"Helped" at Home Depot Today

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I went to Home Depot to get some hardware today. They must have some new customer service initiative from the corporate brain trust because I had SIX different people ask me if I needed any help. Even the greeter standing standing at the door offered to take me to what I needed! I almost felt like I was at Menards or Ace. However, if I was at Menards there would always be an employee within sight but they assume you know what you want and politely leave you alone until asked. If I was at Ace the old codger would come by, ask once, then move on. Either way, badgering isn't service, but it's a start.

Maybe I'll know in a year whether this is just flavor of the month or a permanent shift; that's how long I can usually go between HD visits.
 
I don't believe you, how could you come up with such a fable!
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I think HD is trying hard and genuine.
My daughter works there PT and they seem to be a very employee friendly Co.
When the ice storms took out Western KY. a couple months back, early morning Home Depot employees were greeted with a parking lot full of tired Generator and battery buyers. Where upon they were invited in at 4:30 am for doughnuts, coffee, pizza and such.
 
they probably had a district manager there, or possibly coming that day. when i worked at sears, we never cared unless there was a district manager or higher up at the store.

what annoys me is at Home Depot when the workers have no or very limited knowledge of their area of expertise. i was replacing the ballasts and sockets in my kitchen and knew more in the 10 minutes of online research than the worker guy knew at all.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal

what annoys me is at Home Depot when the workers have no or very limited knowledge of their area of expertise. i was replacing the ballasts and sockets in my kitchen and knew more in the 10 minutes of online research than the worker guy knew at all.

crackmeup2.gif

Which is why my daughter needs to stay in check-out.
 
my HD is 85% college students. They spend more time figuring out reasons to drive the forklift than helping people. Sometimes I end up butting into their answer because they are so off base. They'll walk right past someone trying to load plywood onto a cart.
 
I'm about 4 weeks into my part-time career as a Home Depot cashier. They mean business about their customer experience. Employees are newly empowered to make sure a customer always leaves satisfied. This means competitive or compensatory discounts given at the registers without having to have a manager approve it if it's less than $50.00.

The acronym we live by: F.I.R.S.T.

Find the customer and the product
Inquire about the customer's needs
Respect the Customer
Solve the customer's issues
Thank the customer

I think a lot of companies have reached the point where they can't beat each other substantially by price, so offering superior customer service (in a world where it barely exists anymore) is the new hook. Rest assured that if the customer experience in a particular store isn't meeting or exceeding district standards, it's now getting looked at and heads will begin to roll...all the way up to the manager. He has more accountability than ever before.

Another reason you'll see a lot of employees greeting and offering assistance is to deter theft. When you pay a lot of attention to people and make them aware that there's an employee around every corner, the opportunity to steal diminishes.

I'm in no way a rah-rah about Home Depot..it's just a part-time end-meeter for me and is in no way a career path. Just passing on what I've learned in my 4 days of initial and countless hours of ongoing training.
 
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
I'm about 4 weeks into my part-time career as a Home Depot cashier.


My local HD has 4 self-checkout lanes and one regular register manned by a human cashier for masochists. I can walk around 15 minutes inside the store and not see one orange shirt that's helping customers.
 
Originally Posted By: tom slick
my HD is 85% college students. They spend more time figuring out reasons to drive the forklift than helping people. Sometimes I end up butting into their answer because they are so off base. They'll walk right past someone trying to load plywood onto a cart.

Mines a college student.
LOL.gif

that's too bad. I was in a HD once a week in the mid 80's in Atlanta and really liked them. Perhaps they stretched out a bit too far and are working their way back to roots.
 
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
Another reason you'll see a lot of employees greeting and offering assistance is to deter theft. When you pay a lot of attention to people and make them aware that there's an employee around every corner, the opportunity to steal diminishes.


Don't all expensive small items get locked up anyways? It'd be hard to steal a 2x4 without being noticed.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Don't all expensive small items get locked up anyways? It'd be hard to steal a 2x4 without being noticed.


No, all small, expensive items come in huge plastic blister packs with RFID tags.
 
