Home Depot

My 9-year old Danny has developed a love (ok, maybe a mild interest) for basketball, so we took the plunge and purchased a portable basketball hoop. It became obvious that sand bags were needed so the hoop wouldn’t land on the heads of players. We do live in a windy city, after all! Before it was too late and the store would close, we headed over to the Home Depot.

Changing a light bulb can be an adventure for me and, truthfully, going to the the Home Depot scares me, even though they say, “You can do it, we can help.” So we headed over and to my chagrin, the lines on that Spring day were long, with many people buying their geraniums and lots of other plants and bulbs I know nothing about. We stood in line a long time because there were not enough cashiers to handle the crowd efficiently. Any adventure we could have had was ruined.

Part of “Hitting the Grand Slam” with your customers involves meeting their tangible needs. My son and I on that day had a tangible need to spend more time at home together than spend it standing in a long line for an hour. While teaching ways to deliver unparalleled service, we must always respect that customers have choices, and we need to do everything possible to keep them as our customers. Having more cashiers would get people on their way faster so they could enjoy the weather, because, as they say in Chicago, there are only two seasons, winter and construction.

Here are some ways retailers can meet their customer’s tangible needs:

1) Have enough cashiers, carts, and stock associates to speed up the check-out process. In short, have enough people working.

2) Have the right merchandise in stock, products that customers want to purchase when they want to purchase them.

3) Have associates with at least some product knowledge. My son and I went to an office supply store last week, looking for a laminator. There were two different kinds. We asked an associate to explain the differences between the two, and he said, “They are from different companies!” Wow! I really felt informed! I had to figure it out myself.

Delivering great customer service is simple, but not easy. Much of the time, when we lose customers, it is because we fail to address our customer’s tangible needs. Now, if you’ll excuse me, its time to go change some light bulbs.