Best Buy To Employees: Survive The Meltdown By Making Customer Service A Priority
Today Best Buy announced that it was officially freaking out about the current financial meltdown: "In 42 years of retailing, we've never seen such difficult times for the consumer," Brian Dunn, president and chief operating officer of Best Buy, said in a statement. "People are making dramatic changes in how much they spend, and we're not immune from those forces." A Best Buy employee forwarded us an email that went out to all associates this morning -- stressing that a renewed commitment to customer service was the way forward during these troubled times.
Best Buy says:
A Message from Brad Anderson, Brian Dunn and Bob Willett
To all employees:This morning, we announced that we've seen a sudden change in consumer spending, in our comparable store sales, and in our expectations for this year's earnings. We'd like to provide more context around these changes and their impact on our business.
The year started off well, with total company comparable store sales (sales at stores open more than 14 months) growing 4 percent for the first half of our fiscal year, a period that runs March through August. Our results were fairly consistent until September, when our comparable store sales turned negative, declining by 1 percent. Then our comparable store sales softened further in October, declining by nearly 8 percent, amid unprecedented changes in the financial markets, a deteriorating economy and weakening consumer sentiment. From where we stand today, we could see total company comparable store sales for the rest of the fiscal year decline by 5 percent to 15 percent.
Revenue gains are important to our business model because the majority of our costs ? such as rent and store operating costs ? are fixed. Typically, when comparable store sales increase by 3 percent or better, revenue growth outstrips expense growth (including merit increases, rising health care costs and the like), and our earnings rise. Currently, due to comparable store sales declines as well as spending increases, we have expenses rising faster than revenue. That's why we're now anticipating an earnings decrease for the year.
Specifically, today we also announced a new range for our earnings expectations: $2.30 to $2.90 per diluted share. The midpoint of our range is a 17-percent earnings decline compared with the $3.12 per share we earned last fiscal year.
Let us be very clear. These reduced earnings expectations reflect the unprecedented tumult in the financial services industry, which has reduced consumer spending across the board in retail. The outstanding work of our 165,000 employees doesn't make us immune to our environment. We can't change the overall level of consumer spending, but we can focus on deepening our relationships with customers wherever we interact with them: in our stores, on our Web sites and through our call centers.
While our comps have been negative, we gained market share in September and October. So we're getting a bigger piece of a business that is currently shrinking. Customer satisfaction remains at all-time highs. Employee turnover is at historic lows. We firmly believe that our strategy of customer centricity is of great value in driving our performance versus the industry, and that's the strategy we plan to pursue to continue to strengthen our position in the marketplace.
We must find ways to win with the customers who are coming to us today. Serving our customers better than anyone else is the best way to create value for customers, employees and shareholders alike. We need every employee engaged in serving customers better, and more efficiently. We want your unique perspective on what we should do differently in this market, based on what you see and touch, and using the talents you have.
We could let today's turmoil distract us from serving customers. Other retailers might do that. But we will not. Instead, we will use these circumstances to redouble our efforts and deepen our commitment to each other, to our company, to our strategy and to the customers we serve. In so doing, we will strengthen and fortify ourselves as a team. A winning team. That's who we are, and that's Best Buy.
Brad Anderson, vice chairman and chief executive officer
Brian Dunn, president and chief operating officer
Bob Willett, chief executive officer of International and chief information officer
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Comments:
Translated - no Christmas bonuses
Tranlated - let's all try to suck less
Tranlated - Don't even think about a raise
Tranlated = Translated, but in these tough economic times, we must cut letters where we can.
Wow, that is the most lovingly crafted pile of dogshit I have ever read. Well done!
work harder for less money or face getting cut!
So it's going to take an act of God or an economic catastrophe for Best Buy to provide good ol' customer service to customers.
Nice.
I am not amongst the consumerist haters of Best Buy, but I have never met a floor worker there who presents him or herself as a person who could understand that email.
I work part-time at a regional chain here in NYC and we had a staff meeting last week -- they told us the same thing.
The economy sucks. If things keep up at this rate we can't survive. We need to emphasize excellent customer service to set ourselves apart. Blah blah blah.
Retail is tanking. Big time. Luckily, I work at that store only on the weekends to pay off student loan debt -- I feel sorry for my co-workers who don't have the luxury of a 2nd job to fall back on.
Memo sent , problem solved...
