Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course
$268 AUD per person
New course for 2024!
Supercharge your Retail Sales and Customer Service!
The Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course is a short-duration (3-hour) training course designed to provide employees working in face-to-face retail roles with fundamental customer service and sales skills.
The training goes way beyond traditional customer service training clichés such as ‘always smile’ or ‘ask the customer how their day has been’.
Rather, your employees will benefit from decades of experience to learn the most critical and impactful behaviours needed to drive successful customer experiences in any retail context.
The course teaches the fundamental skills for retail interactions that will enable employees to greet customers effectively, proactively identify needs and deliver solutions, communicate with energy & empathy, and farewell in a warm, appreciative manner.
They will also learn and practice a simple but powerful two-step method for dealing with customer concerns or issues, as well as learn the critical techniques for when dealing with more aggressive or irate customers.
Perfect for new employees to embed great service habits right from the start, a ‘refresher’ course for existing employees who are a little stale, or for employees who learnt ‘on the job’ but have never received any professional training, this course is a great way to gain an immediate increase in happier customers and revenue!
Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course Fast Facts
Built specifically for online/virtual training!
At just 3 hours long, this course is specifically designed for online training to keep the costs low and enable your employees to acquire new skills in a short burst of interactive and highly engaging training.
So whether it’s a stand-alone refresher course for your employees or as part of an induction program, your employees will gain some new skills they can use immediately!
The course is typically delivered via Zoom, which is easily accessible to anyone who has an internet browser.
This course can also be delivered onsite for private bookings and larger groups.
Who should do this course?
The skills we teach are applicable to all industries, products and services and are suitable for any employee who interacts with customers in a face-to-face environment in a retail or face-to-face setting.
It’s perfect for new employees whom you want to equip with the right skills from the start, for existing employees who have become a little stale and need a boost, or for existing employees who have never received any formal customer service training and need to polish up their skills or learn some fresh ideas.
Typical roles suitable for the Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course include:
- Retail employees
- Hospitality staff
- Front-of-house staff
- Office/administration employees
- Receptionists/personal assistants
- Medical/Dental/Veterinary practices
- Warehouse/logistics employees
If you are looking for our more comprehensive customer service programs, check out our Retail Sales & Service PRO or the Retail and Hospitality Sales and Service Foundations course (both longer versions of this course with additional modules and more time to role-play/practice).
If your employees also have to handle phone calls and emails, you may also be interested in the Reception Essentials or Reception PRO courses which teaches in-person, phone and email customer service skills.
Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials Course Modules
Over a 3-hour live facilitated online training session, the Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials Course will teach your employees the critical skills for dealing with customers that the most successful retail staff use to deliver superior customer experiences.
Centred on body language, conversation skills, listening, proactivity, energy & empathy, participants will learn how to be more confident, efficient and effective with every customer interaction they have.
The training consists of powerful demonstrations and practice in the essential behaviours with five key modules that are outlined below.
If you’d like to customise the course to spend more/less time on a particular module or include some other skills, please refer to our private course options further down the page.
1. How to Engage
How to create a strong first impression and impact at the start of any retail interaction by using a warm & welcoming greeting, showing a clear desire to assist, and using effective body language to build trust and confidence in the customer.
2. Discover & Educate
Participants learn how to initiate open conversations to identify customer needs, listen effectively and then to proactively educate customers with tailored, personalised information.
3. Body Language & Voice Projection
Participants will explore and practice the use of good posture, breathing, vocal delivery and body language to enable strong face-to-face communication that builds confidence and trust in customers.
4. How to Close
How to create a lasting final impression and confident finish to any customer conversation through a simple method of showing gratitude and thanks in a warm farewell and how to avoid those often awkward, clunky finishes.
5. Dealing with Difficult Customers
Participants will explore and practice a simple two-step method for dealing with customer concerns and issues and learn critical techniques when confronted with more aggressive or irate customers.
About your Trainer, Simon Blair
The strength of any training course is dependent on the skills and experience of the trainer, and the Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course is facilitated by Simon Blair, one of Australia’s top Customer Service Trainers.
