Body language is a kind of nonverbal communication, where thoughts, intentions, or feelings are expressed by physical behaviors, such as facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. This is a skill you as a Ambassador need to master.
Communication can be divided into to categories: verbal and non verbal.

Non-verbal communication is the communication between people without the use of spoken language. It gives a deeper meaning and intention to your words. In fact, the biggest part of our communication is nonverbal. This is often referred to as body language.

Non-verbal communication consists of facial expressions, tone of voice, movement, appearance, eye contact, gestures and posture. This document focuses on the basics of non-verbal communication: eye contact, smiling and body language.

Be Aware
Always be aware of your non-verbal communication, even when you are not interacting with a customer. You might not always be able to see the customer but they could have already spotted you.
Let your body speak and find out what’s your natural way in coming across as being relaxed, interested and confident at the same time. The following tips will make this a lot easier.

Eye Contact
Keep eye contact with your customer. Eye contact is a sign of focused attention. It is an instinctive way of showing interest in the other person.

Tip: Noticing customers by making eye contact has a beneficial side effect; it is the number-one discouragement to theft in retail stores.

Smile

By smiling you are more approachable for your customers. Make sure to give them a genuine smile like you are recognizing an old friend.

Body Language

1. No closed posture; uncross your arms and legs and direct your body towards the customer.
2. No barriers; Do not hide behind store furniture or your colleagues.
3. No static posture; Make sure you move naturally.
4. No fidgeting; be aware of those extra movements like touching your face, rubbing your eyes, adjusting your glasses, etc

To get the full experience of the North Sails concept and the role of you as an Ambassador you need information, practice and feedback. The morning session in the shop is very important for this. Every day for 15 to 30 minutes attention is focused on training these skills.

A brand experience is influenced by different facets and one of them is you!

The brand experience in the stores is influenced by the location, light, scent, furniture, Vm and you as an Ambassador. The staff of North Sails is expected to be able to successfully translate the brand and experience to our customers. Together with the team you play a main part in the shopping experience of the existing and new customers.

That’s why we find it important to have good knowledge and understanding of the brand and our vision. Therefore we hand you this tool in the form of a online Academy and offline training to improve your skills and these of your ambassadors. This way we can make a difference in the shopping experience of your customer. As an Ambassador you have to use your knowledge in every conversation, in the description of each item, in the creation of each set, in the conversation with each customer and in all your recommendations. As an Ambassador you are assessed in terms of knowledge and application of the brand DNA.

We want the knowledge in our stores to be of high standard. To help a new Ambassador we suggest, working together make a plan and keeping an eye on the process. (look for training steps and process in the documents TRAINING STEPS). In this document you find information what the standards are and most important what the vision is.

This consists of a few parts:
Greeting: simply stated, you must great every customer that enters the store. Remember your facial expression and maintain an open and inviting posture.
Welcome the customer and make sure you leave an opening to continue the conversation with an icebreaker and questions. Take the initiative to make contact with the customer within the first 30 seconds they have arrived in the store and make the customer feel at ease.

Use open-ended questions to start a conversation. The consultant must get an idea of what the customer want by summarizing the wishes.

Advice is the logical step where it comes together. The consultant makes combinations, suggestions, gives tips and examples, and searches for alternatives based on the wishes and body type of the customer.

 To fully practice these components and skills you must use the morning sessions and training moments to build knowledge. This is all the information an expertise that our staff is the store is required to learn and know. This consists of the collections, terminology, characteristics, materials, combinations, keywords, suggestions and alternatives. This is all provided on the academy.

Taking initiative
As a North Sails ambassador you are distinguishing yourself by the enthusiastic and knowledgeable conversations with the customers from start to finish. The service we provide and the expertise we have give a pleasant experience for our customer.
As a consultant you must be aware of the effect of different forms of communication and the outcome it may have. This component consists out of;

1. Greeting /eye contact
2. Icebreaker / conversations starters
3. (Open ended) questions

Most important for this component is that the customer feels at ease and welcome and you create trust.

