I have never received a level of service where all touch points were in sync with each other, and where every step of the way was the epitome of how to create a most outstanding customer experience. Here is my story in a nutshell.
MY PRE-EXPERIENCE BEST BUY IMPRESSION
Best Buy is a place to wander the aisles, explore new music and play new games. Best Buy is the place with young, blue shirted Geeks(quad) that talk in tech/gen Y speak about anything gaming or electronics related. Like any other retailer, pick what you like and proceed to the checkout counter. At this stage, I am vendor neutral, and price is the only competitive advantage.
Game changing experience: Nothing yet at this point. Just another retail experience.
I SHOP AROUND FOR A FEW TELEVISIONS
I am building a house and am considering a whole house audio/video solution. Best Buy has TV’s on sale, including 3 years/no interest financing. My thoughts are to buy the TV’s on a deal like this so I don’t have to finance them through the bank loan. I run over to Best Buy and after numerous questions and demos of every available 40-55 inch television, I decided to purchase 4 new Samsung TV’s. Martin, my sales associate provides me one last demo of a 400 DVD changer per my request and uses a Control4(whole house audio/video control system) panel to navigate the device. Ironically, I had been considering a Control4 system (not normally offered by big-box retailers) and I had no idea that Best Buy offered Control4.
Game changing experience: Martin told me to NOT buy the televisions today, but to hold off until they have a person come to our new house to assess our wiring configuration and planned layout. Steve, from Geek Squad was out to review the home within 48 hours.
BEST BUY MAKES A PROPOSAL
Best Buy gives me a proposal??? I thought I’d just pick up a few things and give them my credit card. Within 48 hours after the on-site review, a 10 page PDF lands in my email inbox detailing a complete installed system, including a parts list, with full installation with training.
Game changing experience: Steve ropes in Josh, who runs sales for the Magnolia department (ultimately the decision maker for the pricing), and a Control4 representative to meet me at the store to answer EVERY single question I have. The 4 of them (including Martin) take as much time as I need to understand my concerns and issues. I walk away with no stone unturned and am completely educated on the system, the benefits and the future of the Control4 product.
BEST BUY BENDS OVER BACKWARD
I assess the Best Buy proposal and review it against 2 others; mentally agreeing that Best Buy is the direction I would like to go for this solution. The experience to date has been great. The backing of a huge retailer, with the personalized service is something that gives me a sense of comfort with this type of investment. After a number of discussions, Best Buy wins my business.
Game changing experience: Best Buy reevaluated their proposal, added a number of significant upgrades and dropped the price to well under the competition in order to meet my budget. Their price flexibility coupled with outstanding service commitment was impossible to pass up.
THE CREDIT CARD APPLICATION
In order to get the benefits of the financing terms, I needed to open a HSBC account for my Best Buy card.
Game changing experience: They override their standard credit card limit in order to finance the complete purchase. I relax in their family room setting after being offered a beverage of my choice and wait comfortably while they pull strings to arrange the financing that I need for this purchase. Other than a few security questions that I needed to answer, I sat back while the Best Buy financing representative did the rest.
PRODUCT EXCHANGES
There are hundreds of variables in these installations with the type of equipment varying based on the on-site configuration during the install. Additionally, Best Buy deals with various product vendors and will pull in other product to complete the solution (even if they don’t directly resell the product).
Game changing experience: Best Buy was having difficulty getting a specific product (Atlona) through a reseller, so they told me to go direct to the manufacturer to get the best price for this component. Martin set up the connection with Atlona (the manufacturer) to give me a price that was 25% less than what Best Buy had already budgeted and charged for the item. They initiated this process! In addition to the Altona device, there have been 2 other scenarios where components weren’t needed or were swapped out to provide me with a better option. The Geek Squad crew, who have been doing the installs, has been managing the product back and forth for me without my ever needing to return to the store for exchanges.
INSTALLATION PROCESS
Now, keep in mind that the configuration, installation and training of this system takes 2-3 installers about 5 days or more to complete. So, these guys have been in and out of my house (now that we have moved in) on a weekly basis for the past 2 weeks (my only complaint). Because Best Buy is a newer dealer of Control4, their certified expertise is limited; ending up as a piece meal installation over a number of weeks in order to spread the techs across multiple projects.
Game changing experience: We’ve been waiting anxiously (TV’s mounted with no ability to watch them!) for a few weeks and at one juncture, I complained to the top brass that this install is dragging out and intertwined between other jobs. I circled back with Steve and Martin and told them that I need a TV up by Friday night (Celtics vs. Bulls), no questions asked. They worked overtime to rearrange schedules to make certain that my viewing of the game was possible. In fact, the district manager was out that day working on my house with the installer to make certain that we would get to where we needed to be by game time. The project still wasn’t complete, but they made it work.
COMMUNICATION and SERVICE is the overriding Game Changing Experience.
This experience for me has changed the way I not only view Best Buy as an organization, but how I shop with Best Buy. My communication with Martin ranges every channel available: cell phone/text/email. When I need something, regardless of the time of day, or whether or not he is working, I get a response and an answer. In fact, I had an interest in a smaller TV for our master bedroom and all I did was call up Martin, let him know what I was looking for, dropped by the store and loaded up the car. The personal service that they have provided me throughout the process has made me feel like I am their only customer. The whole team is always in sync with each other and the message they send to their premiere customers is consistent and precise.
As long as they continue to operate in this way, I will be a Best Buy customer for life.
Hi Kevin
I have recently had a great Best Buy experience as well and plan to buy my TV from them when my renovations are completed and the carpet goes down and we unwrap the furniture.
The TV shopping experience was eye-popping, with scores of different screens on the floor that would do the job….the technology has certainly moved a long way in five years since I bought my last set.
I found the Best Buy staff in the Marina CA. store to be interested and engaged in what my needs were and providing useful advice that changed a couple of my ideas on how to provision programming.
You might be able to buy the same set slightly cheaper at Walmart or Costco…frankly I don’t care if I pay a bit more, the advice and service at Best Buy is worth the premium.
Thanks for sharing.
Kevin –
I’m EVP of Market Probe, a worldwide marketing research and consulting organization, and am in the process of completing my sixth customer loyalty-related book. The title of this book is The Customer Advocate and The Customer Saboteur, and it will be published by ASQ Press in 2011.
The book is all about branded customer experience and the power of offline and online word-of-mouth. Your blog is the perfect example of what the concept of advocacy, through brand experience and resulting word-of-mouth, represents; and I want to convey this in the very first chapter. I’d like permission to publish the blog, in its entirety, in the book.
I look forward to your response. Best regards.
Michael Lowenstein, Ph.D., CMC
Executive Vice President
Market Probe
Hi Michael,
Please contact me about this request. I don’t think that we have an issue with the permission, but I would like to know more.
Please reach out to me directly- 630.855.6900.
Thanks.