A great liquor store employee is worth their weight in gold. Along with a great selection, friendly, helpful staff who give customers recommendations and keep operations running smoothly can easily turn a good liquor store into a great one.
It all starts with training. Investing extra time and effort into staff training pays off in the long run, and in major ways — think more loyal customers, better sales, and more efficient workdays.
In this article, we’ll cover the noticeable impact great staff have on your bottom line, and cover seven ways you can set up every employee for success.
Why Employee Retention and Training Are More Important Than Ever
For many store owners, inventory costs are higher than ever. Trends like nonalcoholic drinks are shaking up the liquor industry — so can you really afford to spend more on labor?
The short answer? Yes. According to a survey by Gartner, over 60% of customers care more about customer service than price when picking a business, and businesses with consistently friendly and helpful employees can charge up to 16% more for their products.
But having great employees is not the same as having more employees. If you constantly churn through temporary hires, it’s doubtful they’ll build up the necessary skills for making your store a success.
In other words, there’s a lot to do when running a liquor store, but putting employee retention and training on the back burner will backfire.
7 Topics You Can’t Skip in Liquor Store Staff Training
The first thing to look for in a liquor store employee is shared values and the right attitude. You can always train someone to learn more skills — you can’t train their personality. If you get a good feeling about a candidate, don’t dismiss them over a few missing sections on their resume.
Remember: Staff training isn’t just a one-time task for new hires. It should be ongoing as employees get more confident and experienced, and you shift your strategy, expand to new locations, or adopt new technology.
Providing ongoing training and support shows that you’re invested in your employees and is key to retaining them long-term.
Need specifics? Let’s get into seven key staff training topics (plus some tips for how to make important tasks easier).
1. Always Check IDs
As a high-risk retail business, your liquor store is under extra scrutiny when it comes to restricting sales of alcohol to minors. While investing in cameras and other security measures is important, your first line of defense is much more straightforward: ID checks.
If you sell alcohol to a minor knowingly or accidentally, you may face fines (at best) or lose your liquor license (at worst). Long story short: You can’t afford to make mistakes.
If a customer looks under 40, your staff should check ID — but it doesn’t hurt to check every customers’ ID to establish good habits.
Here are some things employees should look out for when checking IDs:
- Is it a valid form of ID (driver’s license, passport, etc.)?
- Is the customer 21 or older?
- Is the license expired?
If your employees suspect they’re dealing with a fake ID, most states do not allow employees to detain the customer. Instead, instruct your staff to refuse the sale, call a manager, and notify the police.
However, we know from experience that checking every customer’s ID can lead to long lines, especially during peak hours or holidays. Luckily, the right technology helps.
Here’s how to use your POS system to reduce your compliance risk:
- Set up a prompt for age verification on your point of sale (POS) system that appears when an age-restricted item is scanned.
- Only allow managers to override ID checks.
- Use a system that supports ID scanning so employees can quickly verify IDs by scanning the back of a driver’s license.
The easier it is for your staff to verify a customers’ age, the less likely it is to make a mistake.
2. Learn Basic Recommendations and Pairings
With inflation and the rising cost of living, many customers are more reluctant to spend on luxuries like a nice bottle of Merlot or a 20-year-old scotch. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
In fact, many customers are still willing to buy nicer bottles — but only if they feel confident in their purchase. Staff who can provide friendly service and expert recommendations are the confidence boost customers need to splurge on that nicer bottle or extra six-pack.
Regularly take time to train your staff on different departments, starting with areas they’re most interested in or your bestselling product categories. If you do hold tasting events, invite staff to participate to build up their firsthand knowledge.
Here are a few other tips to make recommendations easier:
- Use stickers and shelf-edge signage for staff picks and favorites.
- Create custom product tags (e.g. “owner recommended,” “spicy rye”) so staff can search right from their terminal.
- Give employees access to sales reports so they can see which products are most popular for quick recommendations.
The more confident your employees are, the more confident customers will be to try something new.
See a Success Story: Home Town Liquor
3. Train Employees on Using Your POS System
Choosing the right POS system for your liquor store is essential. More than processing payments, a liquor store POS system handles everything from customer loyalty information and discounting to inventory tracking and purchase order (PO) creation.
