Innovation is the fuel that powers a company’s growth. At Best Buy we provide several outlets for our employees and customers to give us their innovate ideas as well as point out gaps in their experience. Since my team moderates and engages with customers on most of the company’s customer-facing online tools, we are able to compile a snapshot of customer sentiment, ideas and challenges on a weekly basis which is provided to a variety of business teams. Additionally, all customer service related issues are reported monthly to corporate, territory, district and store leadership. Individual customer issues as well as aggregate sentiment is leveraged by business teams to enhance the company and the customer experience. I am often asked to offer some specific instances the Community has impacted the Best Buy business. Here are a few:
Company Policy Change
In August 2009, customers on the Best Buy Community and Reward Zone Community reported that when they went into the Miami market to purchase iPhones, employees told them they were sold out because the store had just sold multiple non-activated phones to another customer. Since I previously worked with mobile sales, I knew that within the cellular industry bulk sales of non-activated phones were generally prohibited. I investigated and discovered that Best Buy did not at that time have a policy prohibiting this behavior. Once I alerted the Miami market to the posts made by our customers, I was informed they struggled with inventory supply because they believed there were exporters coming to their store and buying their inventory for re-sale in other countries. Since I am originally from South Florida, I was familiar with the situation they were describing. Besides the individual Best Buy customer disappoints we were unintentionally creating, from a business perspective we were losing revenue due to selling non-activated phones. Because this issue posted publically on our community, I was easily able to show corporate and territory partners that this issue was a pain point for our customers. Through partnership, within about two weeks Best Buy was able to effect a policy change that prevented the bulk sales of non-activated phones in the territory this was occurring. This was a tremendous win for customers seeking to purchase cell phones from Best Buy and from a business perspective, a revenue win for the Best Buy Mobile team.
Product Development
In 2008, Best Buy introduced our Blue Label line of laptops which are built based on customer feedback. You spoke. We listened. In 2009, new Blue Label laptop models were introduced. We continue to invite customers to provide feedback for the next generation of Blue Label laptops. On this Community we have a Blue Label board dedicated for feedback on Blue Label products. Feedback is provided to the Blue Label business team for their evaluation and potential implementation.
Firmware
Firmware is often a difficult technology concept for customers to understand. We noticed several customer questions about firmware on the Best Buy Community, Insignia Community, Twitter and other online communities. To help customers understand what firmware is and how to update it, we created a video that addresses there common customer questions. To date, the video has been viewed over three thousand times.
Computer Issue
Recently, through posts on our Best Buy Community as well as the Lenovo Community (a non-Best Buy community), we realized that a few customers may have received computers without Bluetooth capability. In partnership with the Best Buy buying team and Lenovo, we were able to identify a solution for customers. This was communicated to customers in both communities.
Insignia Ideas Engine
Insignia is one of Best Buy’s exclusive brands. To invite customers to share feedback and suggestions on products development, the Insignia team gathers ideas through their Insignia Ideas Engine and their Innovate with Us discussion board. The Insignia Ideas Engine allows customers to post ideas and have the community vote for them if they like the idea. Currently, the top idea suggests that the Insignia team add a panic button to their Little Buddy Child tracking device. The Insignia team is currently evaluating their inclusion of this idea into future interactions of the product.
on:
CES: Do the possibilit
