Canadian Retailer - Spring 2013 - 29

Hapton says he uses coaching to fortify
his staff’s skills, help staff adapt to changes
in product knowledge and serve customers
better. Regular coaching helps employees to
succeed at their job, and this contributes to
employee satisfaction.
Independent operators should cover three
areas in their coaching:
1. Foundational skills: Hapton says he gives
employees lengthy, detailed training on
customer service when they are hired. A
strong foundation that gives employees
the skills they need to assimilate daily
coaching that will follow.
2. Product information: Coaching can encompass skills development, as it might relate
to customer service, or product knowledge.
Coaching employees on how products work
and how they benefit customers can make
employees more confident and help the
store develop expertise in its niche area.
One practice that Hapton says works well in
his store is to have vendors come to the store
to teach employees about new products.
3. Employee empowerment: Hapton says he
wants to empower his employees so they
can make customers happy. He says retailers can use daily coaching to reinforce
product knowledge, adjust how individual
employees interact with customers and develop lasting relationships with employees.
Skills a mentor needs

Good mentors make their protégés more
independent. “That’s the objective of a good
mentor,” says Charney.
Particular personality types are better suited to mentoring than others. Mentors have
faith in others. They are by nature non-judgemental and mature. They lead by asking questions and listening. Not every retail operation
will have a surplus of these types of people.
But retailers can train potential mentors to develop some of these important skills.
1. Listening skills: “Coaches give answers,”
says Charney. “Mentors ask questions. They
are humble, and they know how to listen.”
2. Questioning skills: Good mentors don’t provide answers. They ask questions that warrant reflection and let the protégés find answers for themselves. They employ a Socratic
method of asking questions, listening for a
response and questioning the response.
www.retailcouncil.org/training/retailersguides

3. Advising skills: Mentors give advice, but
they do not dictate a way to act. They provide advice when it is asked of them without ever taking the power of responsibility
away from the protégé. They model the
behaviours they hope to teach rather than
telling mentees how to behave.
4. Storytelling skills: Mentors teach through
stories. They tell stories in a way that allows the listener to see it for themselves.
They don’t moralize. They know their interpretation of the story isn’t the definitive
interpretation.
5. Resourcing skills: Mentors have resources.
They share these resources with the protégés. This might mean lending protégés a
good book or putting protégés in touch
with another person. They link people and
help protégés build networks that will be
useful to their professional growth.
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Canadian Retailer - Spring 2013

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