Given that a POS system is involved in almost every aspect of the store’s operation, make sure your employees are comfortable with it.
Here are some tips:
- Start by making sure employees know key functions like how to ring up a sale, scan IDs, and look up customer information.
- Train them on useful shortcuts or commonly used features (e.g. buttons for bottle deposits and voids).
- Ensure they know which systems they have access to and which require a manager.
Some POS systems have online training resources or training modules directly on the system — this way, employees can brush up on their skills when they have downtime.
To reduce the risk of employee theft (or mistakes), set up employee access controls so that each employee can only use the systems they actually need to do their job. For example, a new employee may not need to update invoices, send purchase orders, or change product pricing on the backend.
4. Learn Inventory Best Practices
Speaking of invoicing and inventory management, ensuring your shelves are well stocked and your inventory list is accurate should be a top priority.
Have staff take their time when receiving new shipments, making sure they check the number of items against the invoice, along with any unexpected variations or broken bottles. They can then update the invoice in your system themselves, or flag issues for you to address later. This ensures that your stock levels stay accurate.
If any items don’t scan at checkout, instruct employees to note the UPC and item name so it can be updated in your system as soon as possible.
Last, instruct employees on how to do regular cycle counts and spot any items that are running low. You can also set stock thresholds so these items automatically appear on low-stock reports. If there’s a discrepancy between your low-stock reports and what employees see, it may be a sign that something wasn’t counted correctly or is lost somewhere in a store room.
5. Get Ideas for Promotions From Staff
Coming up with creative liquor store promotions is a must to keep customers coming back — but setting up and running promotions can also take a lot of time and effort. Why not let your team share some ideas of their own?
Schedule regular meetings with your staff to discuss any slow-moving bottles, upcoming holidays, or local events. Announce planned promotions and get feedback on potential ideas for discounts, mix and match offers, or product bundles.
Involving employees in the marketing process helps keep them invested in the business. You can even offer bonuses or perks to employees who come up with a particularly effective promotion idea.
Once you come up with your promotion ideas, set up the discounts on your backend, so any special pricing applies automatically at checkout — and don’t forget to promote your current deals on social media or through your newsletter.
6. Have a Clear Refund and Escalation Process
Unfortunately, high-risk businesses like liquor stores are more likely targets for fraud and theft.
First and foremost, let your employees know you have their back. If something feels off, you want them to feel comfortable calling a manager or store owner. Note any common situations (like an aggressive customer or suspected fake ID) where they should call a manager right away.
Outside of direct intervention, make sure to have clear policies for when to escalate to a manager, how and when to process refunds, and other common scenarios. You can also lock out functions like refunds (which are commonly used for credit card chargeback fraud) on your POS system so only managers can perform them.
7. Use Task Scheduling To Keep Staff Accountable
Even with the best training, important tasks can fall through the cracks when things get busy. A clear to-do list and easy communication strategies keep employees accountable and prevent them from forgetting key to-do items.
Create task lists directly in your POS system, including:
- A description of the task
- How often it’s done (e.g. every Monday and Friday, twice a day, etc.)
- What time of day it should be completed
Then, you can have the system automatically send task reminders directly to an employee’s terminal or via text message. Because your system also logs who’s working, you’ll have a paper trail to see that everything is complete and spot potential areas for improvement.
Related Read: 5 POS Training Tips To Help Your Workforce Successfully Onboard
Keep Employees Engaged and Simplify Daily Tasks With a Liquor Store POS
Great employees aren’t just necessary to keep your store running smoothly. They’re a key way for small liquor stores to stand out from the competition and increase profits.
Taking the time to properly train your liquor store staff might seem tedious at first, but it pays off in the long run — and so does having the right system to make their jobs easier.
At POS Nation, we believe in supporting small businesses with the specialized tools they need to reduce manual labor, improve the customer experience, and drive sales. An industry-specific POS system simplifies everything from PO creation and inventory tracking to ID scanning and fast payments.
Schedule a demo with one of our liquor industry experts today to see how adopting a POS system made specifically for liquor stores makes your employees’ work more efficient.
by Brian Sullivan
by Gina Obert
