Today's Garden Center Launches TGC Academy

Responding to an industry need for high-quality, in-house training for both management and staff, Today's Garden Center is establishing TGC Academy.

TGC Academy is your one-stop resource for education, information and training of your garden center team. In-depth courses provided by experts in garden center business management offer affordable, easy-to-access and useful lessons that will make you, your team and your retail operation more successful.

The first offering in TGC Academy is a series of management and staff training modules titled "People Power - Essential Skills That Turn Your Payroll Into Profit." The courses are taught by internationally recognized training expert and Today's Garden Center columnist Kathryn Dager.

The People Power package includes two courses:

• Course 1 – RELATE Customer Service Skills

This self-guided training course is designed for your staff and will help them bring out their best and give their customers a tremendous experience in your garden center. Kathryn Dager walks employees step by step through ways to draw on their own experiences as customers and then translate that into skills that make them better sales associates. The end result of this course will be a confident, happier team that feels empowered to put your customers’ success first.

Module 1: Make Customers Comfortable So They Will Stay & Shop

Module 2: Discover Your Customers’ Interests

Module 3: The Sales Process

Module 4: Teamwork

Modules build on the information from previous sections. Each module is 20 minutes long, meaning training can fit easily into any schedule. Modules conclude with a 10-question quiz to measure the team member’s understanding of the material.

• Course 2 - Coaching, Mentoring & Management Skills

This self-guided course for team leaders and managers will take your biggest frustrations and show you how to turn them around. We provide new perspectives, tools and strategies to help you understand you can’t do everything yourself – and that you can create an environment where you empower your team members and trust them to help your customers and your business be successful. And you’ll learn how to relate all of these lessons to your own past experiences and see how you will handle them better in the future. 

Module 1: Get Your Team To Represent YOU!

Module 2: Manage Behavior, Not Attitudes

Module 3: Empower & Train Your Team

Module 4: Motivating & Giving Feedback

Module 5: Creating A Motivational Culture

Modules build on the information from previous sections. Each module is 20 minutes long, meaning training can now fit easily into any schedule. Modules conclude with a 10-question quiz to measure understanding of the material.

Some benefits of these courses include:

• Your team members’ progress on the courses is tracked and reported through a test at the end of each module.
• These are downloadable online courses, so they are accessible 24/7 - team members can take the course from home
• It’s a great way to have your team members refresh these important skills every year

To purchase and download these modules and start improving your garden center team now, click here.