Top 5 Qualities of a Good BudTender

A good budtender is like the unsung hero of the cannabis industry.  They act as a source of information, as a friend, as a referral source.  Who you meet a good bud tender you never want to deal with anyone else.  They become a trusted guide who tells you about all the best products and makes wise recommendations about consumption.  But experiences with budtenders can be hit and miss, even within the same dispensary.  So, what is it that makes a all the difference between a simply transactional person who works in a dispensary, and a really quality budtender?  We have boiled it down to 5 key qualities of a good budtender:

1. Familiar with the products in the store

When you go into a dispensary, you hope to be speaking with someone who knows about the products which they are selling.  Nothing is more frustrating than an “I don’t know” to every question you ask about products in the cases and on the shelves.  The best dispensaries have great training programs and make sure that their budtenders have time to get acquainted with new products.

2. Knowledgeable about cannabis itself

Education is crucial when it comes to consuming cannabis products, and many people look to their bud tenders as experts.  There is so much information online that it can get overwhelming for consumers.  So, having the ability to get direct information from a bud tender is a comfortable option for many consumers.  Any budtender should at least have an intimate understanding about terpenes, cannabinoids, and THC tolerances, in order to act as a competent guide for cannabis consumers.

3. Personable

A good budtender is pleasant to interact with.  They make eye contact, they’re pleasantly conversational, and sometimes they even remember your name.  Some dispensaries make the mistake of hiring budtenders based only on their level of experience with cannabis, and forget that personality and sales skills are also some key factors of the budtending  job.

4. Employment longevity

Customers like building rapport with an employee they can trust.  A good bud tender sticks around, and good budtenders who stick around are majorly valuable to a dispensary. Over time, they will build up a clientele that visits that dispensary just for them.  In this industry,  there are always new opportunities popping up, so loyalty to an employer is golden.

5. Gentle Sales

Nothing is quite as disappointing as buyers remorse on a seriously expensive cannabis product.  A good budtender has sales skills and uses those skills to guide customers to the right products for them, and to really inform consumers about products. But, a good budtender knows never to push you further than you want to go or guilt you into a purchase.  Knowing boundaries, and making the interaction comfortable for the consumer is their key priority, and they know that with those two factors in place, sales occur naturally abundantly because people love to buy cannabis products!