Andrew stared at the row of tools on the shelf at Home Depot and sighed. He had a big new job to do, but after getting all his tools from Home Depot for the past 20 years, there was but a paltry selection. No open stock items and the sets were incomplete. He wouldn’t be able to get all the tools he needed. So, drawing on what he’d learned from reading Consumerist, rather than an EECB, he crafted an email to a specific person at Home Depot corporate he thought might help.

Andrew writes:

I searched the corporate site and found a list of the senior leadership team. I decided to email Bill Boltz, SVP of merchandising – hardlines, and found his email with a quick Google search. He put me in touch with a gentleman by the name of Robert Glass who called me and informed me of some changes that would be coming to the tool selection. He admitted that the changes would not be soon enough to fix my problem and offered to help. After a couple of emails went back and forth, a package arrived at my door from Apex Tool Group (who manufacturers some of the Husky tools for Home Depot) including everything that I needed, but could not find, plus a few welcome extras!

Needless to say, I am very pleased with this bit of customer service and Home Depot is still the first place I will look when I need something for work or home.

Best of all, the package of tools he received was free.

We’ve referred to this technique before as the “laser-guided email bomb.” Sometimes a more surgical approach, just reaching out to exactly the right person, is better than a scorched earth method.

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