Frontile competition behind Titan counters

Titan, which spends about Rs 2 crore on training its frontline staff at its retail stores, spends about 50 per cent of the amount goes on training programmes-cum-contest titled 'Face of Titan' and 'Look For Star'.

With Titan's World of Titan (WOT) stores numbering 223 across the country seeing footfalls of about 6 million annually, it is a big task to keep its staff, most of them employees of franchisees, motivated.

The stores also see about 3 million customers and another 3 million people who come in for servicing their watches or for accoutrements. With each store manned by 6-8 persons, the firm has over 15,000 staff at its stores.

These mostly see assisted purchases and hence the customer relations executives (CRO) need to be well-trained.

'The Face of Titan', which is a contest to judge the best CRO, is held once a year over six months.

The CROs are assessed by external valuers on their abilities needed to perform their jobs. With competition getting more intense for frontline staff in the retailing space, attrition among staff has reached serious levels. Firms are having to devise ways to extend the life of their frontline staff.

"With the average age of the staff being 27 years and of impressionable age, we have to be continuously engaged to keep their motivation levels high," Harish Bhat, COO, Titan Industries said.

"Any such effort is an attempt to have a competitive edge over the rivals. It's a key differentiator and helps the staff develop a sales-orientation, and encourages staff to provide better service," said Sudhakar, COO, Adecco India which is a subsidiary of the Swiss firm Adecco, one of the the world's largest firms in the staffing space.