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Ray's long career in the white goods industry began some thirty years ago at Merloni. After ten years with the company he joined what was Philips Major Appliances, which in 1989 merged with Whirlpool. At the time Philips was planning to focus on brown goods while Whirlpool was looking for a European foothold, and after three years of dual branding a decision was taken to go with a sole Whirlpool brand. Over this period Ray was involved in a variety of sales and marketing activities supporting the Whirlpool brand.
The new approach
Until now Whirlpool Europe didn't have a structured training function. However "since the company now has a very comprehensive new product offer - our new line of freestanding products is probably the best so far - we started looking closely at the way we communicate with our retail clients - and what could be done to improve this," explained Ray.
"The challenges we face are the limited resources of our sales team and limited time of retailers. In this situation it would be good if retailers had access to training 24 hours a day. We feel that there is an opportunity to give more depth to training once you go beyond the traditional methods of delivery."
In response to these challenges Whirlpool developed an easy-to-navigate online training module that is available 24/7 and can be accessed by staff whenever it is convenient.
Ray believes that this is one of the first programmes of its kind in the industry.
"This training tool has been developed by Whirlpool Europe. It allows the retailers to have access to a range of training modules relating to various product areas. It can be tailored for a retailer with specific training needs in a given product area, eg refrigeration or dishwashing."
How it works
The simplicity and flexibility of the new training module are its key advantages, thinks Ray. "The training website contains several product-related training modules, tests and a discussion forum. The user logs onto the system with an assigned email address and a password. Once they select a product-related training module, the system shows them how various features work, explains the technology behind them and displays animation showing, for example, the water flow in a washing machine and how different programmes work. The module explains these features probably in greater detail than the account manager is able to during his presentation to the assembled sales staff during his visits.
"After familiarising themselves with the selected area, the users can take a test to see whether they understood everything correctly. The level of difficulty of tests can vary and can be increased for a user, who showed good knowledge of a particular area. The administrators of the system follow the progress of participating users and can give them feedback on their progress. They can also give feedback to the retailer on the progress of his staff using the module. Moreover once the test is passed the user can print a certificate of completion of that stage of training.
"The module will never replace face-to-face training or the manual but it's another tool, a very flexible one. Importantly, it is also a very generic programme which could be of great benefit to younger staff who need to know for example, how the freezing process works. It could also be used by sales staff to demonstrate to the consumer how various functions work and get them more interested in the product."
Advice in recession
Ray believes that the new training tool will help retail staff remain competitive in the recession. "In the current economic climate when you have a customer and you wish to keep him, the retailer has to give him the confidence that he is buying from somebody who knows all that there is to know about the product and how it is going to benefit him. This means not only showing him all the programmes but also explaining how much energy the product uses and how much money it will save him in the future.
"From our perspective, it is also about exceeding customer expectations: giving them such a good experience using our products than when another domestic appliance breaks down they will want to replace it with a Whirlpool product."
