Your Christmas temps will meet more customers than you will.

Your Christmas temps will meet more customers than you will.

Think about it. From late November the busiest hours in the shop are often covered by people who started two weeks ago.

And most of them get the same training: where the till is, where the stock room is, what time is lunch.

Nobody tells them what a good conversation with a customer sounds like in this shop.

Then we are surprised that December sales are fine but January repeat visits are low.

Before the season starts, give every new person 30 minutes on three things:

• How to greet someone without "Can I help you?"
• The 3 products people ask about most, and one honest thing to say about each
• What to do when someone comes in January to return a gift

That last one matters more than it looks. The person returning a gift is often a brand new customer. You get one chance with them.

Write it on one page. Put it in the back room.

Temps don't need a manual. They need to know what good looks like here.