Bradfords staff get hands-on to build skills

Staff from the Bradfords Group were laying the foundations of great customer service by getting their hands dirty at a practical training session in Weston Super Mare last week. Ten staff from the Weston Super Mare branch were schooled in the arts of brickwork, fencing, rendering and slab laying to foster a deeper understanding of Bradfords products and services.

The Bradfords Group is famed for its customer service, rooted in the breadth and depth of its employees’ knowledge of the building trade. Staff in Bradfords stores are on hand to offer advice to builders and tradesmen about new building materials and trusted tools of the trade – all thanks to their extensive insight developed in-store.

One major aspect of the day was learning about how alternative value-added solutions can both help save customers both time and money.

The day of building, laying, banging and lifting was part of the Blue Circle Building Excellence Training Programme. Cement company and supplier to Bradfords, Blue Circle works in partnership with the Builders’ Merchant to offer training days like this. It is one of a variety of courses run by the partners and helps keep Bradford’s employees on top form to help everyone from specifiers and architects to painters and decorators, construction companies to DIYers and everyone in between.

David Young, Managing Director of the Bradfords Group, said: “This just one of many great initiatives across Bradfords to ensure our staff are able to give invaluable insight and advice to customers, whatever their background. You cannot underestimate how important these kind of schemes are. Why should any professional in the building trade worth his salt take advice from someone who has never even held a hammer or laid a brick? We take great pride in our hands-on approach at Bradfords and, as a result, are able to give some of the best practical advice on materials in our market.  I’m really proud of how the team performed on the day and they seemed to really enjoy it. Most of all, I’d like to thank Blue Circle for their fantastic support and their faith in our philosophy that by helping our customers, we help ourselves.”