CASE STUDIES

Robins Kitchen

Cooking up an eLearning feast

Robins Kitchen is a successful Australian-owned retailer making a big impact in the home cooking category. The brand is especially well known in Queensland and NSW with an extensive network of over 40 stores from Cairns in far north Queensland to Newcastle in NSW. The Robins Kitchen vision is to inspire great home cooking by providing quality kitchenware and great service.

Challenge
The business has grown quickly in recent years and it’s become increasingly difficult for the management team to deliver information, training and timely communications to the store network. The management team sought to increase conversions and drive sales by training new and existing team members in customer service and selling skills, product knowledge, responsibilities and expectations. They also wanted to provide online access to job aids and manuals ensuring all team members adhere to correct policies and procedures.

Solution
Workstar developed the eTweet, an information and training platform that can be accessed 24/7 by any team member in-store or anywhere they have internet access.

The eTweet has a customised view for each user and allows a direct line of communication to all new and existing staff. All modules are relative to role of the employee, they don’t see or access modules they don’t need to.

Aside from best practice induction, product knowledge and category training modules, the eTweet platform is updated daily with the Rocking Robins store performance statistics, weekly with the Tweet newsletter and monthly with messages from the G.M. and major marketing communications information.  Also, team members can share their cooking tips, favourite recipes, cooking shows or sites in a shared discussion forum.

Another key component of the project was the involvement of several suppliers in developing content for category and product related training modules. Maxwell & Williams and Playcorp supply category leading, core range products to Robins Kitchen. Their involvement is testament to the strong relationships Robins Kitchen has with its partners.

Results
The project commenced in July 2009 and the eTweet was launched three months later in October.  Robins Kitchen General Manager, Shane Hicks says the benefits are numerous.

“The level of engagement, feedback capabilities and reporting engine allow us to identify early adopters and future leaders in our business. This platform increased the level of staff engagement from day one. We deliberately designed the eTweet to be interactive and enjoyable so learning will be embraced not thought of as a chore.

“And the bonus for our shareholders is that, while we build collective knowledge and enthusiasm within our team, the move away from paper-based training and induction is actually saving us significant money on training and inductions.”

Download Robins Kitchen Case Study