Putting Experiential at the Heart of Staff Training
at 12:04 pm
As Experiential Marketers, we advocate the delivery of engaging and multi-sensory experiences as a highly effective way to influence consumer behaviour.
So, why don’t experiential agencies always apply this thinking to the way we pass messages and instructions on to promotional staff members? Once a campaign goes live, these individuals are essentially responsible for the success of a campaign – bridging the gap between a brand and the consumer.
Of course, there are many factors that can be attributed to the success of an experiential marketing campaign; from the development of jaw-dropping creative that will appeal to a difficult-to-reach niche audience to a carefully sculpted customer journey. However, if the tone of the one-to-one interaction is not pitched at the right level, or the key brand messages are not landed, all of the investment made getting to that point is essentially wasted.
As such, the way in which staff are trained on every campaign is incredibly important – and at Closer, we believe that agencies should adopt an intelligent and ‘experiential’ approach.
We have a wealth of experience delivering award-winning campaigns for clients and we pride ourselves on the quality and passion of our staff.
We have developed a framework for best practice in training planning. We believe this approach is in part responsible for the results we have achieved for clients and the experiences our staff have delivered to consumers.
Our approach:
We practise what we preach and make it experiential. In training, as with consumers, message retention will be greater when an experience is first-hand.
1. Say no to PowerPoint presentations:
Don’t talk at your staff – get them doing the talking. General studies into message retention show that people will remember 80% of messages after ‘doing’ vs. just 30% from only listening.
2. Break out:
Break out into smaller groups and develop simple but fun games and role-plays to ensure that the participants have retained the information. People are more likely to ask questions and get into discussions when they are in smaller groups.
3. Remember that your staff are consumers, too:
Take them through the journey customers will go through. Introduce activities that encourage them to identify the common barriers to trying a particular brand. Try splitting the group into users and non-users (for example: ‘have worn contact lenses’ and ‘have never worn contact lenses’). Address the two groups separately by asking them questions about their perceptions (non-users) and experiences (users) about the product or category. This way, as a group, they will identify any misconceptions and how to overcome them by themselves through their own experiences.
4. Make it fun and make it memorable:
Make sure they are not sat still for long periods. Intersperse the session with icebreakers, quizzes and activities. And give them something tangible to take away with them afterwards (and not just a briefing pack!).
5. Involve the client in the session:
No-one knows the brand like the client – so involve them in the planning and in the training day itself.
6. Give your ambassadors a reason to believe:
Make everything relevant and real in order to give the messages meaning. Get real-life customers to present their experiences (how has the product changed/affected their life?). This will give staff stories to tell when engaging with customers. Storytelling is a well-known technique for encouraging message retention, and should be utilised in both training and consumer engagement.
7. Use visual stimulation:
Dress the room and give your ambassadors content to absorb during breaks. Play video content during lunch and breaks, and put ‘bite-sized’ chunks of information up on the walls. Use fun songs or poems that will help them to remember facts.
With this framework in place, your ambassadors will go away engaged, informed and inspired.
It works – and at Closer, we have proof. Following a recent training day for a client of ours which produces contact lens, we asked for feedback from the staff and here’s what they said:
“The experiential technique of allowing us to have a ‘lens on eye’ experience was an excellent way of overcoming the pre-judgements of those who had not experienced contact lenses before, thus giving the essential knowledge which will be relayed to the consumer during the live activity.”
“I really enjoyed the session and loved the format of the whole day. It was broken up into sections and made the subject of contact lenses very interesting!”
“It was much better than the usual training days put on by staffing agencies – much more interactive. This made it easier to take in all the information, particularly about such a technical subject.”
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