Best Buy has been shaken up by the recent, unexpected departures of both CEO Brian “My Work Here Is” Dunn and company founder Richard “I Need a Better Nickname” Schulze. And interim CEO Mike Mikan says more changes are coming to the electronics retailer.
Speaking at the annual meeting this morning in Richfield, Minn., Mikan told shareholders that the first thing Best Buy needs to do is figure out how to curb showrooming, the growing practice of using bricks-and-mortar retailers as a place to check out items that will eventually be purchased online.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the company will be providing “new intensive induction” to 50,000 Best Buy employees at a training center in Minnesota starting in August.
“We have to invest in employees by giving them more training and better tools to maximize what they can offer for our customers,” explained Mikan.
Best Buy will continue to try to pare back the mammoth retail footprint that it spent the better part of the last decade expanding.
While Mikan says Best Buy is a “personalized technology solutions” company, it is also looking to make more business-to-business arrangements — like tech support contract between Geek Squad and the AARP — to bolster revenue.
And yet, while Mikan and others are praising change, Best Buy employees are still busy making the same head-scratchingly bad upsells.
Anxiety and questions at Best Buy annual meeting [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]
Best Buy Committed to Change, CEO Says [NY Times]
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It sounds like they only thing they plan on improving is the time and soul sucking upsell training. Didn’t really hear much about just generally improving the customer service experience. I use to love Best Buy but sometimes asking for help just isn’t worth the trouble. Also it seems like I can get a lot of stuff at cheaper prices elsewhere (and I don’t mean online). I am still a fan of buying the more expensive items at brick and mortars in part because like to see and touch item before buying and also much easier to return if change my mind.
I foresee them replacing UPC codes with RFID tags to prevent smartphones from scanning for pricematches. Or just training employees to chase down people looking at smartphones and telling them they have to put it away.
Or installing jammers or something in the stores so you get no signal or wifi.
the company will be providing “new intensive induction” to 50,000 Best Buy employees at a training center in Minnesota starting in August.
Translation: They’ll be training them to act like Apu in The Simpsons
“Dis is not a showroom for Amazon. I need you to buy something now.”
So, the solution to curb something that loses the company money is to spend a whole bunch of money flying 50 THOUSAND people to a training in Minnesota and paying for work time, travel, board and meals???
THIS my friends is why Best Buy is failing, more than anything else.
Flying in 50k employees to make them feel a part of a company and not just clerks like the part timers at the GAP? I’d say it’s probably going to be money well spent.
OK Overheal, its obvious from your post history that your paychecks say Best Buy Co Inc on them. So keep drinking the koolaid. If you think they are sending line level employees to the “intensive training” think again. Unless you are supervisor or above you are not going.
As any current or former BBY employee knows…intensive training really just means drinking at the hotel Bar at the Raddison across from the MOA anyways.
The line level employees will get “taught” all the new policy at some 6AM meeting on a Saturday morning in September. I’m sure that will make them feel like “a part of the company”
BTW: Does PR know you are representing the company on a social media platform? /burn
I work for Best Buy and every single one of our Full Time employees have been scheduled for extended training. Many of our Part Time associates have as well. Since these are the employees with the most face time with customers, it makes the most sense.
Slamming another commentor with speculation? I wouldn’t call that a “burn”. Just plain ignorance.
If Best Buy had been honest, treated customers decently and stopped playing games they would not be in the situation they are in today. At least 3 times that I can remember they have been in trouble with the Federal government for their shady business practices.
There have been countless stories right here on The Consumerist of how poorly shoppers were treated by the company and by their employees.
Play no games, take care of customers in an honest and professional way and sell at decent prices and they could have a great business! But alas, I don’t think it’s in them as they just can’t seem to get their act together!
I used to be a fairly regular customer (and buyer) at Best Buy, until they almost completely eliminated their computer software department (where I spent most of my money) and they’re always out of stock of their “on sale’ movies and music (where I spent most of the rest of my money). So when I ask about out-of-stock items at the store, they say they might not get any more in before the sale goes off, but I can order it online and have it shipped to my house. So I decided that if that’s how they’re doing business, I’m buying it online as cheap as I can find it.
Corporate Asinine Ideas Gallery:
“if our customer service is top notch then people will spend extra to buy from us”, we’ve got to transform our surly lowly paid drones into helpful customer assistants who make the shopping experience so good they’ll overlook the price, and surely all of our abusive policies and tactics wont detract from the goodwill we gain from having friendly employees.
“We’ve got to focus on the whole solution personalized for the consumer” – if they’re buying product X, we aren’t selling them product X, we’re providing the Product X experience, which of course includes a slew of 6000% markup accessories and an extended warranty not worth the paper its printed on.
“We’ve got to stop them from using our stores as a showroom”, Ostensibly by changing model numbers which consumers armed with smartphones wont figure out in 10 minutes, or perhaps we could eliminate the ability for them to see all the products! Surely madness like competitive pricing wont help
“We have to invest in employees by giving them more training and better tools to maximize what they can offer for our customers,”
Unless what they can “offer” me is a better price, I’m not interested.
It’s impossible for B&M to compete on price with online. And it’s ignorance to believe that you can walk into a B&M and expect that. Granted, there are occasional sales, etc. that will change that, but it’s not the normal thing.
If you don’t want people looking at your products on-site and then buying them online, look at why they are. Prices online can be cheaper and or delivery is also cheaper. Consumers will usually look at what place has the lowest price.
Also, your online and store prices should not be different, keep them the same; it look like morons when the prices are different and customers have to prove the difference to a cashier.
Two reasons I don’t like Best Buy: One is they try to force Geek Squad on their customers. If you buy any electronics, you have to checkout through Geek Squad. Two, which applies to all stores, is the employees should only have to know one specific part of the store. The more they know of that area, the better they should be at helping the customer. I have a friend that worked at BB, and she told me everyone had to know about the whole store, unless you’re a Geek, or radio installer, etc.
Thanks for the input. The reasons for both are pretty simple.
“One is they try to force Geek Squad on their customers. If you buy any electronics, you have to checkout through Geek Squad.”
This serves 2 purposes. There are things that the majority of clients need: anti-virus software & recovery disks. Some clients are comfortable dealing with this themselves, others aren’t. The checkout process allows me to verify they were spoken to about these things, and to see if they want Black Tie coverage on their purchase. I ask only once, but I always ask. The other advantage is that if my number is on your receipt, and you come back with a software issue or damage to your laptop, I will look up your purchase. Then if you bitch because I tell you your problem isn’t covered because you elected not to purchase protection, you have no legs to stand on. Because I damn sure know I explained & offered it.
“the employees should only have to know one specific part of the store. The more they know of that area, the better they should be at helping the customer.”
So this one is touch. I have clients like you that say this. Except what happens when we have only 2 GPS people that are experts and they are tied up with other clients when you come in and want to get answers about one? Would you feel the same way and be willing to wait for one of them? If you are, you are .0000001% of our clients. The majority of people want someone and someone now. It is impossible to do both. However, there is almost always someone in each store who is a go-to employee for each area, staying the most updated on devices, software, etc. All you gotta do is ask for that person.
Best Buy employees are the worst, and around here we are getting a heavy dose of DirecTV assholes that won’t leave you alone. Best Buy will fail based on the fact that people want to be left the fuck alone when they shop, and not badgered to buy a fucking warranty from some chowderhead who couldn’t hold his own in the real world.