Corporate Anorexia Smashes Home Depot…again
The mind boggles at how bad customer service is at Home Depot. It makes one wonder if someone in a Director position owns lots of stock in their competition. Or perhaps the Director of Customer Service has an evil twin Skippy who wakes up in the morning thinking of ways to piss off customers.
A few weeks ago in Seattle a man took on the self-check machines and won. A friend of mine was there when it happened. He said there was one employee of Home Depot working. Not one regular checkout stand was open. The lines for the self-checkout were long, and the guy had a couple of large items that were difficult to scan. To top it off, the hand scanner wasn’t working.
Rule #1 in Customer Service— Make it easy for people to give you money.
I wrote an article for the Pacific Business News way back in the late 80′s and minted a term: Corporate Anorexia. I was writing about how companies kept cutting and cutting employees and employee benefits, and how stupid that was. You simply cannot maintain any level of good service if you don’t take care of the people delivering it. And when the employees ain’t happy, customers aren’t either.
Funny – the editor at the time took out my newly minted phrase. Said it was too harsh. I can’t think of a better phrase to describe what’s going on in America.
Now that the sub-prime mortgage mess has hit the fan, companies are starting to cut back. Wrong. Everyone is stressed. Stressing your customers more by having disgruntled employees will just drive more and more of your customers online. “If I’m not going to get good service in the first place, then I’ll just go with self-service and do this online. And if you don’t take care of me online, I’ll just keep looking until I find a company that gets it.”
Bottom line? Find somewhere else to cut. Don’t cut employees. Don’t cut their wages. Don’t cut their hours. Look at every other expense you have. Work with your employees to help them understand that great service is in their best interests. Treat them the way you want your customers to be treated. Get them to help you figure out how to make every customer interaction better.
Happy Customers return and give you money. Why is that so hard to understand?
I still maintain that employees don’t show up to work hoping to fail. Most human beings are just trying to make it through their day. Make it an enjoyable experience. And who knows – they just might make your customers WANT to come back to you.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING beats a loyal customer. And nothing creates a loyal customer like an employee who cares about them. In this crazy world, Tom Peters is right, “High Touch matters.”
Take care of your customers.
They’ll take care of you.
Beth
More Customer Service
Beth Terry, CSP, is a Certified Speaking Professional, Convention Speaker, Management Trainer, and Customer Service Expert.
© 2008 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc. All International Rights Reserved.