Advice
This component is essential of being an ambassador. As an ambassador it is important to show the possibilities of an item. As you know the items in our collections are very versatile and innovative. It is your job as an ambassador to mention al those possibilities, characteristics, and to show what is done with the product. From how it’s made, to what material is used, to how to keep it clean and combine it with other items in the collection and maybe offer alternatives and always to be able to explain the effect of your proposal. Advice contains;

1. Terminology
2. Characteristics
3. Materials
4. Combinations
5. Keywords
6. Suggestions
7. Alternatives

1. terminology
   Using professional jargon for the garments. For the silhouettes, product groups, fabric, fit and color,techniques, wash, print, zippers etc.
2. materials
   Quantities and properties, comfort, function, natural/ blend/ synthetic, how to wash
3. combinations
   How can it be combined so it can represent the brand look and feel. Think colors, fits and style
4. keywords
   The look and feel can be described in keywords such as. Nautical, travelwear, beachwear, tailored, outdoors.
5. suggestions
   Mention the options of wearing, size suggestions, accessories, detailing such as, rolling up the pipes of the pants etc.
6. alternatives
   Handing /showing the right alternatives to the customer when needed. This is a vital skill in giving advice.

Explanation of the morning sessions, how to preform and implement them in your store and structure them during the week.
Morning sessions are done to create more awareness. It is a quick 15 to 30 min. warm up to increase knowledge and capability within the team. To start a morning session you always start the same you look at what the team needs and in what in field improvement can be made.

For 15 minutes of every day that you work attention is focused alternately on information, targets, latest news, repeating, sharing, specifying, questions, VM, cooperation’s, skills, feedback, collections, trainings, exercises, mentioning tops and giving tips.

How it works.

STEP 1. Observe
What are the subjects you see can be improved or refreshed?

STEP 2. Choose the essence
What is the main subject that the morning session will be about? Keep in mind the goal and the essence. What are the featuring issues and what are the accessory matters? (And it must fit within the 15/20 minute time frame)

STEP 3. Do
The form in witch you mold the session. In which way will the session and the subject best be communicated to your team and what questions should you ask to get the best performance and interaction with the team. Prepare this by forehand.

STEP 4. Follow up
This is one of the most important steps. What will be done with the morning session during the day? How will the consultants implement this topic in their sales advice and conversations with the costumer? Gives examples and explain the use and outcome. Observe your team during the day and see if it’s implemented. If not ask why and give tips and look back at the morning session. If they are, give a compliment!

STEP 5. Adjust
How did it go, did it come across? What happened during the day, what aspect went well and what didn’t? Adjust and redo.

Weeksessions
There are week sessions provided by the academy. These sessions are built up day by day to increase the learning curve of your team. This is done by giving information the first part of the week and have it giving back to you the next part of the week. Which means the sessions will be from informative to productive during the week. Prepare the week sessions in advance. Check if you have all the items and read the information by forehand so you can answer all the questions asked by the team members. We will be providing sessions in the levels; basic and advanced.

Day-to-day sessions
Besides the week sessions, day-to-day sessions will be provided. These morning sessions are for refreshing subjects and skills. They can also be used for additional training per stylist or when there are slow moments in the store you can use these sessions to give an extra punch to the knowledge and skills of your team to get them to a higher level. We will be providing sessions in the levels; basic, advanced, dept

This sheet can be used for the morning session about questions. Also this is good information to receive before going on to the shop floor. In this sheet there are techniques to keep the conversation going and to ask the right questions.

By using questions you show interest and the answers the answers provide information. Instead of getting a lot of short answers like yes and no, you as a Ambassador must know what questions to ask. Use a little bit more time and give more attention, the customer perceives this as pleasant. Remember, to listen well (active listening) as this is important for the component that follows. Know the difference between closed and open-ended questions (who, what, where, when, why and how)

Summarise
With active listening the Ambassador must be able to summarize the wishes and needs of the customer and ask follow up questions. This gives you control over the situation, gives you confidence and the customer will respect you

In this document you find the most common fabrics and their characteristics. This is useful for give care advice to customers and giving additional information about the how fabrics will behave and combine together.

Knitwear, Teflon, Lana, textured wool jackets and sumptuous silks. With all these different fabrics and techniques it is important to keep your knowledge up to date.
Start learning about our most used fabrics in this fabric guide. Don’t forget to pass this knowledge along to your customers, to make sure they will buy the right styles and also check the wash symbols to enjoy them for as long as possible.