Can Best Buy Handle The Business?

It was reported in TWICE this week that Best Buy will inherit the bulk of Circuit City’s $9 billion in Consumer Electronics sales once it’s doors close by March 31st 2009. As the doors close to the  once behemoth in the electronics retailing industry, the opportunity is being given to its competitor to pick up the slack.

But can they?

I have to admit, Best Buy hasn’t always been my first choice when it came to fulfilling my needs in consumer electronics. For many years I never ventured into their stores simply because I was not a fan of their service. Getting good service at a Best Buy store is the ultimate in ”Hit or Miss”. There have been times I have gone into their stores and been given exceptional service. However, while I wish I could say that was more the norm, it alas has not been. Best Buy realized their service wasn’t winning any awards anytime soon. So several years ago they launched a huge campaign within its stores called “Customer Centricity”. What this program was designed to do was give its store managers more autonomy as to the products, layout and service in their respective stores. While ambitious and beautiful in the eyes of the PR department, I feel that they still have not gotten it right. Now I know it’s impossible for a customer to have a great experience each time they visit a Best Buy but it begs the question, “Why Not?”

The Walt Disney Company whom I deeply respect with its guest service policies, goes out of its way each and every time to each and every guest. While they stumble sometimes as well, I have never known The Walt Disney Company to have a website created by a disgruntled guest that other disgruntled guests go to so they may vent their frustration. Such as was the case for many years with Best Buy. Now with Circuit City gone, I begin to worry about the staffs of many Best Buy stores adapting a “Last Man Standing” attitude.  What this could mean is they would possibly begin to feel that since the competition is all but gone, who’s left to challenge us and where else are you going to go? While I hope this is not the case, it would be wise for Best Buy HR departments to create a training module that would address this. I for one would be very impressed if Best Buy refocused their efforts on customer service.

I say this because of a problem that I recently had in regards to their Rewards Zone program. I had signed up for the Rewards Zone program many years ago but discovered about 6 months ago that somehow my Rewards Zone information had been merged with someone else in another state. I tried in vain several times to contact the Reward Zone customer service department to change the information but to no avail. It finally reached a head in December when I had earned a $5 reward certitficate and went to use it at a Best Buy store in Orem, Utah. I was purchasing over $100 in items and upon check-out, I handed the cashier my reward zone certificate. She scanned the certificate and it came up invalid. She said she couldn’t accept it and I replied to her that I had just printed from the Rewards Zone site 2 hours ago and it was still showing active on there. I even offered to show her this information on the iPhone I was carrying. She replied that there was nothing she could do. All she offered was that I could call 1-800-Best-Buy. I asked to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor came over and it might as well have been her clone. All he could offer was the toll-free number. It was as if nothing in the way of a guest complaint could be handled in the store, and the only outlet for resolving guest complaints was through a toll-free number. At this point, I was done. I told them that if the lousy $5 coupon was more important than my business then fine, keep the merchandise. I gave the “supervisor” one last opportunity to make the situation right. He did not.

So I left buying nothing. I eventually contacted the Reward Zone customer service department and they could not have been more helpful. They apologized for all the address errors which they admitted was their fault. The supervisor then credited me $40 in reward certificates for all of my troubles. The Reward Zone supervisor was also dumb-founded that the associate just didn’t take the $5 off the total. 

So with Circuit City now gone, I challenge Best Buy to step up and go the extra mile and appreciate the fact that they are still in business today. For it wasn’t always so rosey for them. Best Buy was nearly bankrupt back in the mid 90’s so this could easily have been them closing their doors.

So Best Buy, Are you up to the challenge?

Keep Moving Forward!