The Sands Retail Academy held its sixth graduation ceremony Thursday at the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip. The event recognised the latest group of Sands Shoppes retail employees to complete the customer service training programme – aimed at improving the quality of service at Sands Shoppes in order to enhance customers’ shopping experiences.
The Sands Retail Academy was launched in 2013 to offer complimentary training to retail professionals at Sands Shoppes – the interconnected group of malls comprised of Shoppes at Four Seasons, Shoppes at Venetian, Shoppes at Cotai Central, and Shoppes at Parisian, which together feature over 850 retailers.
For this year’s training, the academy focused on its service programme and introduced Sands China’s Because We Care corporate service culture to the participating retailers. Initially designed for Sands China staff to better internalise and implement the company’s service culture, Because We Care is now part of the academy’s training and expands Sands China’s award-winning customer service standards to its retail partners.
The new Because We Care course modules include themes that cover all aspects of customer service, and teach employees to better understand their guests while training them to resolve daily challenges quickly and effectively.
The Sands Retail Academy is the result of a collaborative effort between Sands Retail and Sands China Ltd.’s human resources department, and is one of the initiatives of the Sands China Academy – a programme focused on the career development of both Sands China team members and local Macau talent, including those employed by Sands China’s retail partners.
The academy aims to improve the service quality of the retail industry in Macau by providing training to employees of Sands Shoppes’ retailers. The retail sector is key to the success of Macau’s tourism industry, and retail employees play an important role in providing quality services to visitors as Macau continues its development as a world centre of tourism and leisure. The more than 850 retailers at Sands Shoppes are significant components in visitors’ shopping experiences, with nearly 74 million visits to Sands China properties in 2016.
Over 250 frontline retail employees – representing more than 70 retailers – graduated at Thursday’s ceremony, after having successfully completed their training programmes.
“Sands China is very pleased to see our sixth group of graduates complete the academy’s programme,” said Antonio Ramirez, senior vice president of human resources for Sands China Ltd. “Our goal is to provide training and knowledge for the employees of our retailers, to help them better serve the needs of their customers. Besides helping them offer outstanding customer service, the academy helps develop their careers by increasing their skills. The Sands Retail Academy remains an important part of Sands China’s long-term commitment to developing local talent in Macau, by nurturing locals who are not direct employees of Sands China.”
