6 Traits Of A Quality Budtender

Good help is hard to find. 

There is a kernel of truth in that thought regardless of whether you are hiring someone to run a lemonade stand, frame homes, or work as a budtender behind the counter of your dispensary.

However, there are great employees out there, and we recently covered what you can do as a hiring manager or organization to hire great budtenders for your dispensary. So today, we’re going to shift focus to identifying and promoting the kinds of natural and nurtured skills, habits, and goals common to virtually every great budtender.

Whether scanning for clues as to who might make the best hire out of a current list of budtender applicants or used as a reference for identifying potential leaders and core employees for the future, the following list is a great place to begin.

To learn more about how to take your star budtenders to the next level through informative, accessible, and dynamic online cannabis education software, visit the Learn Brands website to discover the power of our university-grade cannabis learning management system or to request a free demo.

Having a Great Attitude

While this might come across as picking the low-hanging fruit, it’s also going to be at the top of almost everyone’s list for a reason.

Before your team of budtenders, managers, and other staff show up to start the day, your dispensary is just a store. And while lighting, vibrant marketing, and the daily playlist all contribute to a bit of the ambiance, things don’t really come to life until your staff arrives.

The best budtenders bring positive, welcoming energy to the sales floor that helps your customers feel invited, seen, and cared about. Over time, customers and budtenders may even get to know each other and develop personal relationships that are tangible and rewarding — something that other customers see and take note of.

Bringing this kind of awesome energy day-in-and-day-out isn’t easy for people either — it takes self-awareness and resiliency to show up ready to serve others with a smile regardless of what personal people face. So, remember to notice and celebrate budtenders who make your dispensary a more enjoyable place to spend time and do business.

Providing Top-Notch Customer Service

To piggyback on the importance and power of having a great attitude, we next look at budtenders who excel at creating a great customer experience throughout the entire purchasing process. 

Cordial greetings, smiles and laughter, and the personal investments made by your team of budtenders matter so much for creating a first impression and welcoming environment, but the kind of customer service that can win you return business can come in a variety of other forms.

How well do your budtenders actively listen to what a customer is looking for? How often do they ask follow-up questions to ensure they understand the customer’s needs and wants? How often do they know and execute the best practices and policies you have in place for taking care of customers who are in an elevated state due to some perceived problem with a service or product?

Another important question is what are you doing to help develop these skills in your team of budtenders? 

While some people are inclined to perform well in challenging situations with customers, training will not only help them execute, but it will also help them feel supported — encouraging your top talent to see value in continuing to work and grow as a member of your team.

Learn Brands can help you retain your best budtenders by providing a platform where you can offer training and support for everything from generic cannabis education classes to compliance training to custom-designed modules designed to provide training specific to your dispensary and practices.

Being Reliable

To offer great customer service, however, your team has to be reliably present. 

Have you ever known an employee who was pretty great when they were on the clock but who had a tendency to last-minute call out or require short-notice flexibility around shifts? It’s a trait that can actually make life harder for everyone else.

Budtenders who are reliable and offer good communication about absences, time off, and other personal needs are acting out of respect for your business, other employees, and even your customers.  

This is a trait that should be fostered, discussed, and appreciated when demonstrated by members of your team.

Possessing A Wealth of Product Knowledge

In a rapidly evolving marketplace with rapidly evolving regulations, your dispensary must constantly work to provide an enjoyable, customer-centered experience authored by knowledgeable budtenders who can act as the on-site expert for everything from flower to concentrate to new extraction techniques.

Many budtenders are passionate learners and cannabis advocates by their own nature, but to really excel beyond the competition, your team will need to have access to cannabis brand and product education to keep up with all the changes, innovations, and new products you’re bringing into your dispensary.

With over 300 brands and more than 2,000 dispensaries already using our online cannabis LMS, Learn Brands is well-positioned to help elevate your team’s product knowledge and training beyond the standard brand rep visits with consistent, accessible, and customizable courses.

Being Receptive To Coaching And Professional Development

Having the right tool — like a robust online cannabis learning platform — can be critical to the professional development of your budtending team. But, identifying employees with the tendency to be coachable and take feedback is just as valuable to invest in.

People who are willing to self-evaluate and work on improvement in both their personal and professional lives are much rarer to find than those who exhibit great attitudes, and they are almost always key targets for long-term development and employee stability within your organization.

Take special note of budtenders who invest in their training, celebrate others’ achievements, and set and attain professional goals for themselves — these are the people who can truly help your business thrive over the long haul. 

Driving To Exceed Expectations

Another person to be on the lookout for is the over-achiever. Over-achievers are often self-confident, self-motivated, self-starter types who can really be difference makers at any level of your organization, regardless of where they start.

This trait can be strong in some people — those who always feel they need to prove themselves — or milder — those who take pride in refining a team process everyone can benefit from. But, they will always be best when found in tandem with coachability.

Employees who really work hard at going above and beyond can — despite their intentions — alienate other team members by appearing to want to always receive credit, being perceived as promotion hunters, or by making others feel like doing the job well, but not excellently, isn’t good enough.

By no means do we suggest being wary of this trait in your budtenders, but rather, we encourage you to identify it and then support that staff member in ways that help them lift up the whole team — not just themselves. Typically, you’ll find them very receptive to being encouraged to grow into legitimate leaders in this way.

Learn More About How Learn Brands Can Help Grow Your Budtenders

At Learn Brands, we specialize in helping budtenders grow through the power of our online cannabis LMS. 

Whether in the form of our responsible vendor training courses or coordinating with a client to develop personalized training for their onboarding, general education, or brand-specific needs, we’re to help support and develop the budtenders who are the crux of your business. 

Contact us today to learn more.