Has Home Depot Changed?
I wrote a blog awhile back about The Home Depot and the struggles they were having with their competition (Lowe's) in the U.S.
The articles I referenced showed that Lowe's is focused on the Customer Experience. The stores and staff are organized to ensure that the purchase experience is a memorable one, and will likely lead to future sales from loyal Customers. Lowe's showed that this focus was paying off at the cash register with sales growth higher than that of Home Depot.
Jose Lopez who, as of January of 2006, is the Home Depot's Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer is in charge of changing this trend. I had the chance to hear Jose speak at a conference in Boston this year, and I was impressed with his view on what Home Depot needed to do to improve the Customer Experience. His main focus was on improving the attitude and focus of the tens of thousands of Home Depot employees as well as to change the appearance of the stores to make them more user friendly.
Home Depot grew to be America's second biggest retailer by, basically, building a warehouse, filling it with home renovation products, hiring trade experts and opening the doors to consumers. Great products, great selection and experts on-hand was a recipe for success. Lowe's came along and took the same idea, but added a more luxurious store experience and hired more Customer focused staff. Their idea is paying off with better growth numbers.
Over the years I have learned that you can train almost anyone to perform almost any task (use computer software etc.) but it's very difficult to teach people how to be good at Customer Service. Some people are just pre-wired to understand how to speak to people nicely, and cater to their questions and wishes. When building Grocery Gateway's Customer Service department, half the staff I hired had never turned on a computer. But they were incredibly talented Customer Service people. Two months later they could use all the software with ease, and treated our Customers to a great (and award-winning) experience.
I have noticed some changes to the staff at Home Depot over the past year. There are less expert tradesmen working at Home Depot (who were great at what they did, but did not necessarily make great Customer Service people) and more great Customer Service people who may not be experts at what they sell. I'm not sure if this is part of Jose's plan, but I believe it's working.
I would rather take a few extra minutes with someone willing to find an answer for me (who shows the effort of focusing on my request) with smiles along the way, than deal with someone who knows the answer, mutters it to me and walks away (which was more often my experience at Home Depot years ago). These great Customer Service people will become experts very soon, and Home Depot will have hit a home run.
Yesterday I walked into Home Depot and someone greeted me at the door with a smile, and asked if she could help me look for something. Now that's a great experience!
