A new focus for America's second biggest retailer
I noticed an interesting keynote speaker at the upcoming Customer Contact Conferencein Boston in November of this year. One of the keynote speakers is Jose Lopez who, as of January of this year, is the Home Depot's Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer. I had never heard of the title Chief Customer Officer before and looked into the background of why this position was created.
It seems that with all the success the Home Depot has had over the past decade, they are lagging behind in the Customer Experience. They have done an incredible job of marketing themselves as the one-stop shop for all home renovations and projects. Lowe's, their major competitor in the U.S. (and soon will be in Canada), has placed a focus on the Customer Experience. It looks like the focus is paying off.
I remember going to Home Depot to purchase a BBQ. I had asked one of the employees to help me find a natural gas BBQ and he walked off mumbling "I don't know if we have those or not". He actually left! I looked around stunned and had two seperate Customers say that he had done the same thing to them. Another employee was equally unhelpful. I was curious and went to the Customer Service booth to ask why the people in this store were so grumpy (I assumed bad management). The employee behind the desk (albeit in a nice tone) said "The way I see it is.... the Home Depot makes lots of money and I don't see any of it, so why should we care?". My jaw dropped and I could only laugh.
To counter the growth that Lowe's has experienced, the Home Depot created the Chief Customer Officer position. Jose Lopez has an incredible task of trying to change the culture of the Home Depot into a Customer First organization.
Lowe's is already ahead of the game and is realizing triple the growth of the Home Depot in recent quarters.
Please see the BusinessWeek article for more information on the competition between Lowes and Home Depot.
Excellent marketing and great merchandise will help you get to the top, focussing on the Customer Experience will help you stay there.
