Best Buy image. Went shopping for a new laptop last weekend at Best Buy. Over the years, I have avoided Best Buy because it’s too big and sometimes too loud and because the help doesn’t always know what they’re talking about. Truth is I don’t like big box stores in general. I miss the small, more specialized, more personable shops (and shopkeepers) that used to populate our towns and cities.
But if I want a wide variety of laptops to select from – at least in Piedmont North Carolina, there is no choice other than to frequent Best Buy, or one of the office boxes.
So there we were, two somewhat older, would-be Best Buy customers wandering around trying to figure which laptop from a mind-numbing array of choices would best suit my wife. Within minutes, a young guy in a blue Best Buy shirt appeared, briefly inquired about our needs and said he’d find someone to help us out – a positive start! Then he (and apparently his helper) … disappeared. Later, after having selected an HP laptop totally on our own, he approached us again as we sauntered over to the camera department and went through the same routine again, not realizing that he had spoken to us fifteen minutes earlier.
In the camera department, I asked another blue-shirt about a specific Canon product that they were likely to have in stock considering the price range of cameras already on display. “No,” the clerk said. “We don’t have that one.” He wandered off.
Hmmm …
Then I turned around, and there – at eye level on an end cap display – was the camera I’d inquired about in all its promotional glory!
The clerk came back. I pointed out the display. He seemed genuinely shocked. Then said that the camera department “expert” would be back from lunch in a few minutes and that we should hang around and talk to him. We did. He didn’t. After a while, the clerk returned with news that the expert wasn’t actually working that day and that we should come back during the week.
Hmmm …
So on to checkout. Only one register open, and there was a line. After a while, it was our turn. The young woman behind the register acted bored beyond hope and asked far too many pre-programmed questions, which was one reason the line moved so slowly. After completing our single-item transaction, her final note of disdain was to mutter “Thank you, have a great day” in a tone that made me want to dope-slap her (or her manager, or his/her manager, or the president of the company).
One miscue I can handle, but five?
1. The disappearing greeter, Part I.
2. The disappearing greeter, Part II.
3. The uninformed camera clerk.
4. The missing expert.
5. The disappointing checkout.
But if I want a wide variety of laptops to select from – at least in Piedmont North Carolina, there is no choice other than to frequent Best Buy, or one of the office boxes.
So there we were, two somewhat older, would-be Best Buy customers wandering around trying to figure which laptop from a mind-numbing array of choices would best suit my wife. Within minutes, a young guy in a blue Best Buy shirt appeared, briefly inquired about our needs and said he’d find someone to help us out – a positive start! Then he (and apparently his helper) … disappeared. Later, after having selected an HP laptop totally on our own, he approached us again as we sauntered over to the camera department and went through the same routine again, not realizing that he had spoken to us fifteen minutes earlier.
In the camera department, I asked another blue-shirt about a specific Canon product that they were likely to have in stock considering the price range of cameras already on display. “No,” the clerk said. “We don’t have that one.” He wandered off.
Hmmm …
Then I turned around, and there – at eye level on an end cap display – was the camera I’d inquired about in all its promotional glory!
The clerk came back. I pointed out the display. He seemed genuinely shocked. Then said that the camera department “expert” would be back from lunch in a few minutes and that we should hang around and talk to him. We did. He didn’t. After a while, the clerk returned with news that the expert wasn’t actually working that day and that we should come back during the week.
Hmmm …
So on to checkout. Only one register open, and there was a line. After a while, it was our turn. The young woman behind the register acted bored beyond hope and asked far too many pre-programmed questions, which was one reason the line moved so slowly. After completing our single-item transaction, her final note of disdain was to mutter “Thank you, have a great day” in a tone that made me want to dope-slap her (or her manager, or his/her manager, or the president of the company).
One miscue I can handle, but five?
1. The disappearing greeter, Part I.
2. The disappearing greeter, Part II.
3. The uninformed camera clerk.
4. The missing expert.
5. The disappointing checkout.
HEY BEST BUY People, IT SHOULDN'T Be That Difficult!
Best Buy had five chances to shine but muffed them all. Sure, the company is having trouble finding its way in a world that’s getting more expansive on one hand (think Amazon.com) and more specialized on the other (think Apple stores). If they don’t reinvent themselves – and soon, upstart competitors, including those yet to emerge, will eat their lunch and their dinner.
Best Buy Takes Off.
The Best Buy merchandising concept emerged in the late ‘70s after the owner of a small chain of Minnesota stereo shops discovered the power of discounting following a store fire. Five years later, the enterprise was renamed Best Buy and took off like it was being chased by the future, with innovative store formats and ever more product categories, including appliances. By 1992 they were a billion dollar company and expanding nationally as more and more personal technology came on line to sell. With more than 600 stores in the U.S., Best Buy glided into the Millennium as if nothing could slow their inevitability. By 2007, they were in China – with eyes on other international locations.
