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Don’t Forget the Water Boy
| John Bray
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>> Published Date: 2/28/2013
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“Don’t forget the water boy!” That was my saying when I worked at a garden center during the summer months. I was hired to water the plants, unload trucks and keep the place clean. That was all management expected of me, but it wasn’t all the customers expected of me. They wanted me to answer questions and help them find what they needed; they didn’t know I was just a water boy.
Management at that garden center didn’t realize seasonal help needs to be about more than a few extra sets of hands. While live goods may sell hard goods, people sell everything. Therefore, well-trained staff is a must. Garden centers must set seasonal employees up to succeed and, most important, to sell. As a former water boy and, more recently, retail manager, I can tell you your training efforts will not be in vain: well-trained seasonal employees feel confident and useful, and your bottom line benefits.
I know time is tight and the floor is busy, so let’s boil your training program down to three simple steps: organize, read and teach.
Organize
Knowing where to find something should never be one of the challenges your seasonal employees face. An organized greenhouse and showroom are a must. In fact, Christa Bormann, co-manager of Sales at Heinz Brothers Greenhouse Garden Center in St. Charles, Illinois, believes that “separating out and organizing your store is one of the easiest things” you can do to make the job easier on part-time staff (and everyone else). It’s as easy as sorting perennials by sun levels and annuals by their purpose (thriller, filler or spiller).
At a minimum, proper organization allows a part-time employee to appear competent and point a customer to the item they wish to buy—and that’s what we’re going for. Remember, every employee looks the same to a customer, and seasonal employees who can extend beyond the area for which they’re hired are worth their weight in potting soil.
Read
Tags are there for a reason and your seasonal staff should be encouraged to read them. Your full-time staff may no longer need the tags and the information may be basic, but—from details on sun/shade requirements to the size of the fully matured plant—a quick read of the tag can arm a seasonal employee with a lot of information. I like to say that there’s more shame in guessing than glancing, and if you have additional literature available, tags are a great lead-in.
Teach
This ties it all together. First, show them where to look and what to read, and then teach your seasonal staff how everything works. This doesn’t mean you need to train them on every aspect of everything, but it does mean they need the big picture. Take assembling containers, for example. As Christa puts it, “[They] don’t need to know everything in an area, just how it all works.” This allows your seasonal staff to know where to find thrillers, fillers and spillers, along with the purpose of each.
This is also a great area for hands-on training. Yes, it’s not always easy to fit it in, but according to Christa, hands-on training can be as easy as scavenger hunts for thrillers, spillers and fillers that work in harmony in a given location. Not sure if it will work? Read the tags. This is a great learning opportunity and an excellent primer for helping customers as well.
Of course, knowing how everything works isn’t going to teach someone the ins and outs of your typical backyard genus and species, but knowing the ideal placement or purpose of each plant gives your staff solid information to build from with tags and additional supplemental literature.
Organization is the foundation, reading is the framework and teaching is the finishing touch. Combine everything by creating some standard customer scenarios you can role-play with your new seasonal staff. Have them demonstrate they know where to find things, what to find on a tag and how everything comes together.
Your customers and staff will thank you. And remember, don’t forget the water boy. You never know when he may have the chance to sell. GP
John Bray is a freelance writer based in St. Charles, Illinois. He can be reached at johnbray.bray@gmail.com.
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