Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

I've been a hot-cold customer of Best Buy for about ten years or so. And in my opinion, if there's one continual weak aspect of their business model that I personally observe, that would be their customer service in their stores.

I would make a recommendation to Best Buy to improve their customer service in the stores by implementing a "five tile" rule. If a guest comes within "5 floor tiles" from an employee, that employee is not obligated to ask how the guest is doing.

I was hired by Best Buy back in 2008 as a seasonal employee for the Christmas Season. My introductory sessions were very well planned out. But, I was made to watch a video which was quite disconcerting. This video was about how to stereotype the customers based on their spending habits and in turn, decide how to allocate your time to them IF AT ALL. This video needs to be tossed in the garbage, if they're still using it. Judging an individual based on appearance alone is discriminatory and if persisted can lead to millions of dollars in lost sales if employees make incorrect assumptions based on appearance.

In turn, treat everyone as a human being and give them the same treatment regardless their appearance or supposed spending habits. Because, over the last two years I had entered a Best Buy store in the Milwaukee-area (okay, Waukesha's) with the intent on spending more than a $1,000.00 each visit BUT I chose to take my business elsewhere not because of price, but because no one was ever willing to assist me. Now that's me alone. And I lean more toward a type A personality than not, so....(draw your own conclusions and have an HR Professional develop stronger customer relations skills) Perhaps, consider having only prior retail employees working in your customer service environment? Save the non-people employees for logistics etc...

[#2]

I’m not sure you meant to write that “If a guest comes within "5 floor tiles" from an employee, that employee is not obligated to ask how the guest is doing”. Later on you write that you left your local store without making a purchase because you couldn’t get any assistance, and I assume this means you initially meant they should be obligated.

I can say that any associate at one of our stores should be offering assistance to a customer, as long as they are not currently working with a separate customer. We should already be doing our best to assist every customer regardless of past purchases or the type of customer they are. Thanks for sharing this.

[#3]

CORRECTION:

"...that employee is not obligated to ask how the guest is doing."

"...that employee is obligated..."

Thank you Allan for that correction-catch.

To clarify about how I left the store w/o making a purchase, I went in there, actively sought help and musta caught the BB staff on a team lunch or something b/c there was one person in electronics and they were chatting with their amigo talking about their homies or something. I stood over there inquisitively, and they turned and took the conversation elsewhere. What a bunch of bad people at that store, the Waukesha, Wis. store off Bluemound Rd. My wife has had a bad experience with CS in that very store too, but the details I cannot share as that's second-hand.

[#4]

The video and training materials you're referring to were discontinued several years ago after they were leaked to the media. Some BB employees may still follow them unofficially, but no new hires are shown the materials you mentioned.

[#5]

I will not give any Kudos to this as I find it hard to believe they would show a movie such as that ( especially with all the media people out there...)

I have had similar experiences though as well. I purchase several thousand dollars worth of electronics now so I am a regular so to speak at BB. However, when I first joined it was extremely hard to get assistance sometimes in the GA area.

[#6]

Kudos no being warranted on the basis on your unwillingness to accept a fact?

Considering you gave kudos on this comment:

It would be nice if there was a way to post the package dimensions in the specifications of products like TV's to know if they would fit in your vehicle? Is this something that can be found or added?

Congratulations, you just "kudo'ed" an idea that has no merit on the very basis of human nature; that people will try cramming a box into their car regardless if it legitamently fits or not, they'll still try. Don't ever say you "I will not give any Kudos...". This is a comment/message/suggestion board, not a wall of heroics