When 550 employees across 14 store locations all speak the same language to customers, something remarkable happens. Just ask the team at Airbase Carpet & Tile Mart, who watched their Google reviews climb after implementing the Edge Experience Academy training program.

"We have 14 locations, 125 RSAs, and 300-plus employees,” said Michael Longwill, owner of Airbase Carpet & Tile Mart, which is a member of the National Floorcovering Alliance. "So, it is a major challenge to get everybody saying the right things, and what's unique about Airbase Carpet Mart, and how do we define that same language to the customer?"

The solution became clear to Longwill: "We needed something to get behind. We needed a message, we needed a banner, a flag, to really pull us all together, to engage us all, so we could take it to the next level."

He turned to Mohawk's Edge Experience Academy, a sales training program designed to enhance the skills of retail sales associates (RSAs) in the flooring industry. It aims to help RSAs meet the needs of modern consumers and elevate the floor-buying experience through a six-part virtual workshop series, leadership workshops, a learning guide, and a community roundtable.

To help define the Airbase message, Longwill participated in pre-training interviews conducted by Mohawk’s partner InnerView, a Pennsylvania-based consulting firm that helps brands translate customer strategies into simple, clear, and actionable plans for frontline teams to execute. 

The message—"available, affordable at your service"—became a unifying theme that all employees could rally behind. "We carried that internal marketing message through the whole training. So that's what really helped to tie it all together,” Longwill said. 

With 550 people to train, scheduling was a massive undertaking. The Edge Experience Academy began with an initial face-to-face introduction at one of Airbase's spring training sessions, followed by a comprehensive implementation across the company. The program featured six 60-minute live virtual workshops, specialized leadership workshops for managers and owners, printed and delivered participant learning guides, and post-training RSA community roundtables.

Tom Fletcher, general manager at Airbase, emphasized the program's reach: "Anyone who had a touch point with the customer, including our installers, went through this training on what they're responsible for, with the customer promise."

For retail sales associates, training is focused on the complete sales process, from greeting and qualifying to closing and execution. Product knowledge was handled in separate sessions. For installers, the training established clear expectations, including greetings, reviewing paperwork, and ensuring customer satisfaction. 

James Bowers, a salesman at Airbase, appreciated the collaborative approach: "I thought it was good to go in there with your peers and kind of see how they handled situations, going through role plays and handling objections and the anatomy of how you handle a sale, and maybe polish up your own skills. You know, you're always looking to get better at what you do, right?"

Jerry Dillon, another salesman at Airbase, observed the impact on his colleagues: "All my coworkers who went into it with an open mind, I saw every one of them take something away from it. Most of the sessions were through Zoom, but you could still see everybody, and I feel like during every session, something was said, and you could see them light up. Maybe this is a different way to go about something I already have been doing."

The impact became evident through tangible metrics, most notably in the steady improvement of Google five-star reviews. This wasn't just about providing good service—something every business claims to do—but about approaching customer interactions from a fundamentally different perspective. The Edge Experience Academy sparked those crucial "light bulb moments" among team members, where fresh insights transformed into elevated service quality.

Looking forward, Longwill said he plans to continue with the program. With 10 new salespeople already on board, he's now figuring out how to integrate them into the Edge Experience Academy. 

When asked if he would recommend the program to other retailers, Longwill's answer was immediate: "Absolutely.”