Your college store retail system is essential to your store. From back-office functions to your eCommerce site and POS efficiency, your system should empower associates and continue to evolve alongside your store. One way to ensure your store is getting the most out of its system is through practical training that is tailored for your store’s specific needs.
We recently sat down with Product Specialist Jenna Lee to discuss how training benefits both new clients and current partners, and the training opportunities MBS provides throughout the year. Ms. Lee has been with MBS since 2007 and has helped numerous college stores over the years.
Jenna Lee
“My favorite part of my job is working with customers. Our clients tend to be happy and eager to learn, and they are all around great people,” Lee said. “I get to bring new system enhancements, products and services to them and show them how they would work in their stores. It’s really great to see customers reap the benefits.”
By staying up to date on their system functionality, college stores can expand services and provide a better customer experience. Whether a new client or an existing college store partner, Ms. Lee recommends investing in one of MBS’ three training packages.
“With training, you can make sure you know the product inside and out and let the system work for you. Get it set up correctly so you can utilize it from start to finish to reach your store goals, it will make your life easier,” Lee said. “We have a lot of automations available in the system, and without the training, your store probably isn’t fully utilizing it. You can add a lot of operational efficiency to your store through training.
“If you aren’t trained on the system, it isn’t doing what you want it to do. But if you are well versed and trained on it, then it will work for you and help you with your job. Everyone in the college store is busy. As the industry changes, there is more to do and often less manpower to do it with,” Lee said. “ If you get the proper training and utilize your system to its fullest, you can actually run your bookstore and not get stuck sitting behind the desk doing back-office stuff most of the day.”
What training opportunities does MBS Store Technology Solutions offer campus stores?
We know that training and support are two of the most essential services we can provide college stores. With approximately 100 dedicated store technology support staff, we strive to ensure every college store partner has the knowledge, support and resources they need to be successful.
Throughout the year, campus stores can take advantage of our many training opportunities from attending our free training forums events in Columbia, Missouri, to arranging specific training just for your store.
“We do Forums in the spring and fall at MBS. With this event, college stores from around the country come to the MBS headquarters. We offer hands-on system classes on a variety of topics. There is also a lot of opportunity to talk to other MBS partners and hear how they use the system in their stores. This collaborative environment really helps stores grasp more ways system can benefit their stores and streamline operations,” Lee said. “We also do training for system enhancements throughout the year. So, any time there is a system enhancement, all of our clients can get the training to learn about the new product or service. Our most recent enhancements have been the KPI Dashboard, integration with VitalSource and Redshelf and publisher consignment rentals. We also host several quick, informative group webinars. For example, in May, we typically do physical inventory training because it only happens once a year in most stores.
“And this leads us to our training packages that we offer stores. Every college store has tasks or jobs that they only perform once or twice a year. It’s easy to forget the process or maybe the store had some turnover and the person who used to do it left. Situations like that come up. It’s good reason to have a training package,” Lee said. “With our training packages, you have immediate access to training whenever you need it. Like maybe you are doing cycle counts and need a refresher. With a training package you can set up webinar training, and whoever is handling it in your store can jump on a 30-minute webinar to get a quick refresher course.”
MBS offers three training packages
- Silver - Unlimited classes at MBS headquarters for one year, plus unlimited webinar attendance.
- Gold - All silver package features, plus one three-day on-site custom training class.
- Platinum - All silver package features, plus two three-day on-site custom training courses.
College stores can choose the right package for their store and have access to training throughout the year.
“We have three different training packages. We have platinum, gold and silver. We recommend new customers do no less than the gold package because that includes on-site training and unlimited webinars. It ensures you have access to ample training as you are learning a new retail management system,” Lee said. “Like entering in adoptions is pretty standard, but if you go to do publisher consignment rentals, send a rental quote or send a wantlist, it’s something you probably won’t be as familiar with and naturally have questions.
“With a training package you can call in and ask us to set up a webinar to train you on how to do any task in our system. It’s really training at your fingertips,” Lee said. “Stores can call and set up webinars, we can train them on-site, or they can come to Columbia and we will train them here. There are multiple ways that we can help our customers with training.”
However, training packages aren’t just for new customers. Many existing clients also benefit from continual access to training.
“For current clients, we recommend at least the silver package because turnover happens everywhere. When you lose someone in your store who handled accounting or textbooks or any specialized area, it helps to have the training package already in place. Otherwise, on top of trying to do what needs to be done and hire a replacement, you also have to get budget approval for additional training,” Lee said. “If you lose your textbook buyer, you can sit down with us and get one-on-one training on how to submit adoptions or how to do wantlisting, ordering, receiving, returns, how to set up buyback, how to set up all your rental stuff, etc. You have your client rep to lean back on, but it is nice to have that webinar training, too. You can set it up for 20 minutes or 2 hours. It doesn’t cost anything as long as you have the silver training package.”
How can stores learn more about MBS Store Technology Solutions training packages or opportunities?
“If a store wants a training package, they usually just call their MBS Store Technology Solutions rep or talk to their Field Marketing Territory Manager. They can give you more information and get you quote for the training package the store wants,” Lee said.
If you do want more information about MBS Store Technology Solutions training packages, please email the Manager of Customer Education Wayne Jones at training@mbsbooks.com.
