Monday, November 2, 2009 at 6:00PM Hey, you need to go to Lowes, Home Depot!
I could be mistaken about it, but I think it happens to more people than just me. Every time I'm in a retail outlet of Home Depot I can't get anyone to help me...help me either find the item I'm on the hunt for--sometimes I don't even know what it is that I'll need to solve a HD-type of problem back at my house, so I need to ask a how-to or what-is-it question to a more knowledgeable person than I--presumably that would be a HD sales representative.
And, the problem is--I just noted it a moment ago--that there seems to be such a scarcity of HD sales people in the store when I'm there. This happens over and over again, almost every time I'm there; on occasion a crazy notion comes over me: I entertain the thought that when I finally see a sales rep in the distance and then when he or she sees me approaching them--I sometimes get the paranoid idea that they flee me by walking the other way or turn a corner in an evasive move! Yes, I know, it is likely delusional but there is some basis for thinking it plausible sometimes!
So a couple of weeks ago, when I was reading an interview with HD's CFO, Carol Tomes, all my HD experiences came back to me to serve as a measure of deciding if HD's new customer service strategy was working out. When asked about what HD is doing to respond to downturns in sales, she said...
We introduced something we call power hours inside our stores. In the hours when traffic is heaviest we stop all activity that is not customer facing -- pack-down activities, say -- and spend 100% of our time taking care of customers. Even if you're in the receiving area, if you're in the vault, you come out on the floor. It's a wonderful experience. We hear from 100,000 customers a week more or less. They rate us on a number of attributes, and our scores are better than they've been in three years. So the voice of the customer is telling us we're doing the right thing.
Like I said at the beginning--it could just not be working solely when Keith Murray's in the store--but I don't think so. I see little evidence of HD's strategy getting translated to reality whenever I'm a customer--and, as a marketing guy of sorts--I pay attention to these kind of things!
So Point Number 1 is this: Sometimes there's a big disconnect between marketing strategy that's plotted in the board room and what actually happens in the real world. I think that's the case when it comes to HD's customer service problem. We know the plan; the problem is a lot of the employees are second-guessing where they need to be at the wrong time--and the plan isn't working.
This leads me to the Point Number 2: If you'd like to make a change in marketing effectiveness, listen to the advice from the 14th century philosopher William of Occam--the guy who's famous for what we call Occam's Razor, you know: entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which, roughly translated points to the principle "when you have two competing theories that have the same solution, the simpler one is the better."
So where does this lead? It leads us to Lowes, HD's direct rival! When I go to either place, HD or Lowes--on the hunt for items to buy or answers [to questions-that-will-lead-to-items-to-buy!]--the situation is very much the same...but Lowes has a very different approach. With "power hours"? No! They simply put a greeter at the front door--and he or she eye-contacts entering shoppers, welcomes them to Lowes, and then asks the money question: Do you need any help? If the customer says yes, he or she provides directions or the answer to the question or, failing their ability to do that, gets someone who can. Problem solved!
So for you managers [or aspiring managers] there you have it, in effect, the two rules you need to evaluate new strategies:
[1] Weigh carefully what you plan to have your people do, because sometimes execution of a complicated strategy doesn't happen the way you think it will. In the case of HD, it's too complicated, time-dependent, and discretionary in nature; it potentially involves too many people deciding for themselves what a better way is for them to spend what should be their on-floor time! Thus,
[2] Be sure to make plans that are the most direct and simple to solve the problem at hand. In the case of Lowes it rotates around one person either being there or not, greeting all who enter, and addressing shoppers information and help needs right away, straight-on! Problem solved. Market share going up.
[By the way, you can read the entire interview with HD's CFO in FORTUNE's "Renovating Home Depot."]
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Reader Comments (2)
At Wal-Mart, they also found that greeters at the door help bring down the rate of theft. Maybe Lowe's is getting double bang for their buck from that person saying hello to you at the door!
I've discussed this situation numerous times with friends and family. I can assure you that it's not just you having issues at Home Depot. HD obviously needs to examine the execution of this new strategy since it's not working. I can never find anyone there - even during busy or peak times. My husband and I were elated at Lowe's recent store-openings boom because there are now Lowes closer to our house and near every Home Depot we frequent. Every time I'm in Lowes, an associate walking the aisles will ask if I need assistance. In HD, when I have an question, I can't even seem to hunt down a human being and if I happen to find someone, the odds of them having an answer to my question are extremely low. Ironically, on my last trip to Lowes, the associate answered my question, but then go interested in the topic himself and sought out a more knowledgeable employee to go more indepth and explain more about the question. So at Lowes, I not only have one associate helping me, but TWO! I'm definitely a convert and will only go to HD if I know exactly what I need and the nearest Lowe's is far enough away that I have to weigh the opportunity cost.