Every time a customer approaches a staff member with a technical question about a project they’re working on, your team starts a delicate tightrope walk.
Do they spend 15 minutes giving the customer a free sewing or knitting lesson… or do they try to direct the customer toward taking a workshop or class to learn instead? Customers expect expert advice on the spot — but when your team gives away too much for free, your craft class enrollment and team productivity on the floor both suffer.
On the flip side, if you’re too rigid with your boundaries, customers will feel brushed off and annoyed.
Your staff needs to balance teaching, selling, and setting limits without frustrating the customers they’re trying to serve. This guide walks through the ins and outs of craft store customer service, giving you the information you need to train your team to teach and sell the right way.
Craft store customer service isn’t the same as helping someone find the right size jeans. Your customers come into your store hoping to create something. They have half-finished quilts, failed knitting projects, or Pinterest inspiration photos they want help with on the spot.
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Your staff aren't just ringing up sales. They're answering questions about fabric grain direction, paint compatibility, and which needle works with which thread. When they accept a role in your shop, they become de facto consultants.
While customers value your staff’s expertise, the tricky piece is that they often expect it for free. It’s not uncommon for a customer to walk in and spend 20 minutes getting troubleshooting advice at the register… then leave without buying anything or signing up for a class.
Traditional retail customer service training doesn't prepare staff for situations like these. Most programs focus on product knowledge and checkout procedures, not on how to be helpful without giving away the store's instructional value.
Let’s dive into the details of how your staff can provide helpful customer service without giving away all the knowledge and instruction at no cost.
First, you need to train your staff on your product catalog — but expecting your staff to memorize the specs for thousands of items is unrealistic. You have way too many options and types of craft supplies for any staff member to reasonably know every stat on every item.
The solution is to build reference systems that make key information accessible to your staff when they need it. Here are some quick-access tools to create for your team:
You should keep one-page reference sheets for each major product category at registers, too. Include common questions, compatibility issues, and key selling points. You can also use an advanced point of sale (POS) system to mark compatibility guidelines and usage instructions directly in your inventory management tool for easy reference.
Next, assign category experts among your staff. Instead of expecting everyone to know everything, dedicate some staff as fabric experts, some as paint specialists, and some as paper craft experts. Other staff members can use your quick-access tools to field basic questions, then defer more complex issues or inquiries to the dedicated expert in that category.
Pro tip: 20% of your products generate 80% of your sales (and customer questions). Focus most of your training on your top sellers. Every staff member should be familiar with your most popular items inside and out.
You want your staff to be helpful and courteous to every customer. You don’t want your staff to spend half of their shift giving a free tutorial on beginner quilting techniques. If you want to maintain a healthy class enrollment and keep your checkout lines moving, you need to give your staff the skills and permission to set boundaries politely.
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Here are a few tips for language staff can use when questions get a bit too technical:
A good trick for your staff is to tell them to think of their on-the-floor teaching as a movie trailer, and your class offerings are the movie. This helps staff better understand when they feel like the line is being crossed.
You can also give your staff some rough time limits. They can give a basic demonstration or lesson if it’s five minutes or less, but if it’s any longer than that, it’s time to redirect to classes or schedule one-on-one training if you offer it.
Pro tip: If you have an all-in-one POS system for craft stores, your staff can pull up your craft class schedule and enroll them right at the register while the conversation is still warm.
The challenge with offering advice and tips to customers is that, sooner or later, a customer will come back to your store claiming that their project is ruined because of the advice your staff gave them. Even if your team gave them solid advice, crafting is too nuanced to guarantee outcomes.
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So, you need to train your staff to protect themselves and your store by using “suggestion-only” language. Here are some sample phrases that set appropriate expectations:
You can also document common problems and script standard responses for your team so everyone handles similar situations consistently. This approach protects everyone when a customer claims they received different advice from different staff members.
Remember: Your staff are salespeople with craft knowledge, not professional consultants. You should help them identify when they can offer help and when they should redirect customers to a class or another resource.
Simple supply questions like “which glue bonds best with this fabric?” are perfect for direct answers. Technique problems like issues with uneven stitches are great opportunities to suggest class enrollment or other resources.
Pro tip: Your craft POS system’s customer purchase history shows exactly what supplies were bought and when. If someone claims they bought the wrong product based on staff advice, you have a clear record of the actual transaction to keep everyone accountable to the truth.
Finally, you need to train your staff to do more than teach — they need to know how to sell! Upselling is an incredible way to boost sales and basket sizes and, if done correctly, provide more value to your customers. But for upselling to feel helpful rather than pushy, you need the right data.
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Helpful upselling isn’t just a transparent attempt to make more money. It shows your staff pays attention to your customer and gives them the opportunity to get even more value out of their purchase and their project.
Start by training your staff to ask project-based questions, like:
The answers to these questions give your staff the context they need to make genuinely helpful suggestions instead of just hocking random add-ons.
Related Read: Why Generic POS Systems Fail Craft Stores: 7 Problems & Solutions
But the best suggestions come from more than conversation. You want to use your POS system to track customer purchase history and identify patterns to make more informed suggestions. If a customer buys fabric regularly, you can use that data to alert them about new seasonal collections. If a customer recently attended a class or workshop, recommend supplies that fit their new skill level.
The key to using customer purchase history is to keep it natural. Use point of sale data to inform suggestions, not to recite someone's purchase history back to them. Nobody wants to hear, "I see you bought pink ribbon on October 3rd."
Pro tip: Create "if they bought this, suggest that" pairing lists for common project types to give your staff tried-and-true upselling or cross-selling suggestions.
Many retailers do one-and-done customer service training. That approach doesn’t cut it in craft store customer service. Your inventory changes, new trends bring up new customer questions, and your class and workshop offerings are always shifting. Your staff needs ongoing support to stay sharp.
Make ongoing training a regular rhythm with weekly 15-minute huddles covering:
You can also take advantage of your on-staff expertise by pairing experienced staff with new hires on the floor so they can learn great habits on the fly. Use an arts and crafts point of sale system like Rain POS to identify your top performers so you know your best staff are the ones passing on their knowledge, not just your longest-standing team members.
Pro tip: Send your staff to your own classes. When they experience that beginning quilter frustration or paint-mixing confusion firsthand, they connect with customers differently and can better recommend the appropriate class.
Top-notch customer service walks a fine line between knowledge sharing and giving away everything for free. Following this guide, you should be able to strike a balance between setting solid boundaries and maintaining a helpful face for frustrated customers on the floor.
Remember: You don’t just want to help one customer one time. You want to build long-term relationships with the right customers across repeat shopping trips and class enrollments. Sometimes, the most helpful thing a staff member can do for a confused customer is direct them to the class that solves their problem.
If you want to get the most out of this guide and your customer service efforts, you need the right tools. Instead of trying to make staff memorize your entire product catalog and hunt down class listings in a manual spreadsheet while they’re trying to run the checkout, invest in an all-in-one craft store POS solution that manages it all.
Ready to give your team what they need to teach and sell effectively? Build and price your ideal Rain POS solution today.