Education
Education: Who needs Rug Education
Rug Event Managers
To serve as talkers/sellers of rugs
- Attend the Staff Training and Customer Seminar
- Watch the DVD many times
- Take the Online Training Sessions
Staff & Volunteers
To feel confident when talking and helping with the rugs, to become excited about the event and to become your first customers and customer evangelists, spreading the word to all they know about your rug event.
- Attend the Staff Training and Customer Seminar
- Watch the DVD many times
- Take the Online Training Sessions
Customers
To learn that our rugs are unique in quality and design and that the 850 lives of our Pakistani artisans and their families are changed through this job creation project.
- Attend the Customer Seminar
- Watch the DVD in the store or hand out a DVD to watch at home
Board Members
To give them ownership of this event, to give them the knowledge to be customer evangelists among their friends and communities and to prepare them to serve as volunteers during the event. Significant involvement by board members has a direct link to the success of a rug event!
- Attend the Staff Training and Customer Seminar
- Watch the DVD many times
- Take the Online Training Sessions
What happens at?
Online Training Sessions
- The Training Sessions are available in a PDF file format and can be accessed online. The Rug Event Manager should email the link for the Online Training Sessions to staff, volunteers and board members. It is recommended to bookmark the link for easy access for taking the training at their leisure.
- All store staff, volunteers and board members regardless of their rug event participation should read through sessions 1 (The Essence of Rug Events), 2 (The Rug Event in Progress) and 5 (Bunyaad Rug Types). It will increase the confidence in talking about the rug event prior and during the event.
- Staff, Volunteers and Board Members assigned to help with flipping rugs should also do session 4 (The Flipper) to learn how to assist the rug reps in working with rug customers.
- The Rug Event Manager/Store Manager and one other person assigned to talk about/sell rugs should do all five sessions. The training will cover topics from learning about the rug types to knowing how to approach a potential rug customer to leading the customer from looking at rugs to making a purchase.
Email The Online Training Sessions Link
Copy the link for the Online Staff Training and email to everyone planning to work at your rug event.
https://manual.bunyaad.org/wp-content/uploads/prep-training-sessions.pdf
Staff Training Seminar (45-60 min)
- Scheduled by your Rug Event Manager via the Rug Event Agreement and happens after unloading the rugs or an hour before the store opens on the first day of your event.
- All staff working at your event are required to attend this seminar. Gathering yearly to learn about new aspects of the rugs, ways of talking about them, and hints for handling the rugs makes for a unified approach to the customer. Volunteer attendance is encouraged.
- Focuses on the art of Oriental rug customer service, talks about the role of “talkers” and “flippers”, shows how to handle the rugs including removing a rug from its pile. Types of Oriental rugs are quickly explained, but are taught in more detail during the Intro to Oriental Rugs Evening for customers.
- Staff and volunteers should attend both the Staff Training Seminar and the Intro to Oriental Rugs Evening since their focus is very different.
Intro to Oriental Rugs DVD (15 min.)
Should be playing on the sales floor at all times since it does the following:
- Serves as an excellent conversation starter for customers who have interest but don’t know exactly what to ask.
- Allows customers to learn about this unbelievable process while sales associates assist other customers.
- Helps customers visualize how much work is involved in the production of the rugs and hence understand the price and the importance of fair trade.
- Helps customers visualize the quality that goes into each rug and the durability of rugs that can be washed with plastic bristle brushes and have wool fuzz burned off with a torch.
- Affirms your store as a rug education store.
Intro to Oriental Rugs Evening for Customers (60 min.)
- For events that are three days or longer.
- Scheduled by the Rug Event Manager via the Rug Event Agreement, usually on the evening of the first or second day of the rug event.
- Rug Rep shares how Oriental Rugs are made from dyeing the wool to tying the fringes and details how fairly traded rugs make a difference in the lives of Pakistani rug artisans. The many types of Oriental rugs we carry are discussed.
Answering phone inquiries about your rug event
Staff and volunteers should be instructed how to talk to phone customers about your Rug Event in a way that will best promote your event.
- Give a copy of responses below to staff and volunteers to become familiar with.
- Post these responses by the phone so staff can recall the main points.
I hear you are hosting an Oriental Rug Event at your store. Tell me more…
Yes, Ten Thousand Villages here in (location) will be (or currently is) hosting our annual Fair Trade Oriental Rug Event from (dates). We have approximately 300 Oriental rugs from our year round store in (name of year round store) with us during this time. Our rugs are heirloom quality, handknotted Oriental rugs made by fairly paid adult artisans in the villages of Pakistan.
We carry Persian, Bokhara and Tribal rugs in sizes ranging from 2’x 3′ to 10′ x 14′ and runners. You can learn about our rugs and view the inventory from which they are chosen before coming to our store at the rug website rugs.tenthousandvillages.com.
We will be having an Introduction to Oriental Rugs Seminar on (date) at (time). A rug representative from our main rug gallery at Ten Thousand Villages in Ephrata, PA, will explain how our rugs are made, their exceptional quality and the difference that fair trade makes in the lives of the rug artisans. You can make a reservation for this free seminar now or call us closer to the event.