The Hindu Business Line : Retailers look to soft skills training to boost bottomline

ONE evening before closing time, Ms S. Prema, a financial analyst, rushed into the supermarket to pick up a few essentials. As she was peering at the expiry date on a packet of bread, a girl selling herbal face wash accosted her. "No, thank you," said Ms Prema.

Minutes later, at the fruit counter, a boy bothered her, trying to sell a packet of detergents: "No thanks," said Ms Prema, still polite. But she lost her cool at the billing counter when the girl with the face wash, who had been stalking Ms Prema all through the supermarket, once again made a sales pitch.

With incidents like this on the increase, companies now feel that the sales assistant - the first point of contact between the company and the customer - needs to be trained in soft skills - a practice started by information technology companies.

Setting the trend among retailers in Chennai are Naidu Hall and Vivek's. They have called on CCA Infotech, which teaches soft skills and accent neutralisation for the call centre industry, to train their sales staff in customer service and skills, such as telephone etiquette, use of language and work ethics.

But will these skills make a difference to the company's bottomline? If the experience of outsourcing business is any indication, it will, said Mr Ram V. Mani, CEO, The Enhancement Group, a company that runs a call centre and a training academy for call centre agents.

The way agents speak can make all the difference in this business. Agents are taught to speak politely in English using neutral accents, since slang can often sound rude, said Mr Mani. Call centres lose business if agents are not up to the mark, he added.

Ms K. Pushpalatha, Business Head, CCA Infotech Pvt said many companies find that with competition eating into their bottom lines, they have to improve service standards to get back their customers.

Ms Pushpalatha said that there is a lot of scope for offering training services as most of these companies have very poor soft skills though they sell or manufacture top quality products.

The first in line are the beauty parlours that have mushroomed all over the city. Patrons spend a lot in these parlours, which are major money-spinners for their promoters. Ms Pushpalatha said that she had visited a number of parlours and had been surprised by the lack of respect many customers faced at these places. In most of the parlours, the beauticians talk about their personal matters, throw things around and speak in the regional language, something disconcerting to a person who does not understand it, she said.

Chennai-based Trends in Vogue Pvt Ltd, a CavinKare group company that runs a chain of beauty parlours, has hired CCA Infotech to train its beauticians in soft skills, Ms Pushpalatha said.

Ms Pusphalatha said that in a number of popular stores, customers were not treated properly. The main reason is that the person at the point of sale is unable to explain product features, is unwilling to show more varieties or does not have the motivation to close a sale. Very often, the sales assistant or the customer service agents come from modest backgrounds with poor education qualifications.

On the flipside, in some of the bigger department stores, which are chiefly self-service stores, one gets a taste of oversell. Companies, mostly FMCG, hire their own sales people who irritate shoppers by accosting and stalking them around the store while customers shop for other products.

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