Customers that frequent cannabis dispensaries expect a lot from budtenders, whether they know it or not.
A dispensary can have all the variety of flower and products imaginable, but a bad budtender can ruin the experience and greatly affect whether the customer comes back or not.
A great budtender does more than just facilitate the customer’s purchase. They go above and beyond with their level of customer service and also serve as a resource to customers.
Below are a handful of things that all budtenders should know and/or be mindful of to help ensure that they are serving their customer base to the best of their ability.
1) Compliance is vital
Budtenders operate in one of the most highly regulated industries on the planet. Even one poor decision can be disastrous.
When a budtender plays fast and loose with compliance rules and regulations, they don’t just put their own career in jeopardy, they also put the dispensary itself in jeopardy.
If a dispensary gets its license suspended or gets shut down because of a bonehead budtender it obviously affects safe access to legal cannabis or at the very least customers’ abilities to make purchases at their preferred outlet.
This is exactly why so many cannabis dispensaries and people who desire to become budtenders are going through the online Sell-SMaRT™ Certificate Program to effectively cover all the bases in local compliance laws and regulations.
2) Beef up your knowledge about terpenes
For many years cannabis has been categorized as either being sativa, indica, or a hybrid and also by a strain name. That is changing.
A growing movement within the cannabis industry is starting to categorize cannabis based off of terpene profiles given their different effects.
Effective budtenders should know what all of the major terpenes are, what types of effects they are associated with, and what profiles are in the products they sell if possible.
3) You are the face of the cannabis industry
When most cannabis consumers in legal states think of someone in the cannabis industry in their area, they often think of budtenders.
Budtenders come into contact with cannabis consumers at a much higher frequency than other positions in the industry.
Because of that fact, budtenders must always be mindful that they need to be good stewards of the cannabis plant and all those that depend on the industry that surrounds it.
4) Budtenders greatly influence the knowledge of cannabis consumers
Budtenders serve as a cannabis information resource for their customer bases.
When a budtender is interacting with a customer and sharing cannabis information, it could be the first time that the customer ever heard about that information, or had never heard it in that way.
Budtenders need to always be learning more about the cannabis plant – cannabis studies, cannabis news, cannabis activism, all of it.
5) Balance providing information without being too overbearing
Budtenders are largely in the business of sales. It’s not a secret that dispensaries have a lot of products to sell, and that some products need a little more selling strategy than others.
When customers go into a dispensary they often want to know about the latest and greatest flower and products, but only to a point.
A budtender that is obviously more interested in their commission than what the customer actually wants is a huge turnoff to customers. Always keep that in mind.
6) Respecting privacy
Cannabis consumers in legal states have more freedom now from a cannabis policy standpoint than they have since cannabis was originally prohibited decades ago.
With that being said, not everyone wants to have their cannabis dispensary experience broadcasted to just anyone. It could be due to work, medical condition concerns, or a number of other factors.
Always be professional when working as a budtender, both when you are on the clock and when you are off the clock!
