Most customers today are well-informed about the watches they buy and sales staff need to match this knowledge. Indeed, it would be unthinkable for a sales associate to propose a technically irreproachable watch without knowing what it is made from, how it was made and the type of movement it houses. Moreover, a customer will fire off a volley of questions to which he often already knows the answer before deciding whether or not to buy. He is, in a sense, seeking confirmation from the person who is inviting him to make this purchase. Obviously, if this so-called specialist doesn’t know the answer to his questions, he will take his custom elsewhere.
The Association Suisse des Fournisseurs d’Horlogerie, which regroups a large proportion of today’s watch brands, affords a great deal of importance to the quality of customer service at the point of sale. It observed how a good many points of sale employed staff whose knowledge of watches, in particular in their historical and technical aspects, was insufficient. Determined to resolve this problem, it appointed a specialist to devise a training programme for the various staff at the point of sale.
An interactive knowledge tool
This gave rise to the Watch Sales Consultant Federal Certificate. This 42-day course addresses sales staff at watch retailers or people who wish to develop specialist knowledge in this field.
Textbooks have been banished in favour of didactical media in the form of a CD-Rom, complied in consultation with a certain number of brands. This tool, which can also be used at the point of sale to explain very technical points to customers requesting further explanations, covers every aspect of the watch, from the most simple to the most complicated movement. Each complication – chronograph, power reserve, date, moon phases, tourbillon, striking mechanisms – is explained in detail using 3D animations. Better still, the user can “virtually assemble” each component. For example, all the different parts for the chronograph module are presented in a box at the side of the screen, each labelled with its name. One by one, the user drags and drops each part onto the movement plate. Any component that isn’t in exactly the right place will automatically return to the box.
The guarantee of impeccable service
Instruction is by professionals in the branch and covers a wide range of subjects, including decoration, design, history, famous names, and the manufacturing of parts, cases and dials. Indeed, guided tours of production facilities and companies are also part of the course.
The course, which began in 2005, is enjoying considerable success among Swiss points of sale and several “batches” of trainees have already passed their final exams. Most importantly it raises the standard of knowledge among sales staff for, as François Thiébaud, CEO of Tissot and Vice-President of the Association says, “If we are to go on striving to make watches of increasingly high quality, the men and women who sell them must also possess a high standard of knowledge. It’s a way for them to survive in an ever-more competitive environment.”
This Watch Sales Consultant Federal Certificate, now officially acknowledged by the Swiss Confederation, gives its holders highly specialised knowledge and is a guarantee for the stores that employ them of irreproachable service. And this, as experience has shown, leads to an increase in the number of sales and their average value.
