’s one of the five largest cities in the country, with a lot of upward mobility, many international tourists, and a thriving business community, as I came to learn during my visit.
As Dwight Silverman from the Houston Chronicle noted in a recent article, it’s one of the top cities for smart homes, and our store has an amazing display for Hive, a complete smart home system that’s just debuted in the US, as well as 74 other brands from all sorts of product categories.
A few individuals came to the store just to tell me how amazingly knowledgable our staff are. One gentleman said it was the best retail experience he’d had in 25 years, saying “your people answered every question imaginable.” Another told me it was the first time he had felt “happy in a store.”
In an offline world, staff make or break the retail experience.
So how do we do it?
- Hiring
- Thorough testing
- Materials & quizzes
- Real-time feedback
- Knowledge sharing across stores
Leadership comes from the top.
It starts with hiring incredible general managers with backgrounds in hospitality and high-touch service. Each store has a general manager who is responsible for our business in that city, from hiring and training staff, to events, marketing, and more. We also hire a merchandising manager for each location who is responsible for managing shipments, ensuring inventory is stocked, and checking that demos and product displays are always working.
b8ta testers live up to their name.
We call our retail staff “b8ta testers” for a reason. Their job is to consume everything about a product. The best way to do that is to test every product that enters the store thoroughly. Before we launch anything new, the b8ta testers spend time with each product, getting to know it, even taking it home in many cases weeks in advance of its store launch.
This is usually coupled with an in-store visit or Google Hangout with the makers behind the product for a deep dive on the story and features. It’s not good enough for a b8ta tester to just know how a product works, they must take ownership in the success of the company and people behind the products.
In-depth product training creates a culture of expertise.
Each store also has a b8ta tester with an area of responsibility for product training. Once the product has launched, a b8ta tester or manager will create a training program in our software along with the brand. This training program includes materials, videos, as well as product knowledge quizzes.
Our b8ta testers dedicate time each week out of their schedule to refresh their knowledge using these materials and to create new materials. When a new b8ta testers joins us, they review everything, and spend time on the floor with our b8ta testers to try every product.
Feedback loops help communication flow freely.
We’ve also designed a store feedback system into our application where makers can communicate directly with b8ta testers and vice versa. When products have updates or makers want to change their demonstration or try out a different story, those updates get sent directly to our staff. It’s also useful in the other direction, so that our staff can provide feedback to makers on their products and what things could be fixed or adjusted.
We cut everyone some Slack.
Lastly, Slack (the messaging app) is an incredibly important part of our company and how our stores operate. Every b8ta tester is part of the company’s Slack with access to all channels, and every store has its own Slack channel. We’ve built more than five plugins for Slack that share quantitative data as well as things like store feedback into each store channel so that every store is aware of everything else that’s happening in the company.
This facilitates instantaneous knowledge-sharing and ensures our corporate office is able to assist as well when there are problems.
My notes from the day, taken with Neo smartpen.
- A couple from New Zealand was interested in Bloomsky, as the weather reports in their remote home were often inaccurate.
- Our store is a favorite of the Microsoft Store employees, who frequently visit and bring guests as well to check out our assortment.
- We received a group from Direct Energy, a subsidiary of Centrica, which also owns Hive. We received many guests from around the world who were on business travel related to the energy industry.
- One gentleman shared his retail story about opening a McDonald’s in Las Vegas in the 1970s with Ray Croc.
- A visitor with an 8,000-square-foot home was interested in Eero. Houstonians have large homes and typically our smart home products must be purchased in pairs.
- Molekule was of interest to a visitor from London who is buying a few online when he gets home. Congrats to Molekule on making Time’s 25 Best Inventions list!
