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A diverse training program saw one off-trade operator increase their spirits sales by £7346, revealed Graham Cox at the Future Trends: Spirits event. And, Cox said, a similarly robust training program could see comparable profit increases for on-trade operators as well.
Cox, business development director at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) discussed an experiment in which operators were given in-house training, brand training, and training from WSET in various combinations. While all participants saw their profits go up, those that received all three training programs had a substantially larger increase of £7346, compared to £4309 and £746 for the other groups.
Although the study concentrated on off-trade operators, Cox believes that the results can be replicated by on-trade businesses as well, saying "fully trained staff are capable of up-selling if you give them the right knowledge and after training they increased bottle sales. It's not scientific, but the empirical data in the off-trade training [...] did improve sales dramatically.
While Cox's research focused on spirit sales, our own studies have shown that all drinks offerings can benefit from a varied training scheme. A survey conducted on behalf of wine education service Veraison revealed that more than half of guests believe that restaurant and bar staff do not know enough about the wine they have on offer. In addition, 57% of guests would be willing to make a more adventurous- and potentially more expensive- wine choice if the recommendation was given by knowledgeable and confident staff members.
Increasing spending in training can sound like an expensive proposition. Research repeatedly reveals that staff training has a huge impact on guest expenditure. And with wet-led pubs and bars perceived by guests as below the curve in terms of hospitality industry training, operators in these areas would do well to make sure their training programs are supporting their front of house team.