But pervasive market change had begun chewing away at their success, including online gaming, music streaming, online merchandising and (of late) software migration to the cloud. Strategic disruptor Amazon.com sold their first book online in 1995. And reached a billion dollars by 2001. Today, they’re busily selling the everything from A-Z that Jeff Bezos envisioned from the start.
But pervasive market change had begun chewing away at their success, including online gaming, music streaming, online merchandising and (of late) software migration to the cloud. Strategic disruptor Amazon.com sold their first book online in 1995. And reached a billion dollars by 2001. Today, they’re busily selling the everything from A-Z that Jeff Bezos envisioned from the start.
The Wachovia Personal Banker.
Years ago -- centuries in terms of business change, Wachovia Bank rolled out their Personal Banker concept. It paired customers with a branch banker who stuck around instead of rotating into the next training slot, as seemed the usual banking custom. “You Have a Personal Banker at Wachovia,” proclaimed their tagline. It was true. And it worked! For a long time.
There were two keys to the success of Personal Banker:
(1) It maximized (and managed) the customer experience: created value by creating valuable relationships.
(2) It was authentic. Wachovia delivered on their promise, day in and day out.
But what about Best Buy? They clearly need a fresh approach, perhaps one as bold and innovative as the concept that first set them apart. However, instead of looking to selection, scope and scale (even price) for differentiation, there may be strategic ground to be gained in activating their sales culture.
There were two keys to the success of Personal Banker:
(1) It maximized (and managed) the customer experience: created value by creating valuable relationships.
(2) It was authentic. Wachovia delivered on their promise, day in and day out.
But what about Best Buy? They clearly need a fresh approach, perhaps one as bold and innovative as the concept that first set them apart. However, instead of looking to selection, scope and scale (even price) for differentiation, there may be strategic ground to be gained in activating their sales culture.
Power To The People.
Like Wachovia Bank did so effectively with Personal Bankers, people power can be let loose relatively quickly and provide an enduring source of competitive advantage. Under this scenario, Best Buy would hire (and retain) a top tier of professional sales consultants whose primary mission is to create valuable customer relationships, product knowledge experts who have been granted the autonomy to give their loyal customers set-apart service (essentially an expansion of Best Buy’s Geek Squad concept). The consultants would be amply rewarded, based on metrics like better conversion, more frequent purchases by “their” customers, increased average transactions, time in grade, etc., and newer employees would aspire to join their ranks. Customer satisfaction and repeat business would skyrocket. Service complaints would begin fading away.
Transforming Best Buy’s sales culture into a high performance human asset may sound like a stretch. But even if the idea were only moderately successful, it beats the heck out of the errors, ignorance and indifference that pervaded our recent Best Buy laptop shopping experience. And it certainly would give the company a long-term competitive advantage worth shouting about.
To be fair, Renew Blue, a Best Buy performance improvement initiative designed (in part) to “reinvigorate and rejuvenate the customer experience” has been underway for just over a year. But for the moment, these two Best Buy shoppers are in no hurry to come back -- although when the new laptop breaks, we’ll be first in line to check out the Geek Squad.
TakeAway: Differentiate your business, brand or product in a meaningful and enduring way. Create value by creating valuable relationships. Reward the people who make it happen. Then tell the marketplace about your success – instead of letting it shape you. People will want to be your customers. And will return again and again.
© Brian E. Faulkner.
Related posts:
www.brianefaulkner.com/1/post/2014/01/minimum-wage-should-be-stricken-from-our-business-vocabulary.html
www.brianefaulkner.com/1/post/2014/02/mr-grumpy-gets-his-due.html
Transforming Best Buy’s sales culture into a high performance human asset may sound like a stretch. But even if the idea were only moderately successful, it beats the heck out of the errors, ignorance and indifference that pervaded our recent Best Buy laptop shopping experience. And it certainly would give the company a long-term competitive advantage worth shouting about.
To be fair, Renew Blue, a Best Buy performance improvement initiative designed (in part) to “reinvigorate and rejuvenate the customer experience” has been underway for just over a year. But for the moment, these two Best Buy shoppers are in no hurry to come back -- although when the new laptop breaks, we’ll be first in line to check out the Geek Squad.
TakeAway: Differentiate your business, brand or product in a meaningful and enduring way. Create value by creating valuable relationships. Reward the people who make it happen. Then tell the marketplace about your success – instead of letting it shape you. People will want to be your customers. And will return again and again.
© Brian E. Faulkner.
Related posts:
www.brianefaulkner.com/1/post/2014/01/minimum-wage-should-be-stricken-from-our-business-vocabulary.html
www.brianefaulkner.com/1/post/2014/02/mr-grumpy-gets-his-due.html
ABOUT Brian Faulkner:
Brian Faulkner is a Key Message expert. He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most. His strategic insights, and the words that go with them, have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies. He thrives on strategic communication problem solving, complex subjects, new ideas, concepts-as-products, challenging marketing situations and demanding deadlines. His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage.
Brian also is a three-time Emmy award winning Public Television writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular Our State magazine series, on the air since 2003.
Brian also is a three-time Emmy award winning Public Television writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular Our State magazine series, on the air since 2003.
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