Geeks at Your Service: Secret of Best Buy's Success
Great in-store customer service is important, but excellent customer service after you leave, well that stands apart from the crowd. Best Buy has differentiated itself with just that strategy. Through its Remote Service Project, an enterprisewide business-IT system that remotely distributes computer repair, maintenance and other work among the company's more than 10,000 Best Buy Geek Squad Agents (who provide tech support and more), the company was able to boost customer satisfaction long after point-of-sale.
The information technology project began in response to research that made a troubling discovery: Far too many PC buyers were unable to get their computers up and running once they got home, a problem that colored (for the worse) their assessment of Best Buy. The company's response was its Remote Service Project, a strategy targeted at PCs, but which has been extended to home theater systems and more. The Remote Service Project has enabled the company's Geek Squad agents to serve 25 percent more customers and has improved redo rates by 33 percent. On top of that, the company attributes an annual sales increase of US$6.2 million to the project. The Remote Service Project was also a standout winner in the CIO 100 competition.
Brian Carlson, CIO.com's Editorial Director, sat down with Bob Willett, the company's CIO and the CEO of Best Buy International. Willett, who talked about why he doesn't use the terms "IT" or "information technology," how business information shops can achieve ambitious projects, and how you can empower your team to innovate.
CIO: Tell us a little about the Remote Service Project.
Willett: The Remote Service Project started with [research] around the customer experience: Once customers bought [a PC], what was their experience when they got home? We,decided that one of the key things we had to do was to improve that experience, [by minimizing PC] down time.
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