Sony – Training Provider

Training Provider Award

Sony

2021 has been a challenging year for everyone, not least those working in retail. The Sony training team were keen to support retailers as usual with in-depth product training for the new and exciting products and technologies that continued to launch throughout the year, in order that store staff were armed with excellent product knowledge, for both shop front and online, whilst being mindful of the pressures and constraints of lockdown.

Anyone that has attended a Sony training session will have seen first-hand the passionate the team have for new products, and how they are able to demonstrate sometimes very technical features in a fun and engaging way.

Adapting to the new way of working a hybrid approach was developed, starting with a series of online sessions during lockdown. Informative video content within interactive demos was created and made available via the private Kando You Tube channel and live sessions were run by members of the training team, with interactive rounds and quizzes to keep attendees engaged. Content then sits on the channel so that new users can access, or team members can refer back for refreshers.

The training team conducted 60 session in 2021 across TV, Audio and Imaging as follows;

• TV – 20 sessions

• HAV- 7 sessions

• Audio – 10 sessions

• Imaging– 23 sessions

To put this into numbers, to date, Sony’s training team has trained over 790 staff in 2021 during the sessions from the following retailers:

• John Lewis – 34 Technical selling partners

• HBH – 43 participants

• Exertis – 15 participants

• Sony Centres – 56 participants

• Sevenoaks – 38 participants

• AWE – 106 participants

• Hughes – 56 participants

• Crampton and Moore – 9 participants

• CIH – 156 participants

• Independent retail partners – 105 participants

• Photo partners – 29 participants

In addition to these sessions the training team is currently out on the road running the first roadshow style event since March 2020.

Visiting five locations across the UK from Bristol to Edinburgh the team will train 150 in-store promoters colleagues face to face. The promoters all work in high street retail partner stores so the training was designed to offer them tools for demonstrating key features in the lead up to peak season. The sessions involved a ‘Dragons Den’ style element where teams vied for investment as they pitched to the group some of Sony’s key new technologies found within our 2021 line up – a great way for everyone involved to learn more about the products.