Look,"Mister " " Anderson", There is no shortcut to great customer service , and your little memo is not going to rally the troops if this is just another "taking it seriously " exercise in corporate bullshit. Talk is cheap. Are YOU taking care of the employees ? Are they in for a piece of the action ? Or does credit flow up and blame flow down in your company. Do you even visit your stores ? I don't mean some pre arranged ,ass kissers on duty , store is cleaner than ever walk through. I mean do you get in your car and go to your stores unannounced ?
Better yet , do you ever interact with real customers ? I don't mean a bunch of pre screened dimwits that will tell you what the marketing director wants you to hear. Real feedback,unfiltered. Do you read blogs like this one ? If you do,and you pay attention,you can learn some important things about the customer experience.Some people are just whining idiots,sure. But there is some real knowledge to be gained here (and other online forums).
Finally,Stop worrying about the fucking stock price. Keep your eye on the business,not Wall Street. This gives the employees the impression that you don't give a flying shit about anything but your outsize bonus.
i tried to get them to price match to Amazon and they said that amazon sells crap thats refurbished without warranty. so i showed him the printout that said its new, sold by amazon directly, and that its free shipping.
he said its all a lie.
He should have closed with:
"On the bright side, our only remaining brick and mortar competition is...Walmart. LOL!"
To be fair my local Best Buys have always been better than Circuit City in customer service... with a greeter at the front door, more (but still not enough) staff on the floor, manned cash registers that don't require me to seek out a cashier, and managers that break up any smurf huddles.
"Other companies might get away with merely snubbing or ignoring customers. NOT US. Let us continue to royally screw customers in the manner that has made us the Gold Standard for providing poor service. Let us double, nay, TRIPLE our customer screwination. These are sad times, but we must not lose what has made Best Buy the top mediocre electronics retailer that it is today...high prices, poor support, astronomically overpriced services and warranties. Follow these principals my friends, and we WILL come out on top (and by we, I mean the executives and upper management, not you guys). Carry on."
@gatewaytoheaven: I was just thinking that! I guess consumers should be ashamed of themselves for putting up with these sorts of shenanigans and coming back for seconds.
Customer service? Is that a joke? Sorry guys, you're going to have to try a lot harder for my money than that. Since Best Buy often isn't the best price, customer service and product expertise is supposed to make up for where you lack, and you guys have neither.
So why am I still going into your store? 1. I'm bored. 2. To see a TV in person that I will later buy online 3. To occasionally buy video games and components that are the same price everywhere. And I feel dirty for all the above reasons.
He forgot to call for increased frisking of customers before they leave the store. That always makes me feel valued.
It's amazing how someone can say so little in soooooooooo many words!
How sad that customer service only becomes a "priority" when the company's expenses are outstripping earnings.
To borrow from SkokieGuy's effective wording:
Translation: While everyone's broke, we'll pretend we care about them while trying to push the extended warranty and telling them that products have features they don't really have. When people are flush again, we'll go back to just bullying them instead.
@BoomerFive: Yea, there should be some sort of award for excellency and outstanding achievement in business-speak, platitudes, and feigned leadership.
Sounds like the devil customers are getting the best of best buy!
Meanwhile that means as a best buy employee you should try 100x as hard for the upsell and tell even more lies about what the extended warranty covers all while trying to sell an overpriced monster cable to anyone buying anything.
Also, I didn't understand a thing that letter said, it all sounded like corporate spouting to me!
These are hard times. But, I assure you that my golden parachute is ready and waiting. So when the company tanks and you're all standing in a bread line, I'll still be using caviar as shampoo.
@tmed:
Agreed....
@rubberpants: it says a lot about your college if your a graduate and couldn't understand that Email.
By the way, its "I'm a college graduate" (not an).
sheesh.....
Why won't the government pass a bailout to help the executives of troubled retailers too? I mean, could our economy really survive without Best Buy?
"Customer satisfaction remains at all-time highs."
Yes, it's holding steady at the highs of "moderately disgruntled" and "somewhat peeved."