When he’s not training, Simon is the General Manager of Quality Insights for the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) so he lives and breathes what it takes to deliver great customer experiences all across Australia.
Simon is a father of 4 and lives in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. His twin girls keep him busy running around following their footy careers (one is an AFLW footballer with Collingwood) and he has a great love of music.
He does land the odd corporate or private gig around town as an acoustic guitarist and singer belting out rock and pop classics.
He has great adventures with his partner Ines, loves the North Melbourne Kangaroos footy team and every now and then escapes into other worlds when playing Dungeon & Dragons with his mates. He likes to call himself a ‘cool nerd’.
Customer Testimonials for your Trainer, Simon Blair
About CX Skills
CX Skills is a specialist training business that only delivers customer service, customer experience (CX), contact centre, workforce optimisation (WFM/WFO) and workplace wellness courses designed and facilitated exclusively by industry professionals.
We're the official training partner of the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA), and we are proudly Australian-owned and operated.
We’re grateful to have been trusted by hundreds of customers, and we’re proud of the amazing customer testimonials we’ve received, so you can rest assured that when you book a training course with CX Skills, your training is in good hands.
Our Recent Customers Include:
We're grateful to the following companies who have trusted CX Skills with their training. View our full customer list here >
Public and Private course delivery options
The Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course is delivered online via Zoom and is offered both publicly (anyone can purchase a ticket) and privately (just for your employees) with the differences outlined below.
Public Courses
The Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course is delivered as a single 3-hour module, enabling employees to upskill with minimal impact on your operations.
The times and dates are fixed to enable you to plan ahead, and being a public course, there will be others on the course. This provides a great way to learn and share experiences (and know you aren’t alone in the challenges dealing with retail customers!).
We typically run this course once a month, enabling you to plan ahead with rosters to reduce the impact on your business. If you would like to have more flexibility on the dates and times or a session just for your employees, please refer to our private training options.
See upcoming available public dates at the bottom of this page!
Private Courses
Whilst the public courses can be a great way to interact with others and are perfect for small numbers, sometimes you need more flexibility with the dates and times or you’d like the benefits of training larger groups of employees within your business, as well as keeping conversations “in-house” if that is important to you.
The private course option is the same course, but with the dates and times to suit you and it’s only for your employees. And for larger groups where we can run multiple sessions on one day (i.e. 2 x 3-hour sessions for two different groups), onsite training is an option!
We can also add/delete modules or focus on different elements important to your business.
Pricing and Payment Options
The Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course is just $268 per person ex GST for 3 hours of live, facilitated learning with Australia’s leading Customer Service trainer, Simon Blair.
Select the preferred public course date at the bottom of this page to purchase tickets.
Payment can be made instantly using a credit card, or you can request an invoice on the checkout page (the invoice must be paid in full before the training commences).
Available discounts:
- Save 15% when booking for three or more staff in the same transaction (note: the discount will be applied on the final checkout page, and no other discounts apply).
- ACXPA Members save 25% off all CX Skills courses, including this one! Learn more > (no other discounts apply)
- Want to train all your retail employees? We offer volume discounts for training large teams. Contact us for customised pricing and availability.
Purchase a ticket to a public Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course
All the publicly available Retail Sales & Customer Service Essentials course are listed below – click on your preferred date to purchase tickets.
Tickets can be purchased using a credit card or you can request invoice payment on the checkout page.
If you have larger numbers (typically more than 6) and would like more flexibility with dates and times, contact us for pricing and availability on a private course.
We'll continue to add more public course dates throughout the year!
Private Bookings are available for this course – contact us for further information.
Want to Save 25% off ALL CX Skills Courses and gain access to industry best practices?
Members of the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) save a massive 25% off ALL CX Skills courses for a full 12 months!
With annual memberships starting from just $35 per employee, it can be a great way to save money immediately on your training, plus, you'll gain access to a vast array of best-practice resources to improve your customer experience.