Originally Posted By: salesrep
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal

what annoys me is at Home Depot when the workers have no or very limited knowledge of their area of expertise. i was replacing the ballasts and sockets in my kitchen and knew more in the 10 minutes of online research than the worker guy knew at all.

crackmeup2.gif

Which is why my daughter needs to stay in check-out.


Reminds me of my trip to HD before the one in the OP. I had some bolts, nuts and washers for a project. I went to check out, watched the girl slide all the parts across her picture-match book and then proceed to ring them up for 3x what I was expecting. I leaned over and saw that she had rung them up as hot-dipped. I told her that they were just the regular zinc coated ones. We went back and forth for about 2 minutes (sounds short until you spend that long in the twilight zone) and then I bailed out. "Sorry, I must have picked up the wrong ones." I took a lap around the store and then came back with the right UPC codes written out. I can understand the cashiers not knowing about everything in the store, but the different hardware coatings should definitely be on the list.
 
Nope...but a lot of the high dollar items are getting security tags inserted inside the packaging. I'm not familiar with anything that's under lock and key. But, I haven't studied the tool isle extensively yet.

We've got some pretty brazen thiefs who simply plop high-dollar drills and other power tools into a cart, and wait for everyone's attention to get diverted before attempting to dart out the door to their waiting car and accomplice driver. We busted one of those last week with a cart full. His getaway driver bailed on him with the car idling in the lumber drive.
 
Originally Posted By: calvin1
Originally Posted By: salesrep
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal

what annoys me is at Home Depot when the workers have no or very limited knowledge of their area of expertise. i was replacing the ballasts and sockets in my kitchen and knew more in the 10 minutes of online research than the worker guy knew at all.

crackmeup2.gif

Which is why my daughter needs to stay in check-out.


Reminds me of my trip to HD before the one in the OP. I had some bolts, nuts and washers for a project. I went to check out, watched the girl slide all the parts across her picture-match book and then proceed to ring them up for 3x what I was expecting. I leaned over and saw that she had rung them up as hot-dipped. I told her that they were just the regular zinc coated ones. We went back and forth for about 2 minutes (sounds short until you spend that long in the twilight zone) and then I bailed out. "Sorry, I must have picked up the wrong ones." I took a lap around the store and then came back with the right UPC codes written out. I can understand the cashiers not knowing about everything in the store, but the different hardware coatings should definitely be on the list.


We have a fool-proof online catalog integrated into the cash registers. If they're not using it, they're supposed to be. It makes it nearly impossible to choose the wrong finish or material.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear

Don't all expensive small items get locked up anyways? It'd be hard to steal a 2x4 without being noticed.


Well, there was this one guy who could be seen rolling a wheelbarrow full of saw dust to his truck every day ....
 
Depends on where you live. When I lived in Chicago's south 'burbs, the service was TERRIBLE save for one guy, who used to be a co-owner of a local Ace Hardware store that went out of buiness.

Here in TN, it's amazing how many folks ask "can I help you" at Home Depot or Lowe's.
 
steal a 2x4? makes me think of the dog trying to go through door with a stick that's too long and gets stuck he he.
F.I.R.S.T.....at most places today it means this:
Find the break room
Is it lunch time yet?
Really? you want me to do what?
Shoot! it's only 2 o'clock
Text message to kill time.
 
What a bunch of whiners. You complain about not enough employees,then you turn around and complain about too many employees.

Its obvious most of you never worked retail. You'll have one customer that needs to be led by the hand and treated like royalty and still won't be happy.

The next person you try to help,might just rip your head off if you even bother to ask them if they need anything.

Its easy to sit behind your keyboard and biatch about retail employees though.
 
I roll through HD and Lowes to look at their clearance stuff. Feel like a heel admitting it.

They need more people at the registers and fewer milling around. I shudder if I have to buy nuts and bolts or wood and can't use the self checkout. I can still tell my ACE cashier that I have $.84 worth of stuff and that's that.

Was just in there today: 28 oz of SJ "rated" 5w30 for $1.99. Actually beats supertech in unit price... but why'd they skimp on the 4 ounces? Is "snowblower oil" but still funny, almost a quart, but not quite, like the incredible shrinking hershey bar. Grab one and shake it, you'll feel instantly cheated.
 
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