I think BB has great customer service. I just returned a defective Xbox360 that I bought last year. I'm so glad I bought their Product replacement plan, instead of waiting several weeks for Microsoft to mail me another used system. I got a new system the same day and they even pro-rated my PRP so I got half of its price back (without even expecting it). I'M A VERY HAPPY CUSTOMER!!!!! There a reason why BB is surviving this economic crysis, and CC is going bankrupt. RE: AbsoluteIrrelevance, You should feel dirty you leech, I'd love to see the diry, wet stinking warehouse where you online tv purchase is coming from. Hope you don't have a problem cuz I'm sure customer service will be beyond poor, if it's even in English!!!
@gopher646: Interesting how many companies are saying that they need great customer service to survive in these tough times. I would think they'd want great customer service all the time.
I set foot in a Best Buy for the first time in years this Sunday because my friend wanted to look at desktops. Despite the horror stories I read here I was intrigued by a video camera and actually considered purchasing it. Most of that 8 paragraphs is worthless IMO but if by "redouble our efforts" the 3 B's (Brad Brian and Bob) mean 9 different employees asking if you're finding everything okay in less than 5 minutes, then they're doing a bang up job. I spent so much time saying "Yes,thank you" that I couldn't even finish reading the little spec sheet. When all was said and done we both left empty handed which is probably a good thing.
Yeah, Best Buy customer service is pretty top notch. Though, top notch is considered enthusiastic young men feigning humorous British accents to drum up familiarity at my local Best Buy. I don't need a repeat of that, or any of the half dozen encounters per visit where they are falling over each other to help me--or presumably tell me what I really want to buy.
For God's sake, everyone can tell what your employees look like. Since they're already swarming all over the stores, why not just order them to stand ready at the ends of every aisle so we can go to them. Then they can upsell like crazy.
Want to get more business Best Buy? Offer some goddamn special prices on your DVDs, like Walmart does. That MSRP thing is a big turn-off nowadays.
@cotr:
The associate should have just explained that they do not match online vendors nor non-local competitors. They spell it out right here: [www.bestbuy.com]
Also you do realize this is the way most retail operations have their price match set up. You cannot expect them to match a price from a non-brick and mortar store.
I've been in best buy a few time in the past month and I've noticed that the staffers are a lot chattier than normal with me. It's somewhat informed chatter, also pretty asinine chatter, but chatter nonetheless. They also guided me to ways where I could save money, like coupons at the front, pointing out sales, and recommending me away from higher priced items (I didn't really need the advice, but it shows that they've been trained to help out the customers more.
Rediculous. I ordered an item for pick up at a Best Buy last weekend. What a joke that process was. The clerk couldn't locate the item where it was supposed to have been set aside. Then she went on the Best Buy website to see what it should look like and couldn't find it. Then, she finally wrangled another employee to go get one off the shelf. She was surly the entire time during the transation. I was probably in the store 30 minutes. I would have been better off not setting it up for in store pick up. Had I just walked in, picked it up off the shelf and paid for it I would have been out of there in 5 minutes. I was gratified that Best Buy sent me a survey afterwards to rate my experience. You can bet I didn't give it very high marks. Maybe they'll actually read the survey results and talk to the store manager and employees, though I have no illusion that that fantasy will come true.
Translated: You saw what happened to your slacker friends at Circuit City didn't you? Well.........
Hmmm... short on specifics. But I guess I'll go devil's advocate and say, what if they FINALLY get it and Mr. Anderson understands that that's the reason everyone on consumerist hates BB, and the reason that Circuit City is now worth less than say, a pencil? I mean, is there any room for redemption here, or is bb just too far beyond help... (I've stopped shopping there about three years ago, on principal, so I'm no friend of bb, by the way).
I have to admit, my wife and I just recent purchased a ton of crap from BestBuy, including a Wii, LCD television, dvd player, speakers, and an Asus EEE PC.... and I have to admit our experience at both of our local BestBuy stores was quite nice. They mentioned the extended warranties but didn't press the issue at all. I even had to return two items and neither store questioned anything. I was pleasantly surprised.
HAHHAHAHAHA..Best Buy concentrating on customer service ROFL....OMFG...how do you do that when you build ripping off the customer into your business model.
Here's a great idea Best Buy...concentrating on educating the customer to make the choices they want and not selling them crap they don't need....
I for one have a permanent ban on Best Buy..with all of the stories on this site, I refuse to give them my money.
If you concentrate on educating the customer and not selling them crap they don't need you will get return sales for everything else you sell....creating growth and sales....it's not rocket science...be good to your customers...they come back....rip them off....they go elsewhere.
Translated--sell those extended warranties!