One of my best students, a manager of one of the largest Home Depot stores in Southern California, just finished off his MBA thesis. His research centered on how Home Depot could become more customer-centric by trimming back IT systems and processes to free up more time for associates to focus on customers. In his thesis he shows how cutting out entire layers of management could make the entire company more efficient and customer-driven. Clearly this student has a passion about making his store entirely focused on the customer experience.
Curious to see if he had been implementing programs he discusses in his thesis in his store, I decided to visit yesterday.
Three Offers of Assistance in Seven Minutes
Every employee I walked past, even the ones rounding up carts just past the entrance stopped and asked if they could help me. When was the last time anyone in a Home Depot did that? Usually I am hunting for help. I have to point out that I never said a word about knowing the manager or having him as a student.
The floors of the store glistened and the grouping of products for cross-selling in the lighting area, where I went to get a replacement fluorescent bulb for my laundry room, were within reach. I recalled in his thesis how he mentioned the studies showing that investing in better stock room management systems to coordinate cross-sells and up-sells led to 36% gains in comparable stores. Clearly, he had pushed this to his store.
Glistening Barbeques All in a Row
Our BBQ is getting a little worn out and I went to check out what they had. Amazed to see two dozen models, all dusted, shined, and perfectly aligned, this was unusual for a Home Depot. Others I had been in were often covered in dust and helter-skelter in appearance. If that was not enough a person from hardware stopped by and asked if they could answer any questions. Now this is going on around seven offers of assistance in less than 15 minutes. I did not let on at any time I knew the manager by the way; I was a regular guy walking through the store on a Saturday afternoon.
Self-Service Checkout – Pain or another Opportunity to show A Passion for Service?
In his thesis he had been really torn about the aspects of self-service check-out and challenges to adoption. Home Depot corporate had been telling managers they must drive a high percentage of sales through these lanes, yet he felt this would detract from the experience. I was really interested to see if he took his own advice in the thesis and staffed this area with three associates instead of one. As I approached these lanes, associates were coming into the aisles to help get the automated process started. I’ve never seen this before. The checkout process for the fluorescent bulbs went fine and at the end of the transaction the lead cashier said thank you for coming in.
As I looked up to say goodbye I saw a picture of my student, the manager of this store, in a poster-size picture with his pledge of excellent service, his name, telephone and cell phone number, clear for any customer to see. I’ve never seen that in a Home Depot before either. Yet his thesis had shown that accountability and associating a face with a store was critical to generating customer loyalty.
Bottom line: Your passion for delivering excellent customer experiences is showing all the time, you can’t turn it on or off. It’s constant; it’s visible all the time. When leaders get passionate about change, they can revolutionize massive stores and companies with an intensity to continually improve.
Flickr attribution: http://bit.ly/23oCT
Courtesy – Louis Columbus at Perfect CEM
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