Phone Call Leads to National Partnership
An entry by Bill Singleton
In July 2016, I was four months into my “retirement” as a police officer of 19 years when we received a training inquiry. I had seen hundreds of training inquiries during my 5 years with Vistelar, but this one was different.
It was the National Retail Federation.
They wanted us to conduct a de-escalation workshop at their annual NRF Protect conference (June 26-28, 2017 in Washington DC). Vistelar has trained in almost every market and profession, but the scope of this was enormous. I knew I had to call them immediately.
I dialed the phone and began speaking with the Vice President of Loss Prevention, Bob Moraca. I instantly felt a connection with Bob and stopped thinking about this inquiry as a “task” or “job”, but more like a project that needed viable solutions.
The problem – aggression had increased in the retail industry and loss prevention was asking for conflict management training program to help intervene and prevent further discord.
Bob and I started talking regularly on the phone and quickly began to put a plan into action. As our partnership grew, a friendship started to develop and soon we were putting the final touches on what will be a great 2017 NRF Protect Conference.
With the help of Bob, the NRF and his colleagues, Vistelar is unveiling a new manual, a live conflict management workshop for loss prevention, and a new two-hour loss prevention online course (complete with video scenarios all related to retail).
We’ve never had a partnership to this extent. And I’ve never had a friendship like this before. On June 26th, the world will be introduced to Vistelar’s training and I will finally get to meet my good friend, Bob. We are truly grateful and we’re looking forward to it. We will see you June 26-28th in Washington DC!