How to Start Working at a Dispensary
Marijuana dispensary customers can spend almost their whole in-store time communicating with one of your employees, and this employee is called the Budtender. This position is one of the most crucial jobs in this establishment. The Budtender working at the dispensary should be impassioned about all things cannabis, have a great understanding and knowledge in this business, anda strong belief for giving amazing customer service - the customers will both notice and appreciate this.
The budtender is definitely a gratifying position in a dispensary because you are directly working one on one with customers to help with their needs. This specific job requires a great outlook for success and a strong work ethic for this high in demand business. If this is something that interests you for a career path, here are some suggestions on ways to enhance your abilities in the industry.
1) Having a great understanding of the products
Knowing from start to finish how cannabis is grown. Grabbing some books by reputable authors to gain any extra information you may not of known to better your knowledge. If you are looking into this as long time commitment you should invest time and money into yourself and career as it will only help you grow.
In this career mainly, you will need an exceptional understanding of products found in a dispensary, especially in the list below:
Do you know your how your competitors prices and what they have so you are able to better your establishment?
Can you tell the difference between your products?
Can you provide the best information for your patients?
How can you tell the potency or quality of strains?
Prior to requesting any kind of interview, make sure you are comfortable with everything that may get asked. You should be making sure you are fluent with all the dispensary has in stock for strains. Understanding what strain will help for each individual. You want to know as much as you can on top-selling products, since you will be dealing with this the most. Do some thorough research online for what customers may be asking about, take a look in the review section it can be very beneficial to see what exactly patients are asking and looking for. This is a great way to gain a good understanding so you are better equipped to answer questions if they come your way.
Go into dispensaries and talk to the budtendters to get a better understanding and pick their brain, it will only benefit you to see how the shoe is on the other foot. You will be able to get insider information or also see how you can do better as a budtender. Also you may want to brush up on some knowledge about genetics, be ready to identify the different smells, looks and medical purposes or different strains. Try to be prepared for anyr question that may come your way so I cannot stress enough about doing your research. When the time for your interview arrives make sure you find different ways to show off all your knowledge, after all you spend all that time researching for a reason. Finding ways to differentiate your self will make them feel confident that you are the best choice for this job.
2) You will want to say in the loop when new things arise.
As cannabis will always be a growing trend, especially with all the new technology in our world you will want to know all the new things on the market and the ones in the works. One of the best ways to follow the trend is to actually follow it, use social media and reading all the information out there on the web. Always keep educating yourself no matter how much knowledge you think you may have. The more you know about current things in daily society with the cannabis industry will only keep patients coming back to you and keep your employer happy. You will want to make sure to educate yourself in all the new ways to ingest cannabis, like extractions, concentrates and infused products. There are so many ways to have cannabis in your life, many customers will not know this so its great knowledge to have.
When doing research you should be looking into:
Advancement in product innovation- How cannabis will change our future products
Cannabidiol and its medical potential
Craft Cannabis- Similar to the custom beers
Keep updating yourself on a regular basis on the newest trends so you are always ready to help educate a customer on any new methods to help solve any questions they might have about the topic(s)
Some other points of discussions might be:
What is the environmental impact
How will cannabis continue to become more legitimized
Newest information on latest medical research
3) Making great impressions
Going back to when I said to go visit other Dispensaries and see how the budtenders work in there businesses, you want to take the best of what they had to offer and go beyond that. You want to make a great impression on all your customers so you continue to have return business and they spread the word. You as the budtender want to provide a personal touch to any of the information you give to your patients, this is key in helping the patient feel more comfortable with you and the options you are giving them. You want to have a good connection with them as they are looking to you for advice and knowledge, its best to keep your patients on a personal level with you so it is easier for them to share with you and you can better assist them with there needs. You can always share a personal store with your customers when necessary to make the conversation warm and welcoming.
Here are some examples that I can recommend:
"The other day I was dealing with a sore back and I tried this indica strain, and within 20 minutes I couldn't believe how much better I felt. I was able to accomplish all the house work I had that day!
"Last night I had this terrible headache and nothing would take it away until I had a few puffs of this sweet tasting sativa and it was gone in under 30 minutes."
I should mention when helping a customer decide on a product for them, you should be recommending the correct products based on their needs from the most accurate information given. You would not want to be pushing products on your patients when they do not need them as you may loose respect and credibility. Word of mouth travels fast, and you want it to always be a postive one so trying to make the store a few extra bucks at the end of the day may cost you a lot more in the end.
4) Be Careful With Budtender Certificates at this time
You will want to hold off on all the certification programs for a while until they are more popular and wide spread, due to it being such a new thing. Also none of these companies will be well known so it what you are paying for is knowledge that you can learn for free with the use of your computer and books for research. Another thing to consider if you are on the fence with gettting certified now would be that a lot of these companies do not prepare you for a job in the industry and just tend to provide you with some curriculum that has been known for years. Try researching, you will want to look into your top dispensaries you would want to be a part of, learn all there is about them. You will want to know where they get their knowledge from, what qualifications they require you to obtain, and what are their options for patients? Talk to owners or mangers about what the budtenders job exactly entails.
5) Try working yourself up in the company
Cannabis dispensary cashier
Starting off at the bottom isn't always a bad thing. It may be a great way for you to learn from the ground up. You will see everything that happens on a day to day basis and gain a lot of knowledge by just simply watching your budtender coworker(s) and how they work day to day. In this position as a cashier you will get to listen first-hand to the amazing customer service and words of wisdom from the budtenders being provided to each patient. You still want to perform at the best of your abilities so that when the next position opens up you will be the obvious choice for the job. Even as the cashier your research will never stop, you should always continue to better educate yourself with all different kinds of knowledge concepts, and trends. Another topic to always continue to educate yourself in would be the safest ways to use your smoking utensils or how to deal with different customers issues. Always keep a positive energetic attitude in this industry and you could see yourself in the position of budtender in no time!
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