"Customer Service will define my tenure’, Frank Blake, CEO of Home Depot

Now that’s different as well as refreshing and prompted me to read the home page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution several weeks ago instead of starting my Saturday morning out with the sports section. There it was on the front page, a CEO of a major corporation leading the charge and putting it out there. As I remember I cringed last year reading an article about Home Depot describing how they were incenting their employees to deliver good customer service and was a bit put off by the article blatantly sharing the fact that they had to motivate their employees to do their job with extra pay. It is not that I am against incentive programs but making a public statement about it does not make me, a sometimes consumer feel better about my experience there.
It is about the experience right? It is what we remember and share negative or positive that determines future actions. Most of the talk today around CRM focuses on CEM, Customer Experience Management and how Web 2.0 consumer generated media can react to their feelings in a negative and positive way. A single experience or multiple experiences forms favorable or unfavorable opinions that will determine whether one will frequent the store or service mainly for convenience with passive satisfaction or will the collection of positive experiences turn one into a verbally active advocate or worst just the opposite.
So, back to Home Depot and I want to share with you an earlier experience I had in Home Depot. I am not ashamed to admit that I am “handy man challenged” so when I walk into the store I really need assistance and look for it exclusively. I went to the local Home Depot store because it is conveniently located close to my house for parts to repair my daughter’s closet door again. I walk into the store aimlessly walking around until I find the closet section and approach two orange clad aprons having a discussion. I cleared my throat and also apologized for interrupting them which was clearly obvious I had done. I told them what I was looking for and one of them proceeded to give me an in store MapQuest description of where to find the parts and I am sure MapQuest has always given us the right directions right? So you see where I am going? Yep, lost in another area until I stumbled into the place I was seeking. What happened to the helpful orange apron of past days that would have led me right to the area and asked me if I needed additional assistance, I could have even been cross sold a cool tool to make my job easier right? Well, I was a bit frustrated and if my experience had been captured prior to me leaving the store they would have known how I really felt at the time.
So I am interested in how Frank Blake will pull this off but to me it is a great start. Top executive support and leadership is the first step and the article clearly expressed that vision and leadership. His explanation of how he walked the floor of Home Depot stores allowed him to see exactly what the customer’s were seeing and thus experiencing. When speaking with his store support managers he stated, “This is not about me, for our customers, Home Depot lives in our associates, and each associate is a lot more important to our customer than I am.” I had to read that several times to really understand what he was trying to say.
Frank mentioned how some customers had figured out his e-mail address and had written him about their experiences which got his attention. So his reaction to their experiences brought out this response, “Our priorities are directly related to what has frustrated our customers. Some of the big issues have been associate engagement, how the associates interact with customers, and the look and feel of our stores.” Sounds like he is speaking directly about CEM and the true test will be executing on this initiative throughout his organization.
I attended the Customer Feedback Summit this year in Las Vegas and observed a woman taking copious notes through out the sessions and had the opportunity to speak with her at a break, her name was Sue Park, VP of Customer Service THP for Home Depot and was in the process of moving to Atlanta, the home office of Home Depot to begin her duties. I also attended the Atlanta Chapter of the CRM Association summer meeting titled, CEM: Everyone already offers the “CE” part, but what about the “M?” one of the panelist was Brad Grimsley, Sr. Director of Supply Chain CRM for Home Depot. Brad came in with his orange apron and responded to the questions supporting the same theme as CEO Frank Blake described in the article so it appears that the vision he described is being passed through the ranks so time will tell how the individual stores will mimic and deliver this strategy. I will say that the passion I witnessed from Sue and Brad shows a positive direction and will have to be infectious throughout the organization, a large task but appears to be on track. I will look for that action on my next trek to Home Depot.
I had a brief experience working with a company called RWD Technologies, a human performance company and what their CRM practice focused on was extended and delivering a positive Customer Experience and how to align a company’s CRM strategy with the customer’s customer facing employees and making sure that the company’s customer really experienced that strategy. One of the important points I came away with was constantly being corrected by Gerhard Friedrich, CRM/CEM change management guru when I used the referenced “ end user “ to deliver the experience was not to think of it that way, think of the person in direct contact with the customer as the “customer facing employee” which extended strategy. I see that strategy in action with Frank Blake and will continue to monitor this initiative from afar as well as a customer but very refreshing to see a CEO take a stand and base his leadership tenure on delivering on that promise, maybe I should invest in Home Depot stock because at the end of the day isn’t that what really matters in the end?
I will say that I was in a Home Depot yesterday and the holiday season was in full swing and I actually was approached by a couple of “orange aprons’ checking to see if I needed assistance, so far so good! Stay tuned…….