For anyone interested in corporate governance as applied to The Home
Depot, todays Wall Street Journal has an interview (First page, Second
Section) with Frank Blake, the new CEO of HD in which he proposes a
number of ideas to improve service at the BORG. It takes many miles
for a super tanker to make a turn. Although I don't do a great deal of
business there, they do provide support when most professional
suppliers are closed.

Joe G

"Tom in NJ" wrote:


My proposal is that while they're reinventing their customer service
model they might announce to all employees that they will be closely
monitoring customer feedback. Fire a few for poor customer service
and
the others should come around.

First things first.

If the management in Atlanta wants to truly improve customer service.
then they will have to accept the fact that employees are people, not
equipment.

The above is based on conversations with an employee who is in contact
with customers every day.

H/D treats their employees like whale crap and that is at the bottom
of the ocean.

The results are not swift.

Lew

"Tom in NJ" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 5 Jun 2008 08:08:54 -0700 (PDT), GROVER
wrote:

Snip


Man, customer service is not rocket science.

Nooooo kidding.

What many businesses seemed to have forgotten is that Customer Service is
what gets the customer to spend his money in "your" store. More open cash
registers means that the customer gives you his money more quickly and that
is what it is all about.

"Leon" wrote:

What many businesses seemed to have forgotten is that Customer
Service is what gets the customer to spend his money in "your"
store. More open cash registers means that the customer gives you
his money more quickly and that is what it is all about.

The above doesn't penetrate the "bean counter" mentality.

They only look at it as a cost saving, as in it is less expensive to
inventory customers than it is to have staff on the payroll to serve
them.

Sounds good on paper, but doesn't include the poor public relations
factor, and it's indirect cost.

Lew

Lew Hodgett wrote:
"Tom in NJ" wrote:


My proposal is that while they're reinventing their customer service
model they might announce to all employees that they will be closely
monitoring customer feedback. Fire a few for poor customer service
and
the others should come around.

First things first.

If the management in Atlanta wants to truly improve customer service.
then they will have to accept the fact that employees are people, not
equipment.

Not at my local HD... To call these lazy, uncaring, inattentive, slugs
either people or equipment is a real disservice to people and equipment.

The above is based on conversations with an employee who is in contact
with customers every day.

H/D treats their employees like whale crap and that is at the bottom
of the ocean.

The results are not swift.

Lew

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
news:W9Z1k.11204$%Z1.3086@trnddc05...

"Leon" wrote:

What many businesses seemed to have forgotten is that Customer Service
is what gets the customer to spend his money in "your" store. More open
cash registers means that the customer gives you his money more quickly
and that is what it is all about.

The above doesn't penetrate the "bean counter" mentality.

Hense the businesses seemed to have forgotten......
ALL long term successful businesses have bean counters, theirs are just more
successful than others.


They only look at it as a cost saving, as in it is less expensive to
inventory customers than it is to have staff on the payroll to serve them.

Some do, others look at the big picture.


Sounds good on paper, but doesn't include the poor public relations
factor, and it's indirect cost.


Exactly. A good bean counter can analyze the results of "all" the data fed
to him, others don't.

"Leon" wrote:


Exactly. A good bean counter can analyze the results of "all" the
data fed to him, others don't.


If you truly want to screw up a business, put an accountant in as CEO.

An accountant trying to run a business is like driving down the road
at 80 MPH, looking in the rear view mirror to see where you are going.

A couple of the more infamous accountant CEOs in Detroit were Lynn
Townsend at Chrysler (Iaccocia cleaned up his mess) and Roger Smith at
GM.

There are more, but you get the idea.

Accountants are trained to count beans, not run businesses.